There are some benefits to not washing your hair, especially if you have dry hair, damaged hair, or tightly curled hair. Depending on your ethnic background, less frequent washing can also help reduce breakage and hair loss.
You might think it won't hurt, but washing your hair regularly is incredibly important for the health of your hair and scalp. "Shampooing removes sebum or oil that normally coats the hair shaft," says Brendan Camp, MD, a double board-certified dermatologist at MDCS Dermatology in New York.
The potential benefits of skipping shampoo include: healthier hair and scalp that produces a balanced amount of oil. more voluminous hair. better textured hair and less need for styling products.
Going a long time without washing your hair can cause a buildup of a yeast-like fungus called Malassezia on your scalp. Over time, this leads to a layer of dead skin cells that shed from your head in the form of oily, yellow-ish dandruff flakes. Dandruff can also make your scalp red, scaly, and itchy.
Prolonged periods of not washing can cause cause buildup on the scalp, damaging hair and even impeding its ability to grow, Lamb said. Grime from dirt, oil and hair product can show up within four to six days for people with finer, straighter hair.
For the average person, every other day, or every 2 to 3 days, without washing is generally fine. “There is no blanket recommendation. If hair is visibly oily, scalp is itching, or there's flaking due to dirt,” those are signs it's time to shampoo, Goh says.
Water is effective at washing away dirt, dust, and other water-soluble debris from the hair and scalp without stripping the hair of this sebum. However, Mamelak notes that if there are other oils in the hair (from a haircare or styling product, for example), a good portion of these will be left behind as well.
How often should a person wash their hair? People with oily hair or who use hair care products daily should consider washing their hair once every 1–2 days. People with dry hair can wash their hair less frequently. Those with textured or coily hair should only wash it once every 1–2 weeks.
Narrator: After six months to a year, all that gunk can clog up your hair follicles, which can prevent new hair from growing and, over time, ultimately lead to hair thinning or even hair loss. There's also a risk of your scalp getting infected from all the bacterial buildup.
She says it's more important to consider your hair type, texture and amount of oil production you usually experience. “I typically advise patients to keep to a standard hair washing schedule, whether it is three times per week, weekly or once per month, regardless of activity level,” she says.
Hair Washing Frequency and Tips
“I recommend washing your hair two to three times a week,” Dr. Icecreamwala says. “If your hair is dry, you may only want to wash it twice a week. If it is on the oilier side, every other day is recommended.”
Washing your hair every day can strip away more oil than it should from your hair, which leaves your hair drier and more likely to break. Washing your hair every day can cause dryness, and that makes your hair much more prone to split ends. Split ends are the enemy of happy and healthy curls!
What Is the No-Poo Method? The no-poo method is a hair-cleansing technique that removes shampoo from the equation, says Geeta Yadav, MD, a dermatologist in Toronto. Instead of using shampoo, followers of the practice use alternatives such as apple cider vinegar, a cleansing conditioner, or just plain water.
Shampoo as we know it today has only existed for about 100 years. Prior to 1903, the act of hair washing ranged from a head massage with fragrant oils to boiling pieces of “shaved soap” bars in water. There are a range of early methods, however let's focus on the past hundred years or so.
Use dry shampoo and use it right
On those unwashed hair days, dry shampoo is definitely your best friend since it's one of the main ways to prolong a regular shampoo. Nothing does the trick of making your hair look clean even when it's not washed.
shampoo can strip your hair of natural oils, and using heat products on your hair over and over again causes further damage and breakage, so washing your hair only once a week actually helps keep it in great condition.
The primary reason that second and third-day hair is better has nothing to do with styling and has everything to do with hair health. Skipping a shampoo day lets your scalp relax, and it stops working overtime to produce protective oils. Your strands also breathe a sigh of relief and soak up that valuable sebum.
A single hair has a normal life between 2 and 7 years. That hair then falls out and is replaced with a new hair. How much hair you have on your body and head is also determined by your genes. Nearly everyone has some hair loss with aging.
Q: How often do celebrities wash their hair? Shampoo your hair 1-2 times a week, max. If you go to the gym and sweat, you can rinse the hair and run a light conditioner through the ends, but don't use shampoo.
If you normally wash everyday, it'll take time to get used to washing it less. So start by going an extra day or two in between your normal washes. Rinse your hair with water in between shampoos and try to build up to once a week. When your hair adjusts you'll notice a dramatic difference.
Many doctors say a daily shower is fine for most people. (More than that could start to cause skin problems.) But for many people, two to three times a week is enough and may be even better to maintain good health. It depends in part on your lifestyle.
Depending on your hair type, you can wait three to five days between washes, and we've got the scoop on how to survive the process while you're waiting for sebum production to slow down. We'll admit, the first two weeks are the most difficult, but after about week four, you should see a significant difference.
It may sound counterproductive, but a shower every day could be bad for your skin. Some dermatologists only recommend a shower every other day, or two to three times a week. Many people hit the shower at least once a day, either in the morning or at night before bed.
In general, people with fine hair will probably want to wash their hair 2-3 times per week, while those with coarse and curly hair can probably shampoo only 1-2 times per week. If you have natural or textured hair, you may want to shampoo less than once per week.