The definitive test to show how often YOU should WASH your hair
(And you’ll be amazed by the results)
The broadcaster emily Maitlis recently revealed that she often leaves a week between hair washes, saying that ‘unwashed hair looks better on camera’.
And she’s not alone in avoiding the wash every day routine. Swathes of women insist that their hair looks better the day it’s been washed. Need evidence of this? L’Oreal Professionnel brought out a texturising spray called Next Day hair to help give newly washed hair that day-after look.
Surely it’s horses for courses? To a point, perhaps. But don’t believe anyone who tells you that if you don’t wash your hair it will clean itself. Can you think of any other part of your body — or anything for that matter — that cleans itself when you don’t wash it? exactly.
And, as Annabel Kingsley, trichologist at the Philip Kingsley Clinic points out, ‘dead skin cells on your arm get brushed off as you put
clothes on and take them off, but dead scalp cells just get stuck in hair and have nowhere to go’. not a nice thought.
But even when it comes to the professionals, opinion is just as divided as among us amateurs — some experts say you need to wash your hair daily, while others insist over-washing dries hair out, making it hard to style.
So what’s the truth? How often should you be washing your hair?
Part of it is down to personal choice. ‘Some clients love the feeling of freshly washed hair,’ says Zoe Irwin, creative director at John Frieda. ‘But very often, the best hair is hair that’s been blow-dried the night before and slept on. It just needs a bit of a settling-down period.’
Zoe says that she has started to see a trend where some clients come for a weekly wash and blow-dry — as they might have done several decades ago — and eke that out for the week. This tendency has been driven by huge improvements in styling products, and increased usage of them — just think how ubiquitous dry shampoo has become compared to just ten years ago.
However, even if you can’t justify the splurge on a professional weekly styling, you’re probably not washing your hair every day. ‘Most people don’t have time to wash and blow-dry daily,’ says Zoe. ‘So maybe they’ll blow- dry and add texture with a spray or cream on day one, then add to that texture with other styling products on day two, and then on day three create an undone chignon, or a braid.’
But when it comes to keeping your hair and scalp in tip-top condition, there are multiple factors — from your natural hair colour and texture, to your age and stress levels — that can have an impact on how often you should wash.
Read on to find out more, and take our quiz to discover your personal perfect wash schedule…