Washing your hair too much?

This week I washed my hair 3x this week. This is out of character or me buy my hair felt dry and icky . I washed 2x this week with shampoo and co-washed 1x this week. I thick what spurred this was an outbreak of lice where I work(work with kids) and it has my feeling just nasty and I want to have my hair super clean. Now I am relaxed so this makes it more of an hinderance because of the manipulation. I just despise dandruff flakes which to me remind me of lice (sorry i know this sounds nuts) and I want my hair to smell good. I 'm probably overreacting but hey its my hair.

I don't follow any rules when it comes to how often I wash my hair. If I feel like washing once a week or several times a week, I do.

Just make sure you are moisturizing and you should be fine.

levette said:

I just despise dandruff flakes which to me remind me of lice (sorry i know this sounds nuts) and I want my hair to smell good. I 'm probably overreacting but hey its my hair.

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Grease or oil your scalp at night before you go to bed. Doing so will prevent the dandruff flakes, kills bacteria, and provides moisture to the scalp which in turns promotes hair growth.

I wash 2-3 a week. My hair does better when I do it that way. If I wait over a week, I will have problems.

ag00 said:

Grease or oil your scalp at night before you go to bed. Doing so will prevent the dandruff flakes, kills bacteria, and provides moisture to the scalp which in turns promotes hair growth.

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That is not correct, grease/oil does not kill bacteria, and in fact it can actually provide an environment that nourishes bacteria and encourages bacterial growth, with the exception of mineral oil which is non-nourishing. Additionally, grease and oil are not moisturizers, they are lubricants.

Sorry to skew the thread OP.

The only time I have a reason to wash 3+ times per week is when I'm on vacation where I'm swimming or at the beach a lot. With that I mean washing with shampoo.

I have way too much hair to wash more times than I actually need to & it causes way too much manipulation for me to do that on a regular basis.

I can wet my hair everyday without issues.

Wetting and washing are two different things. I believe that anything that causes over manipulation during the washing/wetting period can do harm to your hair if you do it too many times per week.

Wetting to me is just getting under the shower for a few minutes one or more times a week and then holding in the moisture with a leave in afterwards. I do a lot of that but will do a co wash in the middle of the week when my hair feels a bit dry. And when I do a leave in, I realise that I need to wait for my hair to dry to damp so that it is not too much manipulation when I put my leave ins.

Washing which implies a shampoo and conditioner or a co-wash, can do some wear and tear on your hair if done too frequently under the shower head water for too long a period of time.

I personally think as long as you are gentle with your hair you can use water to help bring more moisture to your hair. One just has to keep in mind issues like frequency, how many minutes, water temperature, detangling method, detangling tools, how you manage your hair when it is sopping wet and your products (shampoo and conditioner).

If your hair feels sticky or dirty, I think a good water rinse can help. I have myself washed my hair with a light shampoo everyday when I am in West Africa and it is very hot. But I realize that that works much better when your hair is shorter.

Best,
Almond Eyes

I wash my hair twice a week. Sometimes it's one shampoo and one cowash. Others, it's two shampoos. If at any point during the week I need to wet my hair outside of those two times, it gets a quick cowash. Basically, I don't follow in rules in regards to washing my hair other than the fact that it gets washed at least twice a week. My scalp suffers otherwise.

I really think that this is just an individual thing, so as long as your hair and scalp like it, there's nothing wrong with frequent washing (or not).

Wash as much as you want, just don't use a drying shampoo. Like you said it's your hair. Personally, 3x a week is too much for MY hair ... it's just too much work. Especially in the winter. In the summer tho? It's game on!

I just washed my hair Wednesday. I want to wash and dc again tomorrow. My hair is in need of a protein treatment. I will be washing every few days until my hair gets balanced again.

If my hair is dry I will for sure give it a good dc even 2x a week but as for shampoo? *insert chief keef meme* nah.
As long as your hair is healthy, lady love do you!

well my hair seems to be doing okay… i have just been feeling a bit obsessed about washing my hair more often lately. It seems to me now that 1x a week for shampooing is just not enough for my scalp and hair.

I wash my hair several times per week. If I don't, my hair looks dull. It gets weighed down easily and becomes flat, limp, dried-out and ick looking.

I make sure to deep condition after every.single.wash.

I like fluffy, clean hair with stimulated scalp.

The downside is that I spend a lot of time on my hair. I don't mind since it's my hair and my time. At this point, my hair seems to prefer it...meaning it behaves the way I want it to.

Also, I workout and sweat in it. Washing often is a must. I cowash on occasion, but prefer sulfate free suds.

There are weeks when I wash everyday. Those "dog days of summer" when the temps remain high consistently and I begin sticking to myself require almost daily hair washing.
you have to do what feels good for YOUR hair. Hair rules are generalizations that you can tailor to meet your own hair needs.

If it works for you OP continue.
When I was relaxed, my happy medium was def a 2x/week wash. Now that I think of it, rarely did I usually wait a full 7 days to wash my hair. When I first joined the hair board, I'd co wash or a light poo wash mid week or co wash a few times a week in the summertime. My hair and scalp were soooooo happy.

For some reason, as a natural I don't have such an overwhelming urge to wash as frequently -- could be it's more time consuming lol, and also my hair and scalp don't feel as flat and heavy. But when I get my natural hair flat ironed, boyyyy by mid week and hair and scalp look forward to a good wash.

claud-uk said:

That is not correct, grease/oil does not kill bacteria, and in fact it can actually provide an environment that nourishes bacteria and encourages bacterial growth, with the exception of mineral oil which is non-nourishing. Additionally, grease and oil are not moisturizers, they are lubricants.

Sorry to skew the thread OP.

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Greasing the scalp can provide for a less than optimal environment for lice to attach to the scalp, so it may be beneficial in the OPs case.

When I was relaxed i roller setted and flat ironed on wash days and that was a long process so I would only do it 1x a week. But I don't feel as though it's damaging as long as your hair is getting what it needs