Home/Others/Lifestyle/How Often Should I Wash My Hair?
To wash your hair and keep it clean is a good thing, but to do it more than your needs is not recommended at all. It is commonly believed that leaving your hair without being washed will result in making your hair dirty with a bad smell that does not only annoy you, but also others who come closer to you. Yes, this is true, but it does not also mean that you need to wash your hair several times a week to keep it clean with a good smell that makes you completely confident instead of feeling that you are embarrassed when you are alone or sitting with others. There are some people who agree with the idea of washing their hair several times a week to keep it clean, while there are others who find that there is no need to wash their hair several times in order not to damage it. Between what is said here and there, we find ourselves asking about what we should do and how often we should wash our hair.
How often you should wash your hair is only determined by your hair itself and scalp. This means that it differs from one person to another depending on the type of the hair, scalp, oil production and what is done to your hair. Dermatologists recommend you not to wash your hair on a daily basis especially if you have a thick, long, processed and dry or curly hair because this damages your hair and worsens its look. Even if you have a short hair which is unprocessed, straight and thin, you will not need to wash it daily.
♦ When do you need to wash your hair daily?
It depends on oil production. Washing your hair becomes necessary when the oils of the scalp reach the hair shaft, but the oils do not reach the ends quickly which means that there is no need to wash your hair daily because it is still dry and not oily as you may think. Washing your hair daily becomes necessary only when you find that the oil production is high on your scalp.
♦ What about the smell of your hair?
There are some people who wash their hair daily because it smells bad and not because of the high oil production on the scalp. If you are one of them, then you have to opt for a lightweight shampoo that is also called everyday shampoo since the detergents that it contains are milder than others which helps in protecting your hair instead of damaging it.
♦ Do you want a trick to absorb oils between washes without shampoos?
It is widely thought that using shampoos is the only way to remove oils that are produced on the scalp, but in fact this is not true. There is a simple and easy trick that can help you to absorb the produced oils on your scalp without the need to use shampoos. You can do this by using baby powder or talcum powder on your hair between washes instead of using shampoos that damage your hair. Using powders to absorb oils does not mean that they can replace shampoos every day, you can only use them between washes to reduce the number of times you use shampoos.
The more you wash your hair, the harder styling your hair will be which requires using more styling products. Why does this happen? Because you wash your hair every day, you make it floppy, soft, loose and very clean to the extent that it becomes hard to be styled. This forces you to use more styling products to overcome this problem and this in turn damages your hair.
♦ Are there any alternatives to shampoos?
It is widely believed that shampoos are the only products that we can use for cleaning our hair, this is not true. There are other alternatives that you can use to get your hair cleaned without the need to use shampoos such as beer, lemon juice and a mixture of water and baking soda that you can use on the scalp just once a week.
Finally, to cleanse your hair three times a week as it is usually recommended or to wash it more than that is only decided by your needs, hair type and the oil production that you have on the scalp. This means that there is not a specific and right answer that can suit everyone.