Hair Washing: Frequent vs. Infrequent

itismehmmkay

Well-Known Member
Got this from another site:

You may be tempted to wash your hair frequently, but the oil glands on your scalp are actually stimulated by massage so the more you wash your hair, the greasier your scalp becomes.


I think this is a notion that may be already accepted her on the site. It appears as if frequent washing causes the scalp to produce more oils, which nourishes the follicule (sp?), thereby causing increased growth.

Sounds like this could be done in the same form of infrequent washing w/ added oil to the scalp (but not often so as to not to clog the follicule itself) or just scalp massages.

I think the advantage of infrequent washing is that it can aid in keeping not only the scalp nourished w/ oils, but also the hair itself. Sometimes, I think the hair can suffer due to frequent washings if one is not careful to actually moisturized the hair which is usually in the form of protective styling (buns, braids, twists, etc.)


Any thoughts?
 
I have to disagree with the notion that frequent washing makes the hair greasier. I think it assumes that all people produce a lot of oil all the time, which is not true. My scalp hardly produces any oil regardless of how often I wash it.

I am just speaking for myself, but infrequent washings would actually hurt my growth retention because I would just put it in a protective style and do nothing. When I wash frequently, I am actually more aware that I have to moisturize it.
 
Yeah, I don't think frequent washing makes your hair greasier. I've tried daily washing and know for a fact it doesn't make my hair nor scalp greasier. However, infrequent washing makes my scalp greasier.
 
Poohbear said:
Yeah, I don't think frequent washing makes your hair greasier. I've tried daily washing and know for a fact it doesn't make my hair nor scalp greasier. However, infrequent washing makes my scalp greasier.


ITA! If the theory stated were true, why shampoo your hair? Just massage it dry and you should "awaken' the oils that the quote speaks of. The scalp is skin, like everything else and each one of us produce various amounts of oils, not the same amount. My hair gets greasier the longer I go w/o shampooing it.
 
I think people who don't have naturally oily hair won't notice this as much, especially if they already use grease or moisturizers or whatever directly on their scalps (which may inhibit natural oil production to some degree).

My scalp definitely started producing more oil when I started washing it more. I don't have overly oily hair so this is actually a good thing for me. It means I don't need to add as much "3rd party" oil to my hair :lol:
 
BlackCardinal said:
I think people who don't have naturally oily hair won't notice this as much, especially if they already use grease or moisturizers or whatever directly on their scalps (which may inhibit natural oil production to some degree).

My scalp definitely started producing more oil when I started washing it more. I don't have overly oily hair so this is actually a good thing for me. It means I don't need to add as much "3rd party" oil to my hair :lol:
Agreed. When I tried washing my hair every day, every other day, or used shampoo too often, my scalp would produce more oil to compensate for being overstripped. It is similar to overcleansing the face, forcing the oil glands to produce more oil in return. It usually takes my scalp two weeks to return to normal oil production after I go back to twice weekly washings.
 
Interesting... I guess some experience more oil production with frequent washing and some do not experience more oil production with frequent washing. So it goes both ways!!! :)
 
itismehmmkay said:
Got this from another site:




I think this is a notion that may be already accepted her on the site. It appears as if frequent washing causes the scalp to produce more oils, which nourishes the follicule (sp?), thereby causing increased growth.

Sounds like this could be done in the same form of infrequent washing w/ added oil to the scalp (but not often so as to not to clog the follicule itself) or just scalp massages.

I think the advantage of infrequent washing is that it can aid in keeping not only the scalp nourished w/ oils, but also the hair itself. Sometimes, I think the hair can suffer due to frequent washings if one is not careful to actually moisturized the hair which is usually in the form of protective styling (buns, braids, twists, etc.)


Any thoughts?

IMO I think this statement is meant for the ladies of other races. Like white people's hair produce oil. This is why most of them wash so much. Their hair gets oily. Most of our hair doesnt do this.
 
Letitia said:
IMO I think this statement is meant for the ladies of other races. Like white people's hair produce oil. This is why most of them wash so much. Their hair gets oily. Most of our hair doesnt do this.

Exactly. On LHC, the ladies have to "train" their scalps for infrequent washing.
 
I agree that maybe the hair itself doesn't get oily, but the scalp compensates by producing more oil. It's still a scalp vs. hair thing going on. The same theory applies w/ skin, especially face washes.

Also, I definetly think washing is still necessary... :yep: just not as often, unless you're more than able to compensate for your hair's loss of moisture, which I definitely think some of the ladies have, but not all.
 
You may be tempted to wash your hair frequently, but the oil glands on your scalp are actually stimulated by massage so the more you wash your hair, the greasier your scalp becomes.

I agree with this statement when I did wash everyday and when I would skip a day my scalp would be very oily. So I thought I had to wash daily.

Now I wash twice weekly and it took a while to get use to it. And my scalp is supper oily, but thats ok.
 
Hmm. From experience of washing weekly, bi weekly (and sometimes longer :look: ) my scalp and hair would be very dry. Once I began washing more frequently, my scalp and hair were more moisturized. Of course washing more frequently meant I was moisturizing with 3rd parties just as often, so I'm not sure whether it was my scalp producing more oil or not.

I do know that if frequent washing makes the scalp produce more oils, I'm all for it because I need the extra.
 
Back
Top