As We Return To The Office And Our ‘Normal Lives’, We Tackle The One Age-Old Unanswered Dilemma.
It’s complicated. Always has been. My relationship with my hair. More specifically, that whole question of when to wash it, a decision that in my freelancing-from-home world pivots on three questions. 1) Which side of “needs washing” are we talking? If we’re still at the “perfectly acceptable if arranged in an up-do with a gorgeous clip” stage, I’ll skip the shampoo. 2) Am I going to be seen in public apart from rushing to the local shops? If “yes”, I’ll instantly hit the bottle. 3) Even if I’m not going out, would washing my hair lift my spirits or would I rather dodge the knuckle-gnawing boredom of blow drying it for the nine trillionth time in my life?
This can go either way, although I admit I’ve been taking the lazy, leave-it option a lot more since the first lockdown, which incidentally is when sales of shampoo plummeted while those of ice cream rose.
Conducting a straw poll with friends and colleagues, I found attitudes to hair washing diverge dramatically. At one extreme there are those who make each shampoo last as long as a week, swearing their hair is much the better for it. At the other are those who feel if they set foot outside the door without just-washed hair, they may as well be wearing PJs and novelty bunny slippers. They claim religiously cleansing it daily makes hair easier to care for and style. Plus, they avoid the self-loathing that’s inevitable if you combine not washing your hair with eating a tub of Rocky Road.
So, at which point along this timeline would you be pitching it about right? The answer is…it depends because there are many variables. Fine or straight hair (or fine and straight hair) will look lank and oilier quicker because it has less natural volume, and oil has a clearer run than it does on coarser, curly hair. Lifestyle is also a factor. If you’re city-based, it’s going to pick up more pollutants and if you exercise a lot or wear a cycle helmet, it will get sweatier.
And then there’s the psychological factor – whether you view freshly washed hair as a must-do mood booster or a bore and a chore.
While there’s no such thing as a watertight, fits-all schedule, you’ll often hear the general rule of thumb that thin, fine hair usually needs washing every other day, medium to thick hair, two to three times a week, while curly and Afro hair can be left a week or more. But according to Milly Whittle, in-house haircare expert for L’Oreal Kérastase, if you’re asking the question, you should start right back at the beginning by precisely identifying your hair type and main concern.
“Many people haven’t assessed these two factors accurately,” she says. “You may think you have damaged hair, which would mean it’s weak, brittle and prone to breaking, when you actually have dry hair that’s rough to the touch.” One option is to enlist your hairdresser’s help. Another is to take an online diagnosis questionnaire; check out kerastase.com/diagnose-your-hair-quiz and philip kingsley.co.uk/hair-quiz-start .
Whittle dismisses the oft-voiced concept that hair, if left to its own devices, will eventually cleanse itself. “The skin on your scalp is an extension of your facial skin but you wouldn’t leave your face to cleanse itself, would you?” Fair point.
Glenn Lyons, clinical director of the Philip Kingsley Trichological Clinic in London, agrees. “There are more advantages to frequent washing than not washing enough,” he says. “The scalp is continually shedding dead skin cells, just like your body, but because you shower or bathe daily, perhaps play sports, and dress and undress every day, your body is given a variety of opportunities to shed them. A scalp with normal cell turnover is really only given that chance when you wash it. That’s why regular shampooing is so important.”
Lyons cites another myth – that natural oils travel down the hair length and condition it.
“In fact, they don’t travel very far at all. So, unless your hair is incredibly short, it can’t condition the ends. That’s what conditioner is for.” In some ways, it helps if you reframe how you think about washing your hair in that you’re doing more than simply shampooing it. It’s a ritual that cleanses your scalp, conditions the ends, and moisturises and volumises the mid-lengths.
Both Whittle and Lyons make the point that if you suspect you’re damaging your hair by over-washing, it might be more to do with how you’re treating it when it’s wet and whether you’re using heat afterwards.
“When hair’s wet, it’s at its most fragile. The hydrogen bonds temporarily break down before reforming when dry – using a wide-tooth comb or a tool designed specifically for detangling wet hair helps avoid damage, while a heat styling protector such as Kérastase Resistance Ciment Thermique is essential,” says Whittle.
“However, over-washing can be a genuine problem if you strip away too much of the protective hydrolipidic film because your scalp can be left exposed to external aggressors,” she adds.
If this sounds familiar, Brooke Bohan, one of the directors at FOUR London, has seen clients look to “reset” their hair by purposely under-washing for a while to help gauge how frequently they need to wash. “Often, people are shampooing hair primarily to dampen it ready for styling. An alternative every now and then is ‘co-washing’, which means saturating hair in the shower but withholding shampoo and applying a little conditioner instead, rinsing thoroughly, a strategy that can be beneficial if your hair is dry or coarse,” Bohan says.
The under-washing/over-washing riddle is particularly important with textured hair, as Charlotte Mensah, founder of the Hairlounge salon and author of Good Hair – The Essential Guide to Afro, Textured and Curly Hair (Penguin, £14.99) explains: “Those with an active lifestyle usually wash it between 5-6 days, while others can leave it 7-10 days.
“But with heavy use of oils, pomades and defining products, you shouldn’t leave too long a gap as products can sit on the scalp. And it’s worth remembering a good moisturising shampoo will also help rehydrate the hair.”
All these experts believe in investing in quality shampoo, which may be more expensive but the upside is you don’t need to use as much. Whittle suggests a coin size amount, shampooing twice; once to remove dead cells and product build-up and the second, for a deep cleanse. Excellent formulations include WOW Colour Security Shampoo; Kérastase Bain Riche Chroma Respect, for medium to thick coloured hair; Philip Kingsley Body Building Weightless Shampoo for fine, flat hair; and Charlotte Mensah Manketti Oil Shampoo, for curly, textured and Afro hair (see below).
Use warm water rather than really hot and apply shampoo by first distributing between your hands, targeting the scalp and mid-lengths – flowing suds will cleanse the ends. And don’t forget the nape of your neck where you perspire.
Lyons advises to be neither too aggressive nor cautious with massage – use a firm pressure. And no-one should shun conditioner in the belief it makes hair oily. If you think your conditioner is to blame for greasiness, switch to something lightweight.
As for save-the-day dry shampoo, most of our experts weren’t completely averse, likening it to dabbing your T-zone with facial blotting papers.
But there’s a caveat; ensure you wash it out the next day because a happy scalp equals happy hair. Even better, none of them suggested avoiding ice cream. Result.
