They also don’t look terribly pleased when they are photographed;) When they are photographed … and not many people were. MHO on this would be that if, back 150 years ago, you were going to get photographed, you’d try to look your best, which would probably involve more than just cleaning behind your ears:)
My hair is decently long (fairly, for a guy) and I can go about two days without washing. However, my hair doesn’t get oily so much as it just gets retched.
I have wavy - curly long thick hair and I do not shampoo it every day because you are not suposed to. That would be too drying for my scalp and ends. I dont think I could go once a week but you could use dry shampoo. I’d be much more inclined to condition my hair rather than shampoo it, although I dont know how not washing your hair will give you wavy hair.
Not only do I wash my hair everday, as stated above, I do not use conditioner anymore. My hair has MORE body to it since I stopped.
But it still starts to clump every evening before I go in for my shower. If I don’t wash my hair I go crazy-it gets really, really gross.
Maybe it would adjust…but I’m not willing to wait for it to do so.
My hair gets so greasy it’s just really gross to go more than a couple of days without washing. Sometimes I do go awhile without washing my hair but it drives me nuts.
I think us people who wash it fairly regularly probably have greasy hair… if you have dry hair you could get away with longer easily because washing too often you’ll just get flyaway. If I don’t wash at least every other day it’s just bad.
ouisey, I’ve seen you in person and I think you’d look great as a Curly Girl (can you post a pic somewhere?), but your hair back then didn’t make you boring so I can only imagine what kind of bounce curls will put in your life.
I’ve got really oily (short) hair myself and need to wash it every day. I used to hate in the military when we’d be out in the field and go for a week or so without washing (of course, everybody else looked and smelled just as funky, so we sorta canceled each other out).
Does anyone else have the problem of not being able to comb out wet hair if conditioner isn’t used? I use conditioner every time I wash my hair because otherwise, I can’t comb out the tangles without taking out a bunch of hair. I try to use less conditioner so as not to get dull hair but I still need it. I’ve got thick, semi-wavy hair that I’d love to have straight but it won’t ever happen without lots of tools and lots of products. pout
I have tried light spray on conditioners but can’t use them every time with great success. My hair has changed since I was pregnant and then after childbirth… I miss my old hair. It was straighter then and sleeker pout Maybe I should take those prenatal vitamins again…hmmmmm.
I usually wash my hair every day and it felt really gross when I got in the shower, but I thought I’d try the not washing it bit. I only used conditioner and honestly, I can’t tell that it’s not freshly washed. It looks and feels clean and styling it today was a lot easier than usual.
I can’t comment on the curly non curly thing, but I talk a bit about the washing and stuff. My hair is butt-length and has been for many years. I used to go on some extended camping backipacking trips for like a two weeks or so without ever washing or showering. And I came to a conclusion.
Oh yeah also as background I am marginally alergic to my own sweat. My feet constantly break out in rashes and bumps, my hand somewhat also. And not to go TMI, but the pits and the area around my boys would get really bad if I didn’t use lot of deodarant and talcum powder.
Anyway back to the camping trips without showering. By the 4th and fith day my sweat was making my skin uncomfortable and my hair a huge mess. But by the 7th day or so I was coated in a layer of natural oils that filled my hair as well. The oil actually protected my skin and hair from the salty sweat, and I was perfectly fine. So my personal theory is that all our showering gets rid of the sweaty remnants, and the skin oil, and the oil takes longer to build back up to it normal level, which makes the first couple days suck when you are basting in you own dried sweat…
I do not wash my hair every day, as to do so would leave my hair as a ball of frizz.
Yes, I use gallons of conditioner every time I wash it.
Yes, I do the conditioner-only applications, as described by HDS
Yes, I go to bed with conditioner on my hair and rinse it off in the morning.
I am the conditioner queen.
Although, at the moment, I am revelling in ramrod straight hair as I have found a new hairdresser who can make it straight, with serious application of a hairdryer, big brushes and some ceramic straightening thingymabobs.
I know that heat will dry out my hair even more than usual, but I don’t do it all that often and I love the sleek me, even if it makes my SD user name somewhat redundant!!!
That would be me, SanguineSpider. I would prefer to go two weeks without washing my hair than to do it without conditioner. I need conditioner.
As for the conditioning/no shampoo thing, I imagine the conditioner cleans your hair, just more gently than shampoo. I think it’s possible that we don’t need suds to get clean. In fact, has anyone ever used those cleaning creams? (I think Dove makes one.) It’s hard to get used to when you have been using stuff that suds up, but I don’t think it cleans you any less.
Anyway, today I shall bravely try conditioner only and see what happens. (I’m wavy, not truly curly.) I’ll report back on the results.
I’ve been doing conditioner only for a while, and I think it works just fine.
I do, however, need to use a spray-on detangler, or else I’ll be weeping by the time I get all the snarls out.
Once a week I use one of those deep conditioning things that you leave on for about 3 minutes or so. My personal preference is for Pantene.
I had a friend in college who washed her hair (long, straight, blond) about once every three weeks. After three days it looked like a rats nest, despite brushing. After the first week, it was horrible - an ugly brown color, clumped, and rancid smelling. But once she washed it, for the first couple of days, it was incredibly beautiful - because it was so healthly from not being over washed. I really don’t think it was worth it, though.
Add me to the list of people who would never, never, never go more than 36 hours without washing my hair. My hair is oily after 18 hours! At 24 hours I’m glad to be getting into the shower. At 36 hours I can literally feel the oil oozing onto my neck.
When my hair was long and curly I washed it twice a week. (SanguineSpider: I always brushed it before washing it, and never ever when wet, except with my fingers. That seemed to keep the tangles under control.)
Now that it’s short I don’t wash it much. I went for about two weeks until it got really gross, now it’s no more than one shampoo a week, no “repeat.” I wet it in the shower and comb it, though, to distribute the oil. I hope it doesn’t stink - my husband has never said anything, and he’s not one to keep his mouth shut about these kinds of things !
I was inspired by a former roommate who had thick wavy hair similar to mine, who kept it short and never washed it, and it looked fantastic. When I wash it now, it gets feathery and soft and looks really, really stupid. (“I just washed my hair and I can’t do a thing with it!”) It’s more controlled when I don’t wash it.
I bike to work every day and get pretty sweaty under my helmet (and helmet + wooly hat, in this weather).
Durning normal, everyday life, I cannot stand to not wash my hair every day, it is amazing how oily it gets.
However, when I go on backpacking/camping trips, it’s fun to not wash my hair! I let it get all greasy and just cover it up with a bandana and keep it in a braid! I feel so free and one with nature! If it gets wet from lake or river water, it feels so incredibly soft. But when I finally get back to civilization, I feel so nasty. My hair gets so greasy it looks soaking wet. After trips like that, I usually have to shampoo it twice just to get it back to normal. I can’t believe how much oil my scalp produces.
Lord no. If I was going to go to the trouble of powdering my hair to make it appear clean, why wouldn’t I just hop in the shower and wash it?
I think the wash/ no wash thing depends on what type of hair you have – not short v. long, but fine v. thick and (to a lesser extent) straight v. curly. My WAG is that all of us are producing roughly the same amount of oil, and it just is more obvious – way more obvious – if your hair is fine. (Or straight. Or short.)
My hair is all of the above – fine, straight, and short. Very short – pixie-ish, above my ears and off the nape of my neck. I literally will not leave the house without having washed my hair, unless I am wearing a baseball cap. (And I am not one of those chicks who looks all adorable in a baseball cap, so if I have one on, I’m going to the grocery or the gas station and coming right back, no doubt to take a shower.) If I were to add conditioner to it every day, I would be Oil Slick Chick on day 2.
But because my hair is so short and 90% maintenance-free (add mousse or gel; blow dry; if feeling really chi-chi, blow dry using round brush), it’s not like it’s a pain in my ass to wash it daily. Especially after working out, when I want to wash the rest of me anyway. I freely admit I might feel differently if washing/ drying/ styling was a pain in the ass, which I understand it can be for girls with thick curly hair.
Okay, ever since reading this thread, I am on DAY THREE of the condition only method (getting it wet everyday, applying conditioner and NO shampoo). Not oily at all, and the curls are more defined.
I’ve requested the book from the library. I have long, semi-curly hair that I spent 20 years blow drying straight every morning with a big round brush (45 minutes every morning). Letting my hair go curly is a big step for me, lots more freedom. The problem is, parts of my hair make beautiful spiral curls (left side particularly) while other parts, just kinda frizz. I think the no shampoo thing might be helping! The curls are much more even now.
I’m envious of people who can pull off the not-washing-your-hair-every-day thing. I have shoulder length, baby fine straight hair and it starts looking nasty about 12 hours after I wash it, and after 24 hours it clumps together. Oh how I long to be one of those girls who can just get up in the morning, brush their hair, and go! I swear my scalp is like a frickin’ oil factory! That’s actually not horribly suprising, really, because so is my face. I’d try the condition-only thing but I think that’d just make it worse.
Well, my schedule for hair washing varies depending on the time of year: I’ve got lots of fine curly hair, which means that it dries out very easily in the winter.
So, during the winter I usually wash every other day, but condition every day - the days I don’t shampoo, I brush it well to spread the oils along the hair, rinse it with warm (not hot) water, and glob on the conditioner while I soap the rest of me. Then I rinse the conditioner out and style as usual (I don’t normally use a hair dryer, because that tends to dry out my hair even more).
During the summer, I generally don’t condition every day, but I wash a little more often - probably 5/7 days, with conditioner every time I wash. I still rinse it out, even on days that I don’t wash or condition it, and brush it well before hopping in the shower.
This keeps it from getting way to dried out, which just leads to frizzy hair or flyaways for me. But I still have my curls (unless I want to break down and spend an hour blow drying it, and even then I just end up with frizz if there’s any moisture in the air at all.
I wash my hair once a week or so and have for years. It doesn’t get very oily–I think it’s adapted because I don’t strip off the oil every day.
When I say that I don’t wash it I mean that I don’t even get it wet, by the way. I take baths not showers, so this is pretty easy.
Ouisy said,
Abso-fucking-lutely. I don’t go to the mailbox without washing my hair. It’s blonde and fine and straight, and it must be washed daily. I think curly hair is a different animal. Does anyone with straight hair do the conditioner-only thing? I just can’t imagine it.
(returns to fetal position, freaking at the thought of not washing her hair).