The skincare community is filled with a bunch of creative, wacky folk. It’s no surprise that you crazy kids have come up with a lot of different unique ways to use apple cider vinegar for skin, hair, scalp, and some other body parts we won’t include here.
Feel free to make up your own- we know you will- but to tide you over for now before you get your pliers out, here’s some of the ways ACV is being used by green skincare fanatics the world over.
1. As A Toner
This is probably one of the most common uses; because of ACV’s effectiveness as an acne and blemish treatment, it’s winning a lot of natural beauty contests as a toner. Add on the fact that ACV has the additional benefits of balancing the natural pH of the skin, clearing away excess oils, breaking up the bonds between dead skin cells for natural exfoliating, as well as targeting stubborn blackheads and lightening sun and age spots – and well, apple cider vinegar skin toner is a no brainer.
To whip up your own apple cider vinegar skin toner, make sure you go for the good stuff – raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar. And simply mix with distilled water.
The ratio depends on your skin type. Sensitive-skinned folk will want to go with a 1:4 ACV to water ratio. Most, normal-skinned folk do well with 1:2 ACV to water. But if your skin leans toward oily, you might want to try a 1:1 ratio.
To sup up your apple cider vinegar skin toner, add in other natural skin goodies like green tea, chamomile, rose water, and essential oils.
2. For Exfoliation
This might have popped in your head already, but ACV is also extremely useful as an all-natural exfoliator. By sucking up all of that dead skin, ACV leaves your pores uncovered and- hopefully- ready to make amends. The best way to do this is by using a face mask to get complete coverage of the area that you want to exfoliate.
As ever, get creative with your face mask; add in other skin health-boosting natural gems to get added effects. Teas tend to work well with ACV. It will seem a bit weird at first to be rubbing green tea on your face, but be real with me here- you’ve done weirder stuff in hopes of achieving an all-natural skin routine.
3. For Age Spots
Everyone hates those little tell-tale signs that scream, “Look! I’m getting older!” Thankfully, ACV might just be the thing you’re looking for to get those little blighters to shut up for good. This has a lot to do with ACV’s exfoliation abilities, and most to do with alpha hydroxyl acids; in peeling back those old crusty skin cells, you’re essentially removing the evidence of aging with it.
4. To Banish Odors
Contradictions of contradictions; apple cider vinegar is actually an extremely effective deodorant. Whilst you might never have looked at your morning salad and thought, “Wow, I’d love to spray that stuff on me to get rid of smells!” ACV is already a mainstay for green hygiene lovers.
The acids in it absorb the stink without blocking up your sweat glands. Our relationship to sweat might be a little tainted, but the truth is that without it, we’d be a lot worse considering it’s one of our main ways of getting the bad stuff out of our bodies. Now, obviously it’s going to smell, well, vinegar-y at first, but that goes away quite quickly as it dries.
5. Elimate Warts, Moles and (Skin) Tags
Apple cider vinegar for skin tags, warts, and moles sounds like a strange solution but it’s surprisingly effective at literally attacking the offending lesion without hurting any of your other skin. It’s the acids that are the heroes once again, getting to work on your blemishes and skin tags by essentially melting them away. That definitely sounds a little scary, but if you dilute it enough, even vinegar can become a gentle treatment.
Although, the most popular remedy is decidedly not diluted – here’s to use it:
- Clean the skin around the blemish with water and gentle (natural) soap
- Let your skin dry
- For skin tags, scratch the tag very gently with a toothpick – don’t prick it so hard it bleeds.
- Soak a piece of cotton ball big enough to cover the mole, wart or skin tag(s) in ACV and squeeze out the excess vinegar so it doesn’t drip down your face.
- Place the soaked cotton wool on the mole, wart or skin tag and secure it in place with a bandage.
- Leave it overnight.
- In the morning, remove the cotton and bandage and rinse thoroughly with water.
- Repeat the above steps for 3-4 days, until the skin tag darkens, dries and falls off. For moles and warts, they may start to flake and dry up.
6. Get Your Detox On
I’ll let you in on a little secret; I love detox baths. Baths themselves are amazing, but lying there as everything gets to work on getting rid of all the bad stuff in your body? Heaven. If you didn’t know, the hot temperature in detox baths draw out the toxins from all over your body to your skin. There, they’ll meet a new foe; apple cider vinegar.
We already know that ACV is effective in neutralizing and swallowing up everything from acne-causing bacteria to bad smells, so it’s a no brainer that it’d be effective in digesting all of the dangerous stuff we put into our bodies.
Also, if you’re wondering how to use apple cider vinegar for skin rash – an ACV bath is a smart way to go since ACV helps protect your skin’s acid mantle barrier and soothe irritated skin at the same time!
Note: Add in some Epsom salts for double detox as well as a good dose of transdermal magnesium!
7. Improve Digestion and Alleviate GERD
Apple cider vinegar offers a helping hand to your digestive system in so many ways, but most of the effects come down to something called hydrochloric acid. That’s the stuff that your body produces naturally in order to break down food, and if you have indigestion you’re probably not getting enough of it to combat how much food you eat. That’s where ACV comes into it, boosting the production of ACV and making for a better-flowing digestive system.
However, sometimes your hydrochloric acid can work against you. When the valve connecting your stomach and your esophagus flaps open, acid can flow up into your stomach causing acid reflux and GERD. Weirdly enough, ACV actually helps with that too. Nobody’s in complete agreement about how it works, but many health experts say GERD is actually caused by not enough acid rather than too much acid, which is something ACV is able to instantly correct in a gentle, all-natural way.
8. Give Your Hair a Clarifying Rinse
Just like your body, your hair is also probably in need of a good detox. Most of us subject our poor tresses to a pretty wide range of gunk-y styling products, which tend to build up after awhile.
It’s pretty vital we get all of that stuff out if we want healthy hair. Plus, that build up can cause this thing known as waxy crown – if you’ve had it, you know what I’m talking about. It’s that annoying oily, waxy buildup at the top of your head that doesn’t go away no matter how many times you shampoo (’cause it’s most likely the shampoo that’s causing it).
ACV is fantastic for clearing up buildup on your hair and your scalp (try it out waxy crown – it’ll be gone with one ACV wash). And apple cider vinegar hair benefits extend far beyond that – being close to the natural pH of your hair, it helps keep up your protective layer, boosting your body’s own natural ability to shift out the bad stuff. It also stimulates proper blood circulation, which is essential in hair growth. That will allow the new, cleansed hair to grow in place of the old gunky strands.
9. For Dandruff
Despite what you might have read on all the hippie blogs, dandruff is not actually caused by washing your hair too much or anything of the sort (though washing your hair every day still isn’t recommended- not only does it allow harsh chemicals to build up but the exposure to hot temperatures can also wreak havoc on your skin).
It can either be caused by an excess of oil or a mild yeast infection (don’t freak out- this ‘infection’ is naturally present on our scalp anyways, but some people have it worse than others). Luckily, ACV has your back on both counts. By managing your natural oil production and making use of its anti-bacterial properties, ACV can double task and fight off the infection whilst removing all that unneeded oil.
