It is a common question and query of every woman from housewife to working lady. Washing hair is a step towards shiny and healthy hair. Excessive or least washing can cause the hair to become dry or dirty.
Our life is too busy now, and we are unable to follow a regular schedule of taking care of hairs. The result is that you have dull, dry, or split end hairs as a mark of damage. You may have heard a lot of myths regarding how often should you wash your hair.
In this post, you will learn a proven and authentic hair washing guide based on expert’s tips. So, let’s start:
Why Washing Hairs is Necessary
There is no need to explain that washing hairs is necessary, but some reasons are enough to explain its importance. It’s a natural process that dirt and pollution start to accumulate with time, and when you don’t wash your hair, dirt particles and pollution affect your scalp. This may cause dandruff or hair to become too oily or sticky. Mostly, it depends on your hair type: either dandruff or oil accumulates.
Dermatologist recommends washing hair once when you feel the oil in hairs. Fungal infection can also invade hairs if you don’t wash them properly. And the last but not least, lice could also serve as your dirty guest even though you don’t want them. That’s why washing hairs is of vital importance to make hairs healthy.
What Factors Influence Washing Hairs
Do you know from oil to type of hair and styling products, every factor influence frequency and intensity of washing hairs? Each factor depends on the individual lifestyle and needs. These factors affect hairs in the following ways:
Type of Hair
Hair type is a major influencer of washing the hairs. Different types of hairs like straight, curly, oily, or thin determine when to wash. Straight hairs demand frequent washing as the sebum easily covers the hairs and they look more greasy and oily.
While, for curly hairs, sebum is necessary to coat the hairs to make them shiny. Therefore, if you have curly hairs, you don’t need to wash the hairs twice or thrice a week. You often have seen the African women’s curly hairs, they don’t need to wash them more frequently. They wash their hair once a week or after a week. As more washing will cause dryness in their hairs.
In the same way, you can go a long time with thick hair without washing while thin hairs don’t. For coarse hairs, it will be easy with minimum washing, while silky hairs demand more care and frequent washing.
Check Your Hair Type
Before deciding how and when to wash the hair, check your hair type. Take a strand of your hair in hand and if you feel it you have medium hairs, while if you don’t feel it mean you have fine hairs.
You can also do a stretching test to check your hair type. Stretch a single hair in between your fingers if it breaks immediately, it means you have brittle or damaged hair. If the hair stretches to some extent indicates you have healthy hair. Now, you have a rough estimation of your hair type, do washing according to the need of hairs.
Lifestyle
The way how you are living and what are your activities affect your hairs a lot and washing too. If you enjoy a lot of styling products and treatments, you need frequent washing of hairs.
Because too many products can cause dryness and damage to hair, and washing the hairs will minimize the loss. The more is your busy routine, the more you need washing. Just like you do straightening of hairs early and then go for your work and hairs hit oil and pollution, you need to wash them in the evening.
At this point, you can’t forget the role of sweat. Sweat can clog the pores, causing smell and sebum production. Whenever do you have a workout and feel sweat in your hair, must have a hair wash.
Sebum production
Hairs naturally produce sebum, and it is necessary for hair health. But excess and long-lasting sebum production can destroy the scalp. You should know how much your hair produces sebum. If you have medium hairs and high sebum production, you should wash your hair daily. But If you have fragile hairs and low sebum, you can go a few days without washing hairs. Trapping dust with oil can increase the need of washing the hairs.
So, How Often and Frequent You Should Wash Your Hairs
Now, you have realized the importance of washing and know the factors that influence washing the hairs. So, it will be easy for you to decide how frequently you should wash your hair. Courtney Says “Washing relieves your hair from product buildup and dermatitis that can negatively affect your scalp”.
It is a continuous debate and dermatologists and experts have a wide range of answers depending upon the factors that I have already explained. We can summarize the above discussion as; for oily hairs, you should wash your hairs daily. For dry hairs, washing twice a week is necessary, and for thin or damaged hair you can a washout every 5-7 days. Because excessive washing will cause dryness in the hairs. For thick and curly hairs, washing once a week will go a good hand. Just because sebum is necessary for shine in thick or curly hairs.
Despite all these specific types, if you have normal and healthy hair it is your choice to wash out the hairs by keeping in mind the health of hairs. The basic purpose of washing is to ensure the normal growth of hairs and the health of the scalp.
FAQ’s For Washing Hairs
No, it will not okay to wash hair once a week in all cases. It depends upon your hair type. Having curly or thick hairs, you can wash once a week or even the next week.
But in the case of medium or straight hairs, washing twice a week is inevitable to prevent hairs from both dandruff and oil. Most people have thin hair and need daily washing. All you need to do is to know your hair type and need for hairs to wash.
Washing with just water is not enough as water will wash only some portion of dust, debris, or oil. The others will be left behind and need good shampoo for thoroughly washing the hairs.
The best way of washing the hairs is to rinse thoroughly with warm water it will open pores and cuticles of the scalp. Then mix the shampoo with some water on your palm and apply it to hairs. Use a lesser quantity of shampoo and apply mostly on the scalp than the ends of hairs.
Washing hairs after a long time cause buildup on the scalp and making it unable to grow naturally the new hairs. For people with straight and thin hairs, dirt and debris show up on the hairs with 5-7 days.
If you wash hairs after a month, you will observe frizzy, dull, and damaged hairs. Don’t do this mistake even in your life wash thoroughly and consistently even once a week to the hairs grow naturally.
[…] frequently you wash your hair also affects the growth. Washing after two days is ideal for hair health. More frequent washing can cause the scalp to dry […]