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Women - how many times a week should you wash your hair?

jenocyde

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I wash my hair every day, but it is so thick and curly that it often doesn't dry for hours and hours. It doesn't bother me. But I make my own shampoos/soaps/conditioner, etc... so I don't worry about harsh chemicals - which would snap my hair off in a heartbeat.

If I'm going somewhere where I need my hair to be dry, I just wash it really early in the day.
 

Qre:us

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Saweet! Thanks chicas!

When I land that Pantene-Pro V ad on TV, just know the hair flip and flirtacious half-smile is a salute to y'all. :D
 
G

Glycerine

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I wash it every other day. I heard that unless you have really greasy hair, it's best not to wash it everyday. This is because the oil helps to keep the hair healthy. If you have really sensitive hair, I would suggest Johnson's baby shampoo. May I ask do you truly need conditioner? My hair is usually much better without it.
 

bluebell

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I do it every other day...wavy/curly hair tends to be able to get by with longer, I think.

Yah. Wavy/curly hair tends to be drier.

I've got long wavy hair - if I pull the curls straight, it's nearly down to the waistband of my jeans. I used to wash it daily but realised if I didn't comb it between washes, it would keep its style (ie not go super-frizzy). So now I wash it every 2 or 3 days, occasionally longer. In summer I expect I'll wash it more often, specially during heat waves.

And yeah, I occasionally do an olive oil (as in, oil from my kitchen cupboard) treatment on my hair when it's getting too dry and frizzy. I always need to use some conditioner on the ends of my hair, otherwise I have no hope in hell of getting a wide-tooth comb through it.
 
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I have oily hair scalp and live in a place where I experience tropical equatorial climate.

I wash it every two day (shampoo). Rinse my hair with water everyday. Conditioner (once every two week).
 

The Decline

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Oily hair here, and I aim to wash every other day with mild shampoo and a hint of conditioner. It's still a task to find the right shampoo and the right amount for each application, especially considering that I'm not exactly regular in my bathing schedules.
 

WoodsWoman

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Short hair. I was it approximately every third day, but wet it thoroughly every day. In the winter when the wood stove is in use it has to be every 1 to 2 days, and no skipping the conditioner.
 

Ivy

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I wash every other day, sometimes I go 3 but not usually.

Has anyone ever tried going shampoo-free? I am considering it. It involves baking soda and apple cider vinegar so it's not a matter of not washing your hair, just not using a sudsing agent that strips the natural oils. Apparently, once your head gets the memo that you are not stripping it anymore, it stops producing so much oil. So there is only a week or two of uncomfortable dirty-feeling hair before it starts feeling awesome.
 

King sns

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I do about five times a week. I can skip a day pretty easy, but 2 days is too much.. it looks okay but starts to feel gross and I have to comb it out a lot if I don't wash it.
 

bluebell

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Has anyone ever tried going shampoo-free? I am considering it. It involves baking soda and apple cider vinegar so it's not a matter of not washing your hair, just not using a sudsing agent that strips the natural oils. Apparently, once your head gets the memo that you are not stripping it anymore, it stops producing so much oil. So there is only a week or two of uncomfortable dirty-feeling hair before it starts feeling awesome.

Interesting. I know camille at the other place has done it, but I've never really considered doing it. An ex flatmate did it once, his hair at the time was as long as mine is now. It did look kinda gross for a while (and for some reason he kept borrowing my showercap, so I think he was doing the not washing it all thing rather than just skipping the shampoo).

I'd be curious to hear if anyone with curly/wavy hair goes without shampoo. I generally have to put gunk in my hair (mousse, leave in conditioner) to stop it going super-frizzy and annoying, which is one of the main reasons I use shampoo.
 

kyuuei

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I've always wanted to try this, but like Ivy said, it makes your hair get "funky" for a week or two.

I bounce between chin-length hair and waist-length hair. I grow mine out every 2-3 years and donate it, so my hair is always at crazy lengths, and it grows decently fast (from my chin to my mid-back in a 1 and a half).

I wash it everyday, but I sweat everyday lately. I used to wash it every other day, and rinse it with water everyday, but my hair won't feel clean if I don't wash it after sweating a lot.

Basically, I wash everyday, condition everyday, and once a week or so instead of conditioning I'll wash my hair, and put some apple cider vinegar and tea mixture in my hair and let it air dry like that. (The vinegar smell goes away entirely when it's dry.)
 

Recoleta

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I typically shower at night and use shampoo and conditioner every day (sometimes the 2-in-1 stuff if I'm in a hurry). Then I let my hair air dry for somewhere between 1-3 hours, and then blowdry it once it's just a little damp.

Over the weekend I usually let it go, like shower on Friday night and then skip Saturday and wait 'til Sunday night to wash it again.

During the winter when my hair is drier/more brittle and I don't sweat I probably wash it about every other day.
 

EJCC

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I do about five times a week. I can skip a day pretty easy, but 2 days is too much..
Two days is definitely too much, for me too. (After two days, my hair starts to look kinda wonky around the roots, and feels really uncomfortable - plus, dandruff gets to be a problem.) I wash my hair every other day. I at least rinse it every day, though, because since my hair is curly, it does funny things in the morning that brushing just makes worse.
 

poppy

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I wash every other day, sometimes I go 3 but not usually.

Has anyone ever tried going shampoo-free? I am considering it. It involves baking soda and apple cider vinegar so it's not a matter of not washing your hair, just not using a sudsing agent that strips the natural oils. Apparently, once your head gets the memo that you are not stripping it anymore, it stops producing so much oil. So there is only a week or two of uncomfortable dirty-feeling hair before it starts feeling awesome.

I've never tried this, but I did switch from standard drugstore shampoo to Burt's Bees brand, which doesn't have sodium laurel sulfates, so it's much kinder to your hair. I find I still have to use it every day as my skin and hair type tends toward oily, and my hair is always in my face so my skin's a mess if I don't. Another thing some people do is use liquid castille soap, which is made of pretty good stuff.
 
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Phantonym

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Has anyone ever tried going shampoo-free? I am considering it. It involves baking soda and apple cider vinegar so it's not a matter of not washing your hair, just not using a sudsing agent that strips the natural oils. Apparently, once your head gets the memo that you are not stripping it anymore, it stops producing so much oil. So there is only a week or two of uncomfortable dirty-feeling hair before it starts feeling awesome.

This also reminds me about a claim that some people believe that hair has a natural ability to cleanse itself and they haven't washed their hair for years. Apparently, it takes about six weeks to get "normal" hair again. It's not "clean" but nothing that would make you go up the walls either, if you can get through the first weeks.

Here's an article from a British tabloid (yeah, yeah, time to roll your eyes) about people's experiences with this.

I Never Wash My Hair and it's as Soft as Dog Fur

Here's a quote from some forum I found where people had questions about this subject:

This is a topic that's been discussed in the pages of New Scientist magazine (although this was on the wider subject of not washing at all).

The key point is the word "clean". As you say, the skin exudes sebum - which is itself a cleansing agent. It is the build up of sebum which gives the hair its' greasy appearance. Several scientific studies have shown that sebum builds up as a result of constant use of chemical abrasives and that this continues for some time after the cessation of use of these abrasives. In short, stop using shampoo and in the short term you'll get greasy hair.

Numerous non-controlled tests (ie people who just did it) have shown that when the body and hair are not subjected to constant bombardment by chemical substances, a natural equilibrium is reached. This state would not be defined as "clean" by L'oreal standards but is generally accepted as non-offensive by independent observers.

Put in basic terms - explorers, peace campers, and various other active but non-delinquent groups who for practical reasons have eschewed the standard hygiene diet of western civilised man report that when they encounter Gillettes (the term generally applied to the well-groomed westerner) the results are reported that the smells, and general appearance, are different but non-offensive.

So the short answer is - you won't get Head n Shoulders hair by leaving it to nature; but you will get socially acceptable hair if you leave it long enough to go through the over-reaction stage.

There is one important caveat - there has to be sufficient airflow for the effect. If you cover your head you will need to constantly wash your hair. This also applies to your body.

Food for thought but would I actually do it? I don't know. I like to wash my hair but I'd also like to test this idea someday.
 

rajagiri5

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to reduce hair fall

it is better to wash a hair 3 or 4 times a week, and apply a standard conditioners.
 

demimondaine

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okay okay: say what you will, but i've been playing around with not shampooing for the past two weeks or so. as it stands, i did a baking soda wash on sunday. today (friday), i'm a bit greasy at the roots, but could probably get another day out of it. this is pretty extreme for me (for a summer) but it doesn't smell (have asked opinions) and i wanted to see how long it would go.

i have pretty long, fine hair with a tendency toward dryness. i noticed the first time after using baking soda, my hair felt clean but without being stripped. also a lot more volume, hm..
 
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