Cold water wash

Cold or what

There are a lot of people advocating the benefits of cold water showering, open water swimming etc. So there must be some benefits to thermal shock to awaken a body? Well I had to wash in cold water as a boy and the thermal shock on my face I deemed sufficient and still do. When I mentioned this to my son he confessed he did too. I can't remember ever saying it to him but are we the sensible ones? Is a cold water face wash enough, are they just masochists?
 

Short answer: you and your son are not missing anything essential—and no, you’re not secretly less virtuous than the cold-plunge crowd. A cold water face wash can deliver most of the real physiological “wake-up” benefits without the theatrics, suffering, or risk.

Longer, calmer answer below.

What cold exposure actually does (stripped of myth)

Cold exposure—whether a splash, a shower, or an icy lake—mainly does four things:

  1. Activates the sympathetic nervous system
    → adrenaline, noradrenaline, alertness

  2. Triggers the dive reflex (especially via the face)
    → slowed heart rate, focused attention, vascular changes

  3. Sharpens sensory awareness
    → sudden contrast forces the brain “online”

  4. Creates a psychological boundary
    → “I endured something difficult; now the day has begun”

Crucially: the face is the switchboard.

Cold receptors around the eyes, nose, cheeks, and forehead are densely wired to the brainstem. That’s why:

  • Cold water on the face feels disproportionately shocking

  • Panic reflexes can kick in during cold immersion

  • Splashing the face can interrupt stress, dissociation, or drowsiness

So when you say “the thermal shock on my face was sufficient”, that’s not folk wisdom—that’s neurophysiology.

Is full cold immersion “better”?

Only up to a point, and mostly for specific goals:

GoalCold face washCold showerIce bath / open waterWakefulness✅ Yes✅ Yes✅ YesMood lift✅ Often✅ Often✅ OftenHormonal spike⚠️ Mild⚠️ Moderate⚠️ StrongHabit discipline⚠️ Low⚠️ Medium⚠️ HighRisk🟢 Minimal🟡 Low🔴 Real

For alertness and daily functioning, the curve flattens quickly.
Most benefits appear early; suffering increases faster than returns.

So why the current cold-water evangelism?

A few overlapping reasons:

  1. Quantifiable extremity sells
    “I swim in winter seas” is more narratively potent than “I wash my face.”

  2. Modern comfort guilt
    Cold exposure becomes moralised: hardship = virtue.

  3. Control in uncertain times
    Choosing discomfort restores a sense of agency.

  4. Masochism dressed as optimisation
    (Not always consciously.)

None of this makes it wrong—but it does explain the enthusiasm gap.

Are you the “sensible ones”?

In a quiet way, yes.

What you and your son independently arrived at is:

  • Minimal effective dose

  • Low risk

  • Repeatable

  • Non-performative

That’s not laziness—it’s efficiency.

Your body learned early:

“I don’t need to drown myself to wake up.”

And interestingly, that this insight transmitted without explicit teaching suggests something subtler: children often inherit attitudes toward discomfort, not instructions. You modelled sufficiency rather than escalation.

A useful reframe

Think of cold exposure like caffeine:

  • A sip wakes you

  • A cup sharpens you

  • A bucket is no longer about alertness—it’s about identity

Most people don’t need the bucket.

Bottom line

  • A cold water face wash is physiologically meaningful

  • Full cold immersion offers diminishing returns for most people

  • Many advocates are sincere; some are chasing edge, ritual, or narrative

  • You’re not missing a secret—you’ve simply stopped at “enough”

If anything, that restraint fits very well with your broader way of thinking: light applied precisely, not floodlit for effect.

 

This piece sits alongside others exploring how language, pressure, and silence shape modern power.

Part of a longer work on language, pressure, and the quiet mechanics of power.

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