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Dreamkitty
February 4th, 2011, 04:03 AM
:D Im reading a book called "The Hair Bible". Very interesting myths that are explained in the book but some of the things this writers says confuses me and this chapter caught my attention in particular.

"The Importance of frequent shampooing"
Basically, he says that daily shampooing results in healthy hair, as well as washing more often to remove buildip.

:confused: But then I read another book called "look great naturally" and this writer says to wash hair only once a week with a organic, mild shampoo.

So which one is true?

milagro
February 4th, 2011, 04:13 AM
I can hardly imagine what kind of buildup you might develop daily to wash it that often for this particular reason :)
I think washing daily is more the matter of convenience (if hair is oily or one prefers wet styling). And washing/wetting doesn't necessarily involve shampoo ;)

RadiantNeedle
February 4th, 2011, 04:14 AM
Unhelpful answer!
Both.

Some people do better stretching shampooing or cutting it out all together.
Some people's scalp and hair are happiest with daily shampooing, be it with sulphates or a sulphate-free shampoo or shampoo bar.
It's all veeeery subjective.

ravenreed
February 4th, 2011, 04:37 AM
This! Everything is very much YMMY. The only way to find out what works for you is to experiment.


Unhelpful answer!
Both.

Some people do better stretching shampooing or cutting it out all together.
Some people's scalp and hair are happiest with daily shampooing, be it with sulphates or a sulphate-free shampoo or shampoo bar.
It's all veeeery subjective.

nellreno
February 4th, 2011, 05:48 AM
Unhelpful answer!
Both.

Some people do better stretching shampooing or cutting it out all together.
Some people's scalp and hair are happiest with daily shampooing, be it with sulphates or a sulphate-free shampoo or shampoo bar.
It's all veeeery subjective.

This. Now that I've switched to CO and I've stretched washes my hair is much nicer, but I know I lot of people suffer when they try to stretch washes

Dreamkitty
February 4th, 2011, 05:50 AM
Interesting! I do find that the cleaner my hair, the less I shed. I always thought shampooing was bad for the hair and led to more shedding but in the book it says, that it just loosens the hair which is supposed to shed.

mellie
February 4th, 2011, 06:28 AM
I agree, I think it is a very individual thing. I do best when I shampoo everyday.

Copasetic
February 4th, 2011, 06:30 AM
Both statements are true depending on your hair type and preferences. For me, shampooing every day is a disaster for my scalp. For other people, shampooing every day gives them amazing hair.

Othala
February 4th, 2011, 06:34 AM
Shampooing everyday was great for my scalp but awful for my hair.

So, I compromise and shampoo every third day.

AgnesONutter
February 4th, 2011, 07:12 AM
Personally, I find my scalp loves being washed every day (helps a lot with dead skin build-up) but my hair hates it. As the others have said, you need to find the balance that works best for you and your scalp.

Generally, though, it is best working ones way up from mild products to harsher ones, in the search of the perfect combination. :)

ooo
February 4th, 2011, 07:34 AM
I think it's individually different, how often one should wash.

summerjade
February 4th, 2011, 07:49 AM
I agree that it is an individual thing. For me, I wash every other day. My hair seems to like that best, being my scalp needs to be cleaned daily but my hair doesn't. So I just wash every other day to make up for it. In the summer months I have to wash every day sometimes. I suppose that is due to humidity and my scalp tends to get dirty quicker then. Also I have an itchy scalp. I sometimes have to wash sooner due it itchness that drives me crazy.

irishlady
February 4th, 2011, 08:21 AM
As the others have said, do what works best for you!

My scalp likes being washed everyday or at least every second day, but my hair does not like it at all. Since I am growing my hair, I do what the length wants, and wash my hair every 3-5 days.

When I had my hair at chin/neck length, it was washed and blowdried everyday no problem, but that's different since I wasn't growing it at the time.

Red_Wednesday
February 4th, 2011, 08:32 AM
Interesting! I do find that the cleaner my hair, the less I shed. I always thought shampooing was bad for the hair and led to more shedding but in the book it says, that it just loosens the hair which is supposed to shed.

Same with me. I don't like to shampoo as much because my ends get so fried, but I do shed less when my scalp is clean. I tried wo this past summer and my scalp got sore, I broke out along my back hairline, and I shed a lot. Perhaps I wasn't doing it correctly - the rest of my hair felt very nice, it was just that my scalp was a mess. Anyway, once I started to shampoo again - more frequently - my shedding went down substantially.

Nae
February 4th, 2011, 08:39 AM
Well, I would garner a guess that author number 1 does best when they wash their hair daily and author number two does really well on weekly washes. Advice is as individual as the person giving it, especially about something as variable as hair care.

Try out both! Whatever works for you best is the way to go.

Annalouise
February 4th, 2011, 08:49 AM
:D Im reading a book called "The Hair Bible". Very interesting myths that are explained in the book but some of the things this writers says confuses me and this chapter caught my attention in particular.

"The Importance of frequent shampooing"
Basically, he says that daily shampooing results in healthy hair, as well as washing more often to remove buildip.

:confused: But then I read another book called "look great naturally" and this writer says to wash hair only once a week with a organic, mild shampoo.

So which one is true?

Hi, I was looking on amazon because I like reading hair books. Is that Hair Bible by Kingsley? And is Look Great Naturally by Lee Grace? The second book had no reviews so I don't think its a well known book.

Personally, if I had to thrown down with one of these authors I'd go with Kingsley because I think the advice to wash your hair once a week is terrible. There is no reason a person has to go without washing! for any reason. And that is just silly to say you must remain dirty for an entire week to have great hair!?

Lets be for real. If your head is sweaty or oily or itchy or dirty then for heaven's sake wash it. You are not doing your scalp any favors by letting the pores get clogged with sebum. I should know from experience, that is the fastest route to hair loss. (been there done that).

People who do wash their hair infrequently tend to keep their scalps clean, do a lot of manual cleaning with a clean bbb, and also often do scalp massages or something to stimulate the scalp and loosen up the dirt and sebum. Oil can do this as well but will also clog the pores if left on unwashed.

The best advice in my opinion is to wash your hair as needed, with a gentle product. You can, and some people say, should, wash your scalp daily with a gentle cleanser. Especially if you use a daily scalp tonic or oils to massage into the scalp.

Anyways...I think this is possibly the most interesting hair myth on the planet....that you shouldn't wash your hair to have good hair. It makes no sense. Yes, if you are washing your hair with nuclear waste then wash it as seldom as possible!

But there are plently of gentle sulphate free cleansers, or soaps or even diluted shampoos that will suffice for daily washing if desired and you will still grow long healthy hair.

:)Relax, and don't buy into this myth that you have to walk around with gunky head. Nonsense.:D

One more thing, yes, detergent is bad for the hair if used often. So if you have long hair hold it out of the way and just wash the scalp. Or have one product for the scalp and one for the hair. Or again, use something really gentle and it shouldn't be a problem for the length.

Madora
February 4th, 2011, 08:57 AM
Shampoo when you need it. If you wash your hair every day you'll rob the hair of its natural sebum and unless you do something to counter that, your hair will suffer.

The ladies of the 1800s had gorgeous hair..and they didn't wash it every week!

spidermom
February 4th, 2011, 08:58 AM
If I had short hair, I'd definitely wash it every day or every other day. My scalp starts getting oily within about 24 hours. I wash it every 3-4 days because I don't enjoy having wet hair hanging all over me for hours.

sakuraemily
February 4th, 2011, 09:11 AM
Washing hair everyday is bad. Washing it once a week is good as long as you do WO or CO every 2 days in the meanwhile. I think so.
The Hair Bible guy is a hairstylist I think. So he'd obviously like it if products he likes got sold.

Annalouise
February 4th, 2011, 09:28 AM
Madora, while I do agree with you in principle, in the 1800's they didn't have the outdoor and indoor air pollution that we have today.

If you are outdoors in fresh clean air, and live in a house without central heating, and are eating pure foods off the farm then yes, I don't see why one would wash their hair daily.
If you lived during the industrial revolution and worked in a polluted factory then women covered their heads at all times to keep their head clean.

Do you really think that a person running around in cities today, going to the gym to work out, and being out in the public with their head uncovered should only wash their hair once a week?

In the old days women used to wear hats or scarves at all times when outdoors. No one does that anymore, well, practically no one.

And I should add that since women went to work in the work force people's homes are not as clean as they used to be and they are full of dust.

I'm just asking this because I really want to know if not washing one's hair, living in the modern world as we do with all the pollution, is really a good idea?

In India women used to wash their hair once a week but the air was clean. Nowadays if you've been to India you know in some parts you have to wear a face mask or westerners will get very ill from the pollution from people burning plastics in the streets. If you were to walk around India with your head uncovered and not wash your hair it would be gross.

Whereas, I've speant time in the wilderness and not had to wash my hair for 3 weeks. It was oily but it wasn't "dirty."

Given modern environments, do you still think people should wash their hair infrequently?:)

Also, and this is a secondary question unrelated to the pollution issue, and that is ..... how do you know those women in the 1800's didn't wash their hair daily? I have the impression that they did wash their heads nightly by running water over their heads. If you watch Jane Austen movies you'll see the ladies in their room at night grooming and putting water, I don't know if it has soap added, over their scalps.

I know that in France people were using soap daily since the middle ages I think. Castile soap was very popular.

Are you 100% sure these women with long hair didn't wash their hair often?

And also, how many of these people had head lice?

In India, people who are poor and don't wash frequently also usually have head lice.

When hair in India is sold for re-sale in hair extensions in the west, it has to be cleaned of all the lice. Sure it is healthy hair, but its extremely dirty.

Who amoung us would sacrifice hygiene to have long lengths? I know if it was me I'd rather have short hair then live with a dirty bug infested head.

So now I'm going off topic a little bit but still...... would you put the infrequent hair washing method into a context and tell me under what conditions it works well?

Thank you, I do really admire your knowledge and experience Madora and you have 10X the hair that I do so I listen openly to what you have to say.:)

littlenvy
February 4th, 2011, 09:48 AM
I thought lice liked clean hair??
Isn't that way English people used to powder their hair? To avoid lice?

Besides, shampoo as we know it is a rather new invention dating back to the 1930's and didn't become commonly used until the late 1960's.

Personally, I don't think washing hair every day would have health benefits. If one feels that they need to wash their hair everyday, then that's fine. But its not needed everyday for anything other than 'looking' clean.

Annalouise
February 4th, 2011, 10:14 AM
Petrochemical based detergents are new. Soap has been around for thousands of years and was recorded by the ancient Babylonians and Egyptians.

My family used to make soap out of lard before soap was commercially available.

On why powdered wigs -
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_were_powdered_wigs_worn_in_the_18th_century

BrightEyes7
February 4th, 2011, 10:17 AM
Different strokes for different folks!

I wash twice a week. That is what is best in my opinion. But my mother washes daily. That's what is best for her.

To each their own!

Madora
February 4th, 2011, 10:55 AM
@Annalouise...

My maternal grandmother, who was born in 1880, told me that her mother washed her hair once a month, and it involved having to heat buckets and buckets of water and took the better part of 3 hours for the actual washing/rinsing and detangling.

If a person is active and their scalp gets sweaty, then I could see having to wash it every day. Or if you live in an area that is highly polluted or subject to dust storms, then a daily shampooing would be necessary.

I've found that if I brush my hair thoroughly every day I cut down on the lint/dirt and that helps to stretch washes. I do not get out often so that helps also.

Mr. Michael states in his book that long hair should be washed no more than necessary. Too much shampooing dries out the hair, although it doesn't affect the hair root at all.

Anje
February 4th, 2011, 11:12 AM
Varies a lot. I find shampoo to be rather drying on my scalp and length, so less shampoo seems to be better in general, for me. I wash with just conditioner every few days, and leave the shampoo for when I start getting the standard uncooperative-hair signs of buildup.

My scalp was thrilled with water-only washing and shed very little when left relatively dirty.

Other people find their scalps get really angry if not cleansed daily with shampoo. They shed more and get itchy.

So the take-home message is to mess around with it for a while and find out what works best for your head.

Annalouise
February 4th, 2011, 11:31 AM
@Annalouise...

My maternal grandmother, who was born in 1880, told me that her mother washed her hair once a month, and it involved having to heat buckets and buckets of water and took the better part of 3 hours for the actual washing/rinsing and detangling.

If a person is active and their scalp gets sweaty, then I could see having to wash it every day. Or if you live in an area that is highly polluted or subject to dust storms, then a daily shampooing would be necessary.

I've found that if I brush my hair thoroughly every day I cut down on the lint/dirt and that helps to stretch washes. I do not get out often so that helps also.

Mr. Michael states in his book that long hair should be washed no more than necessary. Too much shampooing dries out the hair, although it doesn't affect the hair root at all.







Thank you Madora:)
I can't afford Mr. Michael's book but if you have it, can you tell me if he differentiates between detergents and soaps for washing (say a castile soap)?

And I agree about the brushing, although this wouldn't remove lice. People say that lice has nothing to do with hygiene but I dispute that idea. I believe that it is through not frequent washing, that lice has an opportunity to colonize the head and spread rapidly to other heads.
I've never met a person who washed their hair daily (and who didn't share head items with others) who got a lice infestation.

And, many people don't brush their hair due to curliness or another reason. And without the scalp stimulation it seems like a bad idea to wash infrequently as the oils just sit on the scalp and clog the pores leading to hair loss.

So what you are saying makes sense to me if 1. a person brushes daily and 2. they do not live in a dirty environment.:)

However, if they 1. do not brush, and 2. live in a polluted city, then can not washing daily with a mild soap be perfectly reasonable for achieving the extreme lengths?

Madora
February 4th, 2011, 01:22 PM
@ Annalouise...

If they don't brush and live in polluted cities, then daily washing with a gentle shampoo would be fine..provided that 1) the product they use IS gentle and how they shampoo (no harsh rubbing/scrubbing and no fingernails).

Mr. Michael wrote in Chapter 3 - page 46:

"your great-grandmother and mine knew nothing of pH factors and they had none of the glamorous shampoos to choose from which so confuse us today. Whether they lived in Russia or Sicily or Formosa or Norway or Ireland, all they had for shampoo was a good old-fashioned bar of laundry soap. If they were lucky or a little higher in class, they had a precious bar of castile soap to use for washing their hair. Keep in mind that the pH of any soap is 9--an alkaline range. When great-grandma washed her waist-length hair every two or three weeks, afterward it was almost impossible for her to comb it because the alkalinity robbed the hair of essential oils and made her hair behave like so much dried-out grass. But happily, in the way that so many of these beauty secrets are developed over the centuries, in her despair, she stumbled onto using a vinegar or lemon rinse, which restored the acid balance and made her hair not only more manageable and easy to comb, but more lusterous as well.

pg 47

There's a very simple rule about shampoos that everyone should learn--all those teenagers, and their mothers as well, who want to look like popular TV stars, actresses, and models. The rule is: you have to put back what you take out of your hair. The solution is not to find a shampoo that's 2.6 or even one that is 5.6, because neither of these will lather enough to do a cleansing job, but to find one that is somewhere between the pH 8 range you need for adequate lather to cleanse externally, and will also be compatible with the 2.6 pH you need to restore the acidity of the hair roots.
(from George Michael's Secrets for Beautiful hair, 1982, Doubleday)

Hypnotica
February 4th, 2011, 01:39 PM
Getting lice or not getting lice has NOTHING to do with how clean or dirty your hair is. Lice spreads through head-to-head contact and sharing head wear. It is not that hard to understand why poor people in India get lice - they live in a very crowded environment most of the time.

In the western world, children are more prone to get infected as they have much more body contact with each other then a general adult has with other adults.

frodolaughs
February 4th, 2011, 02:36 PM
How often you wash your hair is a personal thing based on what works for you, your hair, and your scalp. I live in the city and wash my hair once a week--or less. I wash it when it's dirty. If I washed more frequently (and I used to) my scalp would be itchy and irritated, and would be madly pumping out sebum, trying to keep itself moisturized. I know that my routine wouldn't necessarily work for other people. In general, I take a skeptical view of advice when the author insists that they have the one right answer which will solve all my problems--whatever the problems I'm trying to solve.

McFearless
February 4th, 2011, 03:13 PM
I don't think shampooing everyday can be good for anyone's hair. Scalp maybe but hair? Shampoo dries out hair so terribly.

virgo75
February 4th, 2011, 03:29 PM
I don't think hair care is one size fits all.

There's no one way of doing things that is perfect for every hair & scalp type - whether that's washing daily, washing weekly, conditioner washing, water only, sebum only, etc. None of them are 100% for everyone.

That said, my scalp loves to be washed daily.
And while my hair doesn't like to be shampooed daily, I can shampoo it more often if I use leave-in conditioner or do CWC.

I also noticed that my hair is drier if I don't shampoo. It seems like it gets coated easily no matter what type of conditioner I use and then dries out. :-/

There may be exceptions but I can't imagine that going too far in either direction - not washing vs. over washing - would be good for hair and scalp. It's just a matter of finding what medium is best for you.

knux
February 4th, 2011, 03:33 PM
I agree with many people here when they say that it is truly an individual preference. Regardless of how often people washed their hair in the past, you must find your own balance, and on that note, just because women in the past either washed their hair every day or not, it does not necessarily mean that that is the be all and end all of hair care. Once again it all depends on whether or not that system works for you and your hair or not. Just because you want a product or a system to work for you does not mean that it will.

I believe that I am one of the rare people on LHC who washes her hair everyday, and it's not even just because my scalp is greasy or that I run everyday, but not matter what I do with it, the next day my hair loses all shine, movement, and shape. No amount of oil helps bring it back to real hair, even if I just wet it a little or a lot or just use a CO wash it refuses to behave. Shampooing my hair everyday with a sulfate free shampoo is the only way I can work with my hair.

Find what works for you.

P.S I love reading this thread with all it's hair history :)

spidermom
February 4th, 2011, 04:17 PM
The hygiene aspect of not washing hair concerns me. We all know that we need to wash our hands to prevent spreading infection, but what about our hair? If I don't wash my hair after being around somebody that is sick, or after being sick myself, won't bacteria/viruses get into my hair? Then if I touch my hair and touch something else, won't I be spreading the infection?

vanillabones
February 4th, 2011, 04:33 PM
My hair/scalp loves being washed but my dry damaged ends do not :(
It's a good thing I don't get out much and have no problem letting grease slide down my roots for 3 days at a time. It feels like the oil is good for it but if I have to go out it's necessary I wash, it's disgustingly unrepresentable :) Even before knowing how good this was for my hair I would do it out of laziness (when I was younger I had to wash my hair every morning and it was super greasy and flat by the next - could have also been hormone overload)

I definitely would like a natural unharmful shampoo/cleanser I think I'm drying my brittle ends to death...

jeanniet
February 4th, 2011, 06:21 PM
Lice actually prefer clean hair with no products on it, because it's easier to attach their nits to the hair. The more gunk on the hair, the harder it is to attach the nits. I used to work at a school where we had to do regular lice inspections and I've seen kids with extremely clean hair and a ton of lice.

Annalouise
February 4th, 2011, 08:05 PM
@ Annalouise...

If they don't brush and live in polluted cities, then daily washing with a gentle shampoo would be fine..provided that 1) the product they use IS gentle and how they shampoo (no harsh rubbing/scrubbing and no fingernails).

Mr. Michael wrote in Chapter 3 - page 46:

"your great-grandmother and mine knew nothing of pH factors and they had none of the glamorous shampoos to choose from which so confuse us today. Whether they lived in Russia or Sicily or Formosa or Norway or Ireland, all they had for shampoo was a good old-fashioned bar of laundry soap. If they were lucky or a little higher in class, they had a precious bar of castile soap to use for washing their hair. Keep in mind that the pH of any soap is 9--an alkaline range. When great-grandma washed her waist-length hair every two or three weeks, afterward it was almost impossible for her to comb it because the alkalinity robbed the hair of essential oils and made her hair behave like so much dried-out grass. But happily, in the way that so many of these beauty secrets are developed over the centuries, in her despair, she stumbled onto using a vinegar or lemon rinse, which restored the acid balance and made her hair not only more manageable and easy to comb, but more lusterous as well.

pg 47

There's a very simple rule about shampoos that everyone should learn--all those teenagers, and their mothers as well, who want to look like popular TV stars, actresses, and models. The rule is: you have to put back what you take out of your hair. The solution is not to find a shampoo that's 2.6 or even one that is 5.6, because neither of these will lather enough to do a cleansing job, but to find one that is somewhere between the pH 8 range you need for adequate lather to cleanse externally, and will also be compatible with the 2.6 pH you need to restore the acidity of the hair roots.
(from George Michael's Secrets for Beautiful hair, 1982, Doubleday)

Thank you Madora:) The last paragraph confuses me though. How is a shampoo with a pH of 8 compatible with a scalp pH of 2.6? I don't understand that.

This is a very interesting idea of putting back what is lost during washing. I did a small search on shampoo pH and I found out that even if your shampoo is the same pH as sebum (4.5-5.5), the end result will not be a balance, because the water is alkaline and this will alter the pH of the shampoo.

This is a tad complicated when you think about how to maintain, or restore the proper acid balance after washing. However, I think the point is a valid one that it takes time after washing for the scalp to return to its accustomed acidic level. Which I read online takes about 30 min to 8 hours depending on a person's age.

It is very interesting that he recommends a shampoo pH of 8 which is alkaline. In contrast to that, the websites I read said to chose a shampoo with a pH of around 5. Indeed, it listed several popular store brands and that were in the 5 range (head and shoulders, garnier fructis).

Whereas pure soap, like a bar soap or castile soap is around 9 or 10. So I'm guessing he recommends a shampoo that is inbetween typical drug store shampoos and pure soap in pH.

That would be because too high a pH would make hair brittle and overly tangly, and too low pH wouldn't clean the hair well enough.

Now, I'm going off topic but couldn't you just add citric acid or lemon to a pure soap to lower the pH if it was too alkaline? I guess he is suggesting that that is what ladies did in the old days when they did an acidic rinse.

So if one were to wash daily, then I assume "gentle" would mean a shampoo with a lower pH, say around 5? It wouldn't clean as well as one with a higher pH, but it wouldn't be as drying. Then you'd have to consider the other chemicals in shampoo and if they had a cumulative effect from frequent washing.

Or, you could wash daily with a pure soap followed by an acidic rinse and that would negate the need for the other chemicals that are in modern shampoos that might build up on the hair.

Either way, when it comes to pH levels, they are altered everytime one washes their hair. Whether or not this is a bad thing for the scalp I don't know. I suppose it must be balanced out with the need to remove debris and sebum from the scalp.

Thanks Madora, this has given me much food for thought.:)

Madora
February 4th, 2011, 09:07 PM
@ Annalouise...

I don't know if this will muddy the waters further, but here's more about pH from Chapter 3 of Mr. Michael's book:

The pH range is 0 to 7, acid; 7 to 14, alkaline. The most neutral acid/alkaline condition is 7. Pure water is always 7, for example. While generally, most hair is 4.6 (on the acid side, like Pepsi-Cola or Coca-Cola), the most important numbers of all never change. They are the same for everybody. The key figure is 2.6 for the extremely acid hair roots; the second number is 5.6, the pH factor for everyone's scalp. (The reason the hair itself is more acid and actually varies from the 4.6 average is due to oxidation, which changes the chemical structure of the hair strands whyich have been exposed to the elements).

A simpler way of explaining the pH factor is to realize that hair roots are living things, like fish or humans. A fish lives in water, a human lives in the air. You have to put hair where it lives. if you take a person out of the air and put her in water, she'll die; if you take a fish out of water and put it in the air, it will die. You have to keep hair in its most viable environment.

Twarg
February 4th, 2011, 09:32 PM
It's my opinion that the way we treat our hair and the way hairdressers treat their hair seems to be rather different. We tend to want to nurture our hair and as much as they say thats what they do - they're interested in style, then try to combat hair issues with loads of products.

I can see how some people would need almost daily washing just to get rid of the hairspray, serum, wax, gel, mousse, all the leave-in conditioners that they use for their coloured and heat-styled hair, not to mention the amount they fiddle with it and the lack of knowledge most of them seem to have about proper use of hair toys.

From the general postings here it seems most people treating their hair with care and as natural products as they can manage, they really don't need to wash their hair that often.

I was lucky enough to figure out ages ago that my hair likes to be washed only once every 4-5 days. Mum introduced me to cold-rinsing as a child. She figured that one out on her own and was told it was total crap from a hairdresser and that you should use hot water. Mum told her that she knew her own hair better than some woman thats only ever touched it once. Anyhow the point I mean to make is that it's probably better to know your own hair than to listen to someone else who is adamant that they are right.

Hmm. Maybe people should use less products, try to damage their hair less and experiment to see how often -their- hair likes to be washed.

This is why I like the hair diary idea I came across on this forum :)

mowo
February 4th, 2011, 11:26 PM
I think that, like many people say it already, it depends. One have to wash every day, other once a week.
I have oily scalp and I just have to wash it every day. I use gentle shampoo. When I don't wash them every day I shed like a hell.
Besides I have to go out every day and, like in every city, air isn't so clean here: pollution from cars, factories, dirt... this all is later on my hair. So as long as I take shower every day I also wash my hair.

Malibu Barbie
February 4th, 2011, 11:52 PM
I have a book for the 70's called, "Super hair". Many of the things they suggest in that book are unheard of now. Some things they've found don't really work at all, but it's in the book. I think one must find what works best for,"you" and run with it.

ktani
February 5th, 2011, 06:58 AM
I agree that is a question of one's hair and scalp as to how often the hair needs washing. I have read that for a healthy scalp, washing a minimum of twice a week is best. However, people can stretch out washes and still have a healthy scalp.

There are cleansing methods availabe aside from shampoo and one needs to find the best shampoo or soap or other cleansing choice that suits them. Within all the choices there are milder and stronger options and any choice if it is the wrong one for a person's hair can be drying.

People also have sensitivities and allergies, so choices can be restricted.

Anywhere
February 5th, 2011, 07:12 AM
My scalp is incredibly dry so if I shampooed every day my scalp would have flaked up enough to cause quite a bit of shedding.

But for some people stretching washes has that effect. It's very dependent on what the person prefers and how their hair and scalp react to it. :shrug:

Diamondbell
February 5th, 2011, 07:29 AM
[B]

In India women used to wash their hair once a week but the air was clean. Nowadays if you've been to India you know in some parts you have to wear a face mask or westerners will get very ill from the pollution from people burning plastics in the streets. If you were to walk around India with your head uncovered and not wash your hair it would be gross.

In India, people who are poor and don't wash frequently also usually have head lice.

When hair in India is sold for re-sale in hair extensions in the west, it has to be cleaned of all the lice. Sure it is healthy hair, but its extremely dirty.

Who amoung us would sacrifice hygiene to have long lengths? I know if it was me I'd rather have short hair then live with a dirty bug infested head.



You are right that some (not all) poor people don't wash hair often because of scarcity of water. I would say most of this hair being sold in the West for hair extensions (it is a multi-million dollar industry) is from certain temples in India, where the whole hair is cut off at one go and are probably lying on on the floor. It doesn't mean that all this hair is full of lice, but I am sure good hair gets mixed the dirty hair from the different people. As far as I know most people wash hair once or at least twice a week in India. It is a regular ritual: like Tuesdays and Fridays or at least Fridays.

Annalouise
February 5th, 2011, 08:43 AM
@ Annalouise...

I don't know if this will muddy the waters further, but here's more about pH from Chapter 3 of Mr. Michael's book:

The pH range is 0 to 7, acid; 7 to 14, alkaline. The most neutral acid/alkaline condition is 7. Pure water is always 7, for example. While generally, most hair is 4.6 (on the acid side, like Pepsi-Cola or Coca-Cola), the most important numbers of all never change. They are the same for everybody. The key figure is 2.6 for the extremely acid hair roots; the second number is 5.6, the pH factor for everyone's scalp. (The reason the hair itself is more acid and actually varies from the 4.6 average is due to oxidation, which changes the chemical structure of the hair strands whyich have been exposed to the elements).

A simpler way of explaining the pH factor is to realize that hair roots are living things, like fish or humans. A fish lives in water, a human lives in the air. You have to put hair where it lives. if you take a person out of the air and put her in water, she'll die; if you take a fish out of water and put it in the air, it will die. You have to keep hair in its most viable environment.

Thank you Madora:) No, that didn't muddy the waters it helped. I didn't know that the hair roots were that acidic. I can see now why you would want to always do an acidic rinse after an alkaline shampoo. I thought it was just to smooth the cuticles but the acid is also needed for the roots. That is interesting.:)

Babyfine
February 5th, 2011, 08:52 AM
I'm still tinkering with my routine, but I find that 2-3 times a week is best for me.
I have problems with scalp buildup/cradle cap if I go too long without shampooing.
I wish I could, though, and my my mother has always gotten by with shampooing once a week or every fortnight and still has nice hair at 85. she has a drier skin and scalp than me, though.
I do DT, PT"S and pre-shampoo oilings, though, to counteract the stripping of moisture from hair.
Also I tried scalp washes only when my hair was longer, but couldn't get the mechanics to work for me.

RavennaNight
February 5th, 2011, 09:42 AM
I think there are four major factors for how often a person needs to wash their hair.

First, it's their own physiology and hereditary factors. Everyone's hair, scalp, and sebum isn't the same. There's a huge range of hair types... look at the LHC! There are so many variations of coarseness, curliness, thickness, etc. Some people attest to their scalps producing enough sebum to cause daily washing. Some have gone Sebum Only because it works for them.

Second, diet is an important factor. A person who ingests lots of red meat for example, may have different sebum production levels than someone, who for example, eats mostly fish, or is a vegetarian. Fruits, vegetables, what they consume in general would have an effect on the sebum.

Third, the products that the person uses. Some products cause the scalp to overproduce sebum. I have read many members here posting that using SLS shampoos has caused an overproduction of sebum. Some products build up so much the person feels the need to wash more often. Some products cause a person to not need to wash often at all.

Fourth, as mentioned earlier in this thread, environment. Environment can mean the geographic environmental issues (pollution) of where one lives, and it can also mean one's occupation. I work in a very dusty environment, sometimes. The stockroom can be a dusty filthy place, and after a huge truck I just want to go home and wash my hair.

Melisande
February 5th, 2011, 10:02 AM
Annalouise, citing Jane Austen movies as basis for speculation about past hair washing habits is dubious. These movies are modern. And not even in the movies, yous see them wash their hair daily. Jane Bennet is shown washing her hair once, Margaret Dashwood once, that's all I remember. Daily? I own a lot of old beauty advice books and in the 1950s, once a week was recommended for city dwellers with air pollution around, for others once every fortnight or every three weeks.

Mechanical methods of cleaning hair were much more widespread, brushing it etc. People covered their hair, especially women, didn't style with gel or mousse, and left their hair pretty much alone. Rich ladies had personal servants and dressers who did their hair but I doubt that they washed more often than once a week. The ideal of 100% nongreasy hair was born with the advent of modern detergents. Before, it was unattainable anyway.

In the age before flowing water and frugal living, do you really think women dragged their water and heated it daily just to wash their long hair? They wasted much less thought and energy on their looks than we do today, and had completely different standards of hygiene.

I read somewhere a comparison of diaries written by young girls and women - one set of diaries from the late 1800s and early 1900s, the other contemporary. The diarists of old wrote much about spiritual and moral self improvement - today's young women nearly exclusively about exterior self improvement, i.e., their looks.

And not everybody who doesn't wash daily or every other day has gunk, dirt or grime on their heads. I wash twice a week because I like the sensation of freshly washed hair but I produce hardly any sebum at all. I could go with unwashed hair for a week and you wouldn't notice it. My hair is so dry that oiling it has become a life saver.

Modern shampoos are much too strong and concentrated. Hair is no metal machine to be de-greased. Dilute your shampoo, stretch washes if you can, and handle it gently, because hair washing means stress for the hair.

LovelyL
February 5th, 2011, 10:31 AM
<snip>The solution is not to find a shampoo that's 2.6 or even one that is 5.6, because neither of these will lather enough to do a cleansing job, but to find one that is somewhere between the pH 8 range you need for adequate lather to cleanse externally, and will also be compatible with the 2.6 pH you need to restore the acidity of the hair roots.

ok I really don't believe that hair roots have an acidity of 2.6 pH! Gastric acid is about 2 pH and that's seriously corrosive. Acid sure, but that kind of pH range?

Also the point of a detergent/soap is that it is a molecule with a hydrophobic (water-fearing) and a hydrophilic (water-loving) end. The water fearing end picks up the oils you wish to remove and the water loving end allows the detergent + oil to be washed away using water. So where does acidity factor into how well a detergent cleanses?

@ Annalouise
Central heating is a much cleaner way to heat a home than the open fires that were the only option available in the past, since it either runs on natural gas (which burns clean compared with coal) or on electricity produced off-site.

Cities now are also not necessarily more polluted than they used to be. Here I'm thinking of London where after the Great Smog of 1952 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog_of_1952) laws were put in place to introduce smokeless zones. Also industry has for the most part moved out of city centres and those industries that do produce air pollution are mostly heavily regulated and forced to minimise their impact.

haikitteh
February 5th, 2011, 11:10 AM
Cities now are also not necessarily more polluted than they used to be. Here I'm thinking of London where after the Great Smog of 1952 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog_of_1952) laws were put in place to introduce smokeless zones.

True where I live in Los Angeles, too - my mom grew up here in the 1940's and said it was much more polluted & smoggy before they passed laws in the 60's & 70's limiting industrial airborne pollutants.

As for the main question of the healthiest amount of washing, my scalp and my hair disagree. My scalp likes to be washed frequently, my hair gets a bit dry that way. I'm trying to combat that with the CWC system, so they can both be happy.

Sunny_side_up
February 5th, 2011, 11:18 AM
I can go longer inbetween washes if i do a SLS free shampooing then a tiny amount of coconut oil on the ends. If however i use conditioner i feel it needs more regular washing. Notice less shedding with regular washes though, at the mo i try to do a wash every three days, but it can depend on my activities at work and commuting.

Lianna
February 5th, 2011, 11:21 AM
Unlike most people here in this thread, my scalp and hair like to be washed everyday with SLS, not something "gentle". I've tried almost all washing alternatives found in this board (only not SO), for several months. I don't have overproduction of oil because of SLS, my oil production was steady no matter how I cleaned. I live in a very hot climate, my head sweats just from going outside.

I could stretch 3 days, but I wouldn't look my best and would be itchy. My hair grows faster when I wash everyday with shampoo. The only time my hair was really "dry" was when I washed 3 times a day...yes, it's that hot in here. My hair is not long, but I don't think stretching washes is necessary to have long hair.

I just thought this thread needed someone who washes with harsher agents everyday, for some variety. :p

jeanniet
February 5th, 2011, 04:11 PM
True where I live in Los Angeles, too - my mom grew up here in the 1940's and said it was much more polluted & smoggy before they passed laws in the 60's & 70's limiting industrial airborne pollutants.

As for the main question of the healthiest amount of washing, my scalp and my hair disagree. My scalp likes to be washed frequently, my hair gets a bit dry that way. I'm trying to combat that with the CWC system, so they can both be happy.
Very true for the LA area. My husband grew up in the San Fernando Valley in the '60s and '70s, and he said it was a rare day when you could see the mountains then. It's much clearer now.

The air was also very polluted beginning with the Industrial Revolution here and in Europe and well into the 20th century. Coal and wood fires are both pretty dirty.

ETA: You'd also have to consider that in older times, women spent a considerable amount of time in the kitchen cooking, canning, washing, etc. Even if the air was cleaner outside, there'd be indoor pollutants from wood/coal fires, candles, lamps, etc., depending on the era. In India it was very common to use dung as a source of cooking fuel; wealthier women would have servants, but poorer women would certainly be exposed to pollutants from that. We think of pollution being a modern plague, but it really isn't.

HeatherJenae
February 27th, 2011, 08:59 AM
I'm with Lianna, I wash and condition with sulphates every day and my hair is healthier than it's ever been. I also use coconut oil but that's it. I have really bad night sweats, and even with a silk cap, my hair is still all jacked up in the mornings, so I have to wash everyday. On the weekends I try to stretch it out because I don't really have to go anywhere, but even then I feel like that's kind of unnecessary. The only problem I've ever had from washing everyday is that my skin gets really dry on my hands. That's it!

Jcv-Shelley
February 27th, 2011, 09:13 AM
They can both be true. You'll have to try bothways because everyone's hair reacts differently for different reasons. Maybe your hair likes frequent washing and it helps absorb your treatments better, or maybe your hair will react badly because of the stripping of oil. It's a trail and error sort of thing.