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Stepo_NiNha
July 27th, 2016, 04:17 AM
Hi,

At the moment, I wash my hair every other day. I'm planning to stretch washes to save time and invest in more scalp only washes whenever I feel my scalp oily and itchy. For my oily scalp, sulfates are my best friends to calm down my scalp grease but I guess that my length doesn't really need them as much as my scalp, for sure. I feel that the longer my hair gets, the longer I can stay away from washing the whole length because the oils have more length to travel down and I don't feel that oil "build up" as before.

Not only I'll save time in my busy life but also will keep my ends protected from the whole proccess of washing all my length. I'm almost at hip (2 inches more and I'm there!) and the time it takes to dry (even with a blow dryer) it's just .... messy. I can use the blow dryer in my scalp, though :) and eventually in my length in a cool setting to speed up the drying process.

Do you have a good experience in stretching washes and feel that the ends split less? Since you don't touch and rub the ends while washing so often and have your scalp oils for a longer period in your hair protecting the length and ends...I think that makes sense that shampooing less will help your hair to split less and will help on retaining length.

I'm a regular trimmer (1/2 inch every 3 months) and I've been doing this for one year with great success, it really helped to stop breakage and retain length but the growth is, for sure, slower than I'd want it to be. But recently I joined the No trimming for 6 months thread (June 16-January 17) because I want to reach my goal faster but i'm afraid that my hair will start splitting and I won't have a visible growth. I don't really mind if I'll have an uneven growth (I'm sure I'll have because my right side grows faster), I just want growth :eek:. My big issue is breakage.

Do you really think that shampooing less alternating with scalp only washes would help? I'm faithful! :p

Amenahh
July 27th, 2016, 04:24 AM
I think it does help, although my hair is still short (almost APL), so I don't think I would have much breakage at this length anyway. It sure saves time though. I used to wash every 2 days as well, now I do every 4 days, and trying to stretch to 5. Wearing your hair up helps a lot, I find that my hair gets greasier faster if I wear it down. Plus wearing it up (in protective styles) is good anyway. Good luck!

Tosca
July 27th, 2016, 05:03 AM
You don't need to shampoo the length at all. Shampoo your scalp, and condition the length from your ears down. Not putting conditioner on your scalp helped me not have to wash so often. I wash once a week currently.

lapushka
July 27th, 2016, 05:24 AM
If you are planning to stretch, go slow. You now wash every other day. Take one day a week where you stretch one more day, and then do the rest every other day, then the next week go twice with one extra day, and see how long that lasts. If you stall at some point keep it the way it is for a while, or even go back a step. Go very slow.

When I hit BSL, I could start stretching to a week, and I normally had to wash 2/3x a week with pixies, and chin length bobs. That increased to 2x a week APL-BSL, then after BSL I gradually ended up with a weekly wash.

Good luck!

Stepo_NiNha
July 27th, 2016, 06:25 AM
Thank you guys,

I'll definitely make it a slow proccess and the scalp only washes will help me. My last full wash was on Sunday and I did a scalp only wash today early in the morning and I have a totally fresh scalp, I'm so happy :) If i just could be more than 2 days without scalp wash it would be a miracle. If I let it happen, then, it must be very slow.

Cg
July 27th, 2016, 10:13 AM
I'm with lapushka, go slowly. I started with daily washing and increased one day at a time only after my scalp had obviously adapted.

People have varying reasons for stretching, but the time savings alone is worth it in my experience.

kuroi
July 27th, 2016, 11:25 AM
Going slow is absoluty the way to stretch washes. I don't know how much you want to stretch your washes.
I didn't notice much of a difference in splits with stretching my washes but it saves a lot of time and my scalp is becoming happier. I washed it once to twice a week for a long time but I decided to try to stretch my washes to every other week. I'm currently 12 days since my last wash so its working and it doesn't get as greasy anymore. I basicly got one more day in between washings till my scalp adjusted and repeated that quite a few time. It was the hardest in the beginning but a few weeks to months should calm oil production down.

veex
July 27th, 2016, 01:00 PM
I've stopped shampooing completely.

Moved to using co-wash conditioners only about 2 years ago, best decision I've made for my hair.

meteor
July 27th, 2016, 02:10 PM
I think stretching washes, if your scalp and hair like it, can be very helpful indeed. It just saves time and saves hair from so much wear & tear, all that wet manipulation and hygral fatigue... If you wash hair every day, that's 365 washing & drying cycles. Doing it once a week reduces the exposure to 52 washes a year. So if, say, your ends are 10 years old, that means they'd be washed only 520 times vs. 3650 times.
It really adds up for those who want to grow very long hair.

Just take it very slow, don't push your scalp if you feel any itch or discomfort at all and try out a few Scalp-Only washing techniques (e.g. with bun, with braid, etc) - they are such a time saver! :) Good luck! :cheer:

spidermom
July 27th, 2016, 02:20 PM
Tried it, ended up with seborrheic dermatitis for the first time in my life. For me - no good. I'll wash when needed.

Stepo_NiNha
July 27th, 2016, 02:38 PM
I think stretching washes, if your scalp and hair like it, can be very helpful indeed. It just saves time and saves hair from so much wear & tear, all that wet manipulation and hygral fatigue... If you wash hair every day, that's 365 washing & drying cycles. Doing it once a week reduces the exposure to 52 washes a year. So if, say, your ends are 10 years old, that means they'd be washed only 520 times vs. 3650 times.
It really adds up for those who want to grow very long hair.

Just take it very slow, don't push your scalp if you feel any itch or discomfort at all and try out a few Scalp-Only washing techniques (e.g. with bun, with braid, etc) - they are such a time saver! :) Good luck! :cheer:
Yeah! Thats what Im doing already. Scalp wash was the best thing I learned in LHC

Stepo_NiNha
July 27th, 2016, 02:40 PM
Tried it, ended up with seborrheic dermatitis for the first time in my life. For me - no good. I'll wash when needed.
I already tried before with no luck, Im planning to alternate with scalp only washes to avoid flakes and itchy scalp

lapushka
July 27th, 2016, 03:27 PM
I already tried before with no luck, Im planning to alternate with scalp only washes to avoid flakes and itchy scalp

That's exactly why you want to take it really slowly! As soon as it starts to itch, wash, even if it is "only" a scalp wash.

Platzhalter
July 27th, 2016, 04:06 PM
That's exactly why you want to take it really slowly! As soon as it starts to itch, wash, even if it is "only" a scalp wash.

Seconding this... seriously, you don't even have to wash the hair itself that much, but try to keep your scalp clean.

Stepo_NiNha
July 28th, 2016, 06:15 AM
Seconding this... seriously, you don't even have to wash the hair itself that much, but try to keep your scalp clean.

Yeah I really have to maintain the scalp clean, otherwise I can't stand the itches and flakes!

LadyAdelina
July 28th, 2016, 05:43 PM
I left my rice water on the counter overnight, and it's looking and smelling about how it should (I think.) I look forward to trying this tonight and reporting back!

Dark40
August 10th, 2016, 03:07 PM
I only shampoo 3 or 4 times a week, and that's with only one cycle. The majority of the times I co wash 5x a week, and deep condition 2x a week.

lapushka
August 11th, 2016, 09:34 AM
I only shampoo 3 or 4 times a week, and that's with only one cycle. The majority of the times I co wash 5x a week, and deep condition 2x a week.

That's a lot of washing! Most people here don't daily wash their hair. ;)

Chromis
August 11th, 2016, 10:18 AM
I have never bothered with the scalp washes. Seems like so much fuss and my length would just land up wet anyhow. The hair around my nape is always the last to dry anyhow.

I think some things we overthink a little in general. What we now call stretching washes used to just be normal.

lapushka
August 11th, 2016, 10:22 AM
I have never bothered with the scalp washes. Seems like so much fuss and my length would just land up wet anyhow. The hair around my nape is always the last to dry anyhow.

I think some things we overthink a little in general. What we now call stretching washes used to just be normal.

I feel the same way about scalp washes. I feel like, well my roots are wet, might as well get the rest clean (after a week I think: yeah). I can't get used to scalp washes and my hair (sink) always ends up wet anyway. :lol:

For my mom and dad washing hair that minimally was the norm, so... when I needed 2/3 washes a week, they weren't used to it at first. Took a while of explaining that I really couldn't go out with hair that oily. ;)

Chromis
August 11th, 2016, 10:29 AM
I feel the same way about scalp washes. I feel like, well my roots are wet, might as well get the rest clean (after a week I think: yeah). I can't get used to scalp washes and my hair (sink) always ends up wet anyway. :lol:

For my mom and dad washing hair that minimally was the norm, so... when I needed 2/3 washes a week, they weren't used to it at first. Took a while of explaining that I really couldn't go out with hair that oily. ;)

Yeah, I grew up washing once a week because that was just normal in our house and I probably would not have been allowed to do more than that anyhow. That is still what works best for me although sometimes if it is super hot or I have gone too heavy on the oiling I wash twice a week or sometimes it is more like a week and a half or two weeks between. I tried washing daily several years ago because I thought that was what "normal" people did and I was trying to be better at passing as middle class :laugh: My poor scalp! It was not used to such frequent washing and no matter what I tried it was so sore and flaky and itchy. I was pretty happy to find LHC and felt pretty vindicated that see most people here were not daily washers. I do shower more than once a week nowadays though haha!

lapushka
August 11th, 2016, 12:38 PM
Yeah, I grew up washing once a week because that was just normal in our house and I probably would not have been allowed to do more than that anyhow. That is still what works best for me although sometimes if it is super hot or I have gone too heavy on the oiling I wash twice a week or sometimes it is more like a week and a half or two weeks between. I tried washing daily several years ago because I thought that was what "normal" people did and I was trying to be better at passing as middle class :laugh: My poor scalp! It was not used to such frequent washing and no matter what I tried it was so sore and flaky and itchy. I was pretty happy to find LHC and felt pretty vindicated that see most people here were not daily washers. I do shower more than once a week nowadays though haha!

LOL! Yeah, a week is the norm here too. For both me and my dad (both of us SD and oily). My mom stretches to a month, because oddly enough she doesn't seem to produce any sebum on her scalp even after that long. It gets dirty from hair spray build-up, but that's it.

truepeacenik
August 11th, 2016, 06:12 PM
I've used the term scalp wash to refer to both "shampoo only at scalp" and "keep as much of the rest dry as possible."
I intentionally clean the length as clarifying about twice a month.
Scalp is 1-2 times per week but with very dilute non SLS shampoo.

My length gets wet about every other time.
Victory is when the length is dry enough to use a wood stick.

I'm so precise. Lol.