How Often Should You Wash Your Hair?

Most people have the misconception that washing hair daily keeps it healthy. While the scalp secretes natural oil to lubricate its strands, excess cleansing would make it dry, triggering hair loss. Washing your hair keeps a check on dead skin buildup (dandruff), cleanses clogged pores, and prevents microorganisms from acting on it.

Wash your hair to nourish and hydrate the scalp. Clean scalp proliferates hair strands towards growth, but excessive washing can leave it dry (devoid of natural hair oil). This article sheds light on how often to wash hair, factors influencing them, and practicing the correct method to hydrate your skull vegetation.

Washing your hair is indispensable to hygiene. It's a general practice to wash your hair daily while taking a bath, but it isn't beneficial for all. How often to wash hair depends on your hair type, pattern, length, climate, and lifestyle.

Working outside under humid conditions with long and thick hair strands, wash your hair daily to cleanse dirt and oil stacking on the scalp. A short-haired person with a desk job staying in pleasant climatic conditions can wash their hair 2-3 times/week.

As per dermatologists, how often to wash hair varies according to your hair length, texture, volume, lifestyle, scalp, and climatic conditions.

Hair length

Long-haired folks suffer from split ends, frizzy strands, trapping pollutants along the length. It makes them susceptible to hair loss without adequate washing of hair.

Hair texture

Curly hair protects the scalp from harmful UV radiation, but it attracts more dirt than straight hair. Clogged pores, dandruff accumulations require regular washing with a mild shampoo.

Hair volume

Thick hair strands look beautiful, adding wholeness to your hair. It's more at risk to get dirty, becoming sticky, leading to scalp infections triggering hair shedding. Regular washing of hair is mandatory to preserve hair volume to prevent thinning from gradual shedding.

Lifestyle

People suffering from scalp infections, serial smokers and alcoholics, working outside need to prioritize hair care. Dirt-filled scalp, irregular hormones, excess stress make hair worse, leading to premature shedding and baldness.

It's vital to abstain from substance abuse while practising adequate measures (covering the hair) besides washing your hair daily.

Scalp

People having oily scalps should wash their hair more than folks with dry scalp. While oily scalp means your hair stays lubricated all the time, it turns into a problem if not cleaned regularly. It leads to clogging of pores and makes hair follicles sensitive to infection. Apply a mild shampoo to keep your oily scalp under check.

Climate

Those staying in equatorial and tropical regions (like India) have to wash their hair to counter dandruff issues, keep the scalp clean, and prevent hair follicles from shedding because of clogged pores.

Learn the correct practice on how often to wash hair:

• Wash your hair under lukewarm water (scalp is sensitive to temperature)
• Use your fingers to massage the scalp when washing your hair
• Use a herbal shampoo (contains natural ingredients best suited for hair)
• Take shampoo, dilute with water, and apply on the scalp
• Massage using fingertips and let it spread from the root towards the tip (enhances blood circulation in the scalp)
• While conditioning, apply along the hair strands
• Apply homemade hair masks to your hair (natural moisturizer for the scalp)
• Apply oil to your hair after drying (enhances the moisturizing effect)
• Comb your hair after washing (it prevents hair entanglement)
• Pat your hair and wrap a towel to let it dry

Rash washing your hair triggers hair loss and leaves the scalp dry. Here's how often to wash hair and what to avoid:

• Abstain washing your hair under hard water
• No washing your hair under extreme water temperature
• Never rinse your hair while washing
• Say no to daily shampooing
• Leaving your shampoo for long harms the scalp
• Don't apply conditioner directly to your scalp
• Don't rub your hair to dry

Washing your hair daily influences the overall health of the scalp and hair strands. While thick hair requires daily wash to prevent clogging of pores, don't wash thin hair over 2-3 times/week. Use lukewarm water to wash your hair and prefer a mild shampoo that won't affect the natural pH of the scalp.

Remember, beautiful hair is an amalgamation of hair care, washing, and grooming to keep your hair smiling all day.