I grew to somewhere around hip/BCL using sulfates 3x a week and no conditioner, though that second part might mean YMMV as I've only ever used conditioner when I've had prior damage (eg when I was a lifeguard and now when I tried to use soap-based shampoo bars for four months after moving into a place with very hard water and a dodgy water softener).
But I only ever shampooed my scalp and my length and ends were fine with frequent washing with sulfates.
I think it depends a lot on your scalp, what you're using to wash it, etc. Baking soda and vinegar washes are terrible for your hair in particular, as the baking soda is very alkaline and lifts the cuticle, and then you try to "fix" it with vinegar.
On the flip side, for some people frequent washing dries out the scalp and causes irritation and over-production of sebum, and their hair and scalp are happier with less frequent washes.
It depends as well on how you define 'stretching washes'. I had to stretch washes after working as a swim instructor one summer because my scalp had gotten used to daily shampooing as I had to wash my hair to get the chlorine out, so for a while as I tried to get back to an every 2-3 day schedule I had greasy hair nearly 50% of the time. But that was me working to get my scalp back to where it had been happy before I'd upset the balance. In contrast, I've been trying to stretch my washes out since the beginning of August and my hair still needs washed by the end of the third day, even though I have religiously only washed it every 3-5 days for 5 months (I aim for 3 days, which is the outside of my hair and scalp's comfort zone, but sometimes that gets stretched because I'm lazy and it's not like I have anywhere to be
).
For other people, washing any more often than once or twice a week leads to a flaky, itchy scalp because they're over-washing it.
The tl;dr here is that I think a statement like 'stretching washes is bad' is too vague, because it depends on your scalp and how you define stretching washes. I think it really becomes problematic if you adamantly insist on stretching it out further even when your hair and scalp are begging to be washed, versus adding one more day between washes to gradually increase the time and paying attention to how your scalp reacts over the next few weeks.
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