I love showers. It's my morning shot of coffee or my warm hug that washes away all the horrible from a bad day. I love nothing more than cranking up the heat and scolding my back while filling the bathroom with a steam so thick, it puts any woodland horror movie scene to shame. But recently I was told you can get acne and even worse, wrinkles, from having a shower too hot.

You can imagine my distress upon discovering this information and like everything else in my life, my next question was - what about my Hair?

Hot showers aren’t just a delicious way to spend some time, they also open up your Hair cuticles and pores in your scalp cleaning out the dirt and oils and styling Product build up. (Looking positive) But (of course there is a but) it will strip your Hair of all your Natural oils, reducing your Hair strength and can even cause breakage. This will make your Hair porous, frizzy and brittle. And if that's not enough, an open cuticle means that a little bit of your Colour will be washed out with each wash, making for a faded Hair Colour. R-I-P bold, vibrant Hair.

Deep breath.

I need to change my ways now before I become full of acne and wrinkles and not even my Hair can save me.

So is the alternative on the other end of the shower handle?

Cold showers will do wonders for your Hair and scalp. The cold water closes up your pores and cuticles, keeping the moisture in, creating smoother, shinier and less frizzy Hair - which, as a curly Haired human, is pretty high in my priorities. And just a blast can protect your Hair from further damage, while keeping dirt and grime from getting into your scalp's pores, making your head a happier, glossier one. But a little too much cold will make your Hair flat and strip you of your Volume.

But my big question is how will it affect my Colour? Cold water helps lock in the Colour pigment, helping with your Colour maintenance. That's a big win for the cold category.

The results did speak for themselves and for those hot mornings it was incredibly refreshing, but (I told you there is always a but) I knew there was only so many more times I cared to have my breath taken away so early in the day. So I needed to find a medium, fast.

My conclusion: stick to warm water.
You get the benefits of heat to open up your cuticles and pores to remove the grime and oils, without the damage. And my tip: after you have shampooed, cool your water down to wash your conditioner out, for an invigorating end to your shower to lock in the moisture. I like to think of it as setting the internal AC to low, to keep me cool throughout the day.

And unfortunately for my former hot shower loving self, the results do speak for themselves. My skin feels better as does my Hair and the other day I was asked for ID at the bottle shop. Warm showers it is.