I attempted to dunk my face in ice-cold water like Ashton Hall for a week. It did nothing but make me dread getting out of bed.

• Wellness influencer Ashton Hall's morning routine went viral last month.

• He used an upscale brand of bottled spring water, Saratoga, for ice-cold facial plunges.

• For five days, I attempted to submerge my face in icy water, but I failed to see any benefits.

Ashton Hall's unconventional morning routine has been seen around the world, but the thought of it now sends shivers down my spine.

The Miami-based fitness influencer originally posted a video of his elaborate, five-hour morning routine — which includes working out, meditating, journaling, and rubbing banana peel over his face — to Instagram on February 7. Still, the video and its contents didn't go viral until it was posted by a men's fashion account on X.

The most controversial and conversation-starting part of the routine? The repeated submerging of his face in bowls of ice and Saratoga still water.

Curious about how the choice and application of icy spring water motivated Hall throughout his lengthy routine and gave him the energy to begin his day at 3 a.m., I put his ice-water face plunges to the test.

Ashton Hall's morning routine shows the inner workings of an ultimate wellness-maxxer.

As shown in his video, the former college athlete takes care of himself to an impressive degree.

One repeated element of his routine is dunking his face in ice water, or cold water immersion, a practice long championed by pro athletes.

Some of the potential benefits of cold-water plunges include improved blood flow, muscle relaxation, stress reduction, and reduced muscle soreness and pain, although there is limited research into the positive health effects of ice baths.

Some dermatologists and famous figures, like Bella Hadid and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have specifically promoted face-dunking in cold water, with some suggesting it increases blood flow, tightens pores, and reduces puffiness by contracting blood vessels. When performed in the morning, cold plunges can also help people feel energized and awake.

While it might be aspirational for some people, Hall's entire, elaborate morning routine was too much for me.

I decided against waking up at 3 a.m., taping my mouth shut, and rubbing banana peels over my face. Instead, I tried incorporating the seemingly more simple part of the influencer's morning routine into my own: submerging my face in ice water.

Not being a morning person, I wondered if the face plunge could help me fight the chronic morning grogginess that so often keeps me in bed. I hoped it might help me start my mornings earlier, although perhaps not as early as Hall.

I have some experience in this realm. Years ago, as a teenager following beauty tips from the early years of YouTube, I routinely used frozen metal spoons to help with undereye puffiness in the mornings. So I knew there was one thing I could expect from the ice-water facials: It'd be very cold.

Setting up on day one was intimidating … and expensive.

The cost of a workweek's worth of ice facials — one bottle of Saratoga a day for five days — was more expensive than I anticipated, especially considering Hall appears to go through multiple bottles in just one day.

I paid a little over $15 for five bottles of the fancy water, with each 28-fluid-ounce bottle costing $2.99 before tax.

For that price, I could've bought an affordable skincare product from the drugstore from science-backed and doctor-approved brands.

(Saratoga water's CMO confirmed to Business Insider that the video wasn't an ad, but said Hall's use of its product in his "meticulous" morning routine was "amazing.")

Placing the bowl in my bathroom sink in the morning was intimidating. I grabbed some ice, making my hands numb before I could even pour the water.

It probably took me some five minutes to convince my still-sleepy brain to dunk my face in the bowl of ice and cold water.

After dunking my face in water, I noticed a lot of redness and a strong tingling sensation.

Hall's routine for face-dunking, which, according to the video, includes using a glass bowl, a couple of cups of ice, and a whole bottle of Saratoga water, shows the face dunking taking him three minutes between 5:46 a.m. and 5:49 a.m. and then again between 9:06 a.m. and 9:09 a.m.

I submerged my face in the ice bowl a couple of times for a total of 30 or so painful seconds. Still, the process of mentally preparing, recovering between immersions, and drying my face off probably took closer to Hall's three-minute slot.

The temperature shock was the hardest part, and it was challenging to keep my face in the water for more than a couple of seconds at a time.

The change in blood flow was apparent immediately. As soon as I dried my face, I noticed just how much redder my skin looked and how tingly it felt.

My skin did feel smoother to the touch right away… perhaps because the extreme cold had caused me to lose sensation in my hands.

My skin is sensitive and reacts strongly to temperature changes (my nose always gets bright red in cold weather), so this didn't surprise me, but it did concern me how aggressively my skin reacted to such an extreme temperature.

Thankfully, the redness went away after a while, and the tingling stopped once my skin returned to a normal temperature.

By day two, I already hated the idea of going through the whole process, but I was committed.

The first thing I thought when I woke up on day two was, "Do I really have to do this again?"

Avoiding thinking about it too much, I practically sleepwalked through the process of gathering the bowl, the ice, and the blue Saratoga bottle.

Day two was probably the harshest for me: I knew what was coming, and no fiber of my being wanted to partake in it.

Still, I did it. Once I was over with it, I just tried to forget about it.

I'll admit it did make me feel a lot more awake in the morning and helped snap me out of my post-sleep sluggishness, but it was not an enjoyable experience.

On day three, I switched my approach and face-dunked after a workout.

By day three, I decided I couldn't wake myself up with ice if I wanted to be a likable person that morning, so I went for a long walk and workout class instead.

After an hour and a half of walking outdoors in the Miami weather and 50 minutes of exercise at a barre class, I could see the appeal of face-plunging as a way of cooling down before transitioning into the rest of my morning.

Sweating before dunking my face in ice water definitely made the facial feel more enjoyable, but it was still not something I'd do every day.

By day four, I realized icing first thing in the morning just wasn't for me.

On day four, I tried incorporating the ice water into my existing morning routine rather than forcing it into being its own step.

After I had given myself time to wake up, take a hot shower, and start getting ready for the day, I dunked my face in the water as a step in my skincare routine, trying my hardest not to let the physical reaction to the extreme temperature shape the experience.

While it reminded me of my former frozen spoon habit, which I eventually grew used to, it wasn't the same. The spoons' spot treatment under my eyes had the benefit of being contrasted by the rest of my face's natural temperature and by the metal quickly warming out of its iciness — the water had no such mercy.

The face dunking was still difficult. At this point, I could stand the extreme cold for a few seconds longer at a time, and my skin didn't get as red afterward, but it was just something I did not want to put myself through again.

On day five, I drank the fancy water instead of face-dunking and gave up on the torturous practice.

After four days of torturing myself with the influencer-backed practice, I gave up.

Other than making my mornings more difficult to get through and making my skin redder for the first hour of the day, I didn't notice any differences in my skin or mood, although it's possible I would notice changes if I kept up with the routine.

While the initial energy boost was a nice — although challenging — start to my mornings, as I grew more used to the practice, the cold didn't wake me up or snap me out of my morning groggy as much.

Instead, it made me start the day in a physically uncomfortable state that felt useless. Rather than helping me ease into the morning, it made me start my mornings with physical stress.

Beginning my morning by drinking a big, cold bottle of spring water was simply a much more appealing idea.

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