Frequent washers club!

[Iyashikei]

Does anyone here use sulfates every time they wash? I tend to wash twice a week, putting 2 days between every wash day. I get oily on the 2nd day after washing, and just bought some Not Your Mothers dry shampoo for those days (which hopefully won't do anything terrible to my follicles?).

I am just wondering if it's possible to wash with sulfates twice a week once it gets longer without drying it out too much. I do use henna, which should help give it more strength and conditioning, and I also do weekly hot oil treatments. And of course, conditioner and silicones. Am I good to just keep on with the sulfates twice a week with this routine?

I always use sulfates but I do use a heavy conditioner. For some reason my hair is happy that way. I must say my hair is barely shoulder length at its longest.

[stardust lady]

I am washing mostly every day with strong sulfates and non-moisturising formulae, but I speak of my scalp only; I wash my lengths mostly every other time and use a gentler shampoo since I am growing out bleach. My natural hair does not show any signs of drying out despite me doing this, so I see no problem with it!

Good to know this is working for you despite bleached ends... Must mean it's not inherently too drying. You're hair looks great! Always admire it when I see a picture here and there.

I've tried to stretch my washes since joining LHC but seems I can go no more than 2 days without washing. If I go a day longer, my scalp starts to itch and I get little bumpy flakes all over with a heck load of sebum. I think I've concluded that stretching washes will do more harm than good for me. So I will stick to washing every other day as this is what feels healthiest for my scalp

I've read recently that stretching washes is actually pretty bad for your scalp. I tried stretching washes, no-poo, baking soda + vinegar washing, sulfate free, etc etc. Never had worse hair or scalp in my life.

I wash just about every day - I may skip one day a week but that's laziness, nothing more. I have fine straight hair. I'm oily and I live in the humid south. I have a dermatologist I adore and her view is that so long as your hair will tolerate it, it's better to wash your scalp than not.... She finds dry shampoos very problematic (I never could get them to work for me). For ME, when I stopped trying to stretch out washes, everything got 'better'. At the same time though, I also.... learned to shampoo JUST my scalp.... and I do use oils or a leave-in on the ends particularly when I go to sleep at night. I think a lot of the positive changes came from going back to daily washing (say 65%?) and the rest of the positive changes came from things like sleeping with a silk bonnet, waiting until dry to comb with a wooden comb, moisturizing the lengths etc. I am learning TONS being here... but I'll stay a daily washer. I am mostly sulfate free but using up my sulfate shampoos. I haven't figured out what works (and doesn't work) for my hair when it comes to sulfates so that part is on-going research haha.

I just moved to the humid south in December and I've noticed I am less dry now for sure, which has been great. Also the water is much softer than where I was before, and that reaaally changed things.

I've got knee+ hair and I wash with sulfates every other day, give or take depending on how busy I am. For years I tried stretching but it just didn't work for me. Too painful, as I suspect I have SD. The one time I went to the dermatologist, his eyes bugged out because my entire scalp was basically one big red flake, and that was with going about every three days. I used to be super concerned that my hair wouldn't grow long back when I joined and tried all sorts of things, but these days I've settled into benign neglect and just try to keep my scalp happy. When I have a flare-up, I use nizoral for a week or so.

I tend to do scalp-only washes these days. At first, it was out of concern for hygral fatigue, but now it's just because it's faster and more convenient. I also dilute shampoo as of the past year, but it's for ease of distribution, as I usually wash one-handed and pouring a cup of diluted shampoo distributes it more evenly and more easily. As for conditioners, I use plain ol' suave naturals and occasionally something coney if I feel so inclined. So yes, it was possible for me and my hair. I don't know you and your hair, or what your goals are, but play by ear and you should be all right.

That said, my hair is neither bullet-proof nor particularly fragile, and it's not dyed or permed. I attribute length mostly to wearing it up and detangling gently since I haven't noticed a huge difference between products. (Seriously, I have never used a conditioner and been like "WOW! so good!" or "Ewww, so bad")

Moral of the story is, be gentle, pay attention, and if your hair is crabby, try clarifying and troubleshoot from there. You may have to rotate products, you may not. Do what you have the energy and time for, and your hair will do its thing.

When I go too long without washing my hair, my follicles will hurt very bad. I suspect I may be susceptible to SD as well. Sometimes it gets red, too. Not flaky really, but I've had dandruff from scalp dryness. Not sure if that's related.

Interesting about the conditioner... I may be spending extra dough on nice conditioner unnecessarily. I'll have to experiment with that...



Thanks for all the info guys! Very happy to hear that it's working for all of you. I'm going to happily keep up my washing routine and keep enjoying my clean scalp and hair while I continue to grow.

[squirrrel]

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I've read recently that stretching washes is actually pretty bad for your scalp. I tried stretching washes, no-poo, baking soda + vinegar washing, sulfate free, etc etc. Never had worse hair or scalp in my life.

I think that it’s probably not simply stretching washes that is the issue. Stretching washes without ensuring that your scalp is clean by use of scritching, massaging, and preening, or at least a good brushing with a bamboo brush (bbb can work fine too, but I find it takes more work on its own and can leave a ‘greasy’ look), yes. Definitely a case of ymmv, but someone who ensures they don’t leave sebum to build up on the scalp, and otherwise looks after it, is unlikely to suffer many issues. How the scalp hair looks is a different matter. Hair with sebum in it, the aim of most of the wash styles you mention, will always look different to other forms of hair care. I have to get used to how dark my hair becomes and how much more it starts to clump when I don’t wash traditionally. Plus, you also tend to have that transition phase.

So yep. If washing more frequently is for you, fab. You guys go for it. If anyone wants to experiment with stretching washes some then I would advise looking into different scalp hygiene methods and not conflate not washing with poor hygiene. With that combination and the understanding that your hair will look different, you should have a better chance of success that way.

[JasminxCat]

I've read recently that stretching washes is actually pretty bad for your scalp. I tried stretching washes, no-poo, baking soda + vinegar washing, sulfate free, etc etc. Never had worse hair or scalp in my life.

Yes, me too. I guess it isn't mean for everyone. I have severe eczema so the sweat build up I get from stretching too long doesn't help and it causes my hair to shed unhealthy amounts. I wish I could stretch my washes, but my scalp says no. I will water wash every now and then, but that doesn't always cut it

[Bri-Chan]

Does anyone here use sulfates every time they wash? I tend to wash twice a week, putting 2 days between every wash day. I get oily on the 2nd day after washing, and just bought some Not Your Mothers dry shampoo for those days (which hopefully won't do anything terrible to my follicles?).

I am just wondering if it's possible to wash with sulfates twice a week once it gets longer without drying it out too much. I do use henna, which should help give it more strength and conditioning, and I also do weekly hot oil treatments. And of course, conditioner and silicones. Am I good to just keep on with the sulfates twice a week with this routine?

I wash more or less twice a week, with SLES based formulas. I prefer mild shampoo not for hair itself, but for my sensitive scalp. But I usually don't use shampoo on the lengths... I usually do it like 3 times a month.

[Siv]

Siv How long do you let the oil sit before you wash your hair?

I wash two times a week with SLS and don't have any problems. I also use oil before washing.

My goal was overnight, then an hour, now it's more or less 10 min I try to apply it and then do something "hygiene related" like epilating, plucking my eyebrows... so anywhere from 10-30 min I'd say.

That said, my hair is neither bullet-proof nor particularly fragile, and it's not dyed or permed. I attribute length mostly to wearing it up and detangling gently since I haven't noticed a huge difference between products. (Seriously, I have never used a conditioner and been like "WOW! so good!" or "Ewww, so bad")

I wonder if this is common for people with thicker hair strands? I'm a suuuper finey and conditioners make a huge difference for me. I also tangle really easily

When I go too long without washing my hair, my follicles will hurt very bad. I suspect I may be susceptible to SD as well. Sometimes it gets red, too. Not flaky really, but I've had dandruff from scalp dryness. Not sure if that's related.

This could be perfectly normal. My scalp hurts when I stretch washes and I learnt that because we generally wash a lot these days (compared to say, the 18th century when shampoo didn't exist) we don't have our natural bacteria on our scalp. That's why we can get sensitive and achy when we let off shampooing for awhile and the bacteria start growing again; our scalp is not used to it. Being headache and migraine-prone already, as well as preferring the look of freshly washed hair, I don't want to deal with the achy scalp personally. (I may have already brought this up in this thread, sorry if I'm repeating myself!)

[florenonite]

Does anyone here use sulfates every time they wash? I tend to wash twice a week, putting 2 days between every wash day. I get oily on the 2nd day after washing, and just bought some Not Your Mothers dry shampoo for those days (which hopefully won't do anything terrible to my follicles?).

I am just wondering if it's possible to wash with sulfates twice a week once it gets longer without drying it out too much. I do use henna, which should help give it more strength and conditioning, and I also do weekly hot oil treatments. And of course, conditioner and silicones. Am I good to just keep on with the sulfates twice a week with this routine?

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've read recently that stretching washes is actually pretty bad for your scalp. I tried stretching washes, no-poo, baking soda + vinegar washing, sulfate free, etc etc. Never had worse hair or scalp in my life.

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.

[Entangled]

I wonder if this is common for people with thicker hair strands? I'm a suuuper finey and conditioners make a huge difference for me. I also tangle really easily

I wonder! Most of my hair is what I’d call medium, though the under layer is course in all senses of the word.

[pailin]

I'll vote for that. I'm very picky about conditioner, and my hair is pretty fine. And still washing daily, at an inch shy of knee. I couldn't do this without conditioner that's just right.
Even with much shorter hair, it made a huge difference when I switched from the cheap conditioner my mom always had to something heavier when I was in college.

[stardust lady]

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.

I really should have explained better. By "stretching washes" I mean not washing your hair after it seems to need washing. Like letting it be oily and dirty and waiting as long as possible to wash. I've read that for many people this can do more harm than good. But of course everyone is different. I've just read a lot of cases where this turned out badly for people who thought it was the way to go.