I’ve received a few emails recently asking about how often a girl should wash her hair. I did a little research and it’s an interesting topic because there really seems to be a big divide in what people recommend.
So, how often should you wash your hair? Personally, I was always taught to shampoo my hair every day. Over the years, however, I’ve learned that daily washing really dries my hair out.
These days, because I get highlights and my hair is damaged, I only shampoo 3 or 4 times a week. This has definitely helped my hair a lot: it’s much less dried out without the constant shampooing and blow drying.
Celebrity hairstylist Ken Paves, who does Eva Longoria and Jessica Simpson’s hair, agrees that you shouldn’t wash your hair every day. According to Oprah.com, Ken says that “certain hair types and textures only require washing once a week, where others work well washing 2 to 3 times a week.”
Thursday’s New York Times style section had an article about hair washing frequency, only to the extreme. Of Course I Washed My Hair Last Year (I’m Almost Certain) talked about how lots of women wash their hair just once a week and some only wash once a month! The average seems to be around 3 times a week. Apparently it’s trendy to spend less time on your hair.
As someone whose hair gets oily after just a few days, I can’t imagine only washing your hair once a month, but maybe it would work well for those with dry hair? The idea does sound tempting – who wouldn’t want to spend less time doing their hair each week? I just don’t know how it would really work for the average woman.
What are your opinions on this? Do you wash your hair every day or do you think once a week is best? Leave a comment and take the poll below! I want to hear what you think!
Wash your hair 2-3 times a week or more
I have blond hair to about the middle of my back and bangs… I work out 5 days a weeks, and still only wash my hair usually 2 or 3 days a week. With long hair its easy to put my hair in a bun and pull back my bangs. Also, I wet my hair (without washing) and sleep in 2 high buns and in the morning my hair is curly. Also, curling your hair with a curling iron looks much better and stays longer if you curl on the second day after washing your hair. You just have to be creative!
What exactly do you mean by wash? Shampooing? Because I condition my hair everyday, and shampoo it… Twice a week maybe. I like to keep in the oils. But with my type of hair, I don’t know when it’s oily or not. Am I still stripping the essential oils with conditioner?
But, than again, that’s just my hair.
Oh and Meghan, wearing your hair in a ponytail to bed (or when it is wet) breaks it, unless the ponytail is very loose.
I think that it all depends on your hair how many times you need to wash it.For example i wash my hair every 3rd day. I only use Pantene, its because it is the only hair product that works best on my hair….My friend Maggie she washes her hair everyday…..it is so dry. But she said that everyone says tat you have to wash your hair every day in order for it to be healthy…I don;t think that she is right…Just like in the article it says to wash your hair 2-3 times a week.And i personally think that if you need advice on your hair, how to wash it and with what and how many times, just try to use every kind of shampoo and see which one is the best.That is what I did.
My hair gets greasy and frizzy quickly so i need to wash it daily and looks really bad, sometimes i just wanna shave my head bald!! Any tips?
@Finar
and
@everyone
thank you so much!
but see i have to straighten my hair cuz when i dry it it get all wavy(not in a good way)and it looks all crapy,but do you know anything that maybe after i wash it i can use a product???
i can never let my hair dry without it looking crapy and stupid.
so is there any product that will help??????
@Eurica, the reason your hair becomes frizzy, and probably the reason you have split ends too, is the constant blow-drying. Instead of the routine
you’re following now, try this:
Wash your hair w/ a good shampoo & conditioner, then put in a leave-in conditioner, and comb out your hair after putting the leave-in conditioner thru. Then, DONT BLOWDRY. let it dry naturally. Oh, and I would recommend getting a trim b/c of the damage formed by blow-drying. If there’s a morning or two where blow-drying is necessary, then OK, but everyday is not!
@ash
PAUL MITCHELL’S ‘THE CONDITIONER’
if youre gonna be flat-ironing everyday, or close to every day, condition every time you wash your hair. After you’ve shampooed and conditioned, use ‘THE CONDITIONER’ BY PAUL MITCHELL as a leave-in, comb thru and air dry. Also, once or twice a month, use a stripping shampoo to de-gunkify the heat/chemicals/conditioner build-up that every girl, even ones that take good care of their hair has.
I’ve heard that the more you wash you hair the more your glands produce oils to make up for whats not their i use to have to wash my hair daily but i can go every other day with out washing since i changed my shampooing habits
I used to wash my hair EVERY DAY because it got so oily if not. However, my stylist told me that it gets this oily BECAUSE I wash it everyday. So I started washing every other day and sure enough, it took a couple of weeks, but the oily-between-washings stopped. Now I can go two days in between without an oily mess.
this is to zoey. i know ur not racist girl. im a white geilr and i oljy wash once i a whiel, like every few months. i take a shower daily and use conditioner on my hair but no shampoo. it doesnt get greasy or smell. i have fine curly hair and it works well for me. i have some black gf’s that wash their hair every day. it just depends on you hair.
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I’m a Lifeguard so during the summer my hair can get washed three times in a single day, its extremely hard on it and I never get to grow it out cause I always have to cut it at the end of the summer. I put conditioner in it before getting in the pool so that protects it a little but only lasts for so long, because of that though my hair is pretty dry even during the winter. If I wash my hair more then about once a week I have to actually put grease into it on the first day in order for it to even look appealing and I always have to but leave-in conditioner in. The worst part though is my hair is curly, so when I wake up in the mornings, even if it was straightened the day before my hair is crazy!
Personally i think everyday . . . i wash my hair everyday and it seems to be just fine. . . even though i have bleached, dyed my hair so many times . . . and is processed with heat everyday. . . it’s really smooth. It seems to take treatments really well. I feel very self concious that somebody will aproach me and my hair might have a foul odor after one day of not washing it, Or having oily hair EEEWWW!!! gross!!!
desperate, wash your hair every other day or every 2 days, I had the same problem and got Nioxin Recharging Bio Complex, i got in thru amazon.com and was around $30. Doing those 2 things will help your hair stop falling in a few weeks (: