If you’re anything like me, every time you take a shower you wash your hair. But as you lather your hair for the fifth time that week, do you ever wonder what exactly the shampoo is doing to your hair? How many times do you actually need to shampoo and if you over shampoo, what are the consequences?
Shampoo is humanities way to washing our hair. It contains Cocamidopropyl Betaine, which is a foaming agent, Sodium Chloride, salt to thicken the shampoo, and Citric Acid, to lower the pH balance. Each one of these cause no harm to your body and are there for product purposes. However, with the good comes the bad. Shampoos also contains Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, which is a chemical that strips natural oils and protein from your hair, Formaldehyde, which could potentially cause hair loss, and Synthetic Fragrance or Parfum, that can cause irritation to the scalp. With all of this in mind, how much shampooing should you be doing?
WebMD says that only a “small group of people need to shampoo daily, those who exercise a lot, with fine hair or living in a humid place.” So if you think about it, you don’t need to wash your hair everyday. We have oils on our scalp that keep our hair healthy and the more we wash with shampoo, the less oils we have. That means we must only need to shampoo every couple days. Dermatologist Paradi Mirmirani says that the answer is different for everyone and it depends on your skin type, hair texture, and styling. Your circumstance will determine how often you need to wash your hair.
The extreme consequences of shampooing could be hair loss, hair thinning and scalp damage. But normally, if you over wash your hair, it could lead to dryness and striping natural oils. I think that we as humans are into this idea of shampooing everyday to make ourselves clean. But naturally that is not the case. Shampooing every couple days is the safe way to go.
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Your post provided me with valuable information because people always tell me that I don’t need to wash my hair everyday, it might be harmful, and it’s not necessary. However, I never knew why they said this, and was always too lazy to look it up. I find myself taking more than one shower a day in college and end up washing my hair every time, now that I know I don’t need to do this, and will prevent potential hair loss, I will change my ways! I enjoyed reading this, well done. You might want to look at this TIME article talking about washing your hair everyday: http://time.com/4044984/dandruff-shampoo-hair-products/
Thanks for sharing.
I was very intrigued about your post. I too wash my hair everyday. I have notices over about the last 5 years that my hair has got a lot thinner. Freshman year of high school I had very thick and frizzy hair, now I have thin and a little wavy hair. I have always wondered why my hair was thinning out. This article could be the answer. I never thought something that is so hygienic could be so harmful. After this article, I will not wash my hair everyday!
I’ve actually heard about this before, in middle school when I had the most god awful frizz-ball hair ever. Thankfully, I got it under control. A thing I learned from my hair stylist is if you do have to shampoo everyday, you can use after products to restore oils your hair needs. I like using coconut milk, argan oil and It’s a Ten. (Just saying It’s a Ten, is literally perfect). So that’s a safe way to wash your hair and keep it healthy as well!
Hi, I am dongyuan Li. I start losing my hair crazly since I came here. I wonder why and your blog answered my problem to some extent. My hair is nor thick, and I used loose a lot hair once I wash it back in my home town. Things becomes sever after I came here. I think I couldn’t use shampoo to wash my hair too often. Thanks for your blog, I think I will choose shampoo wisely.
This really interests me because I always heard that it’s not good to wash your hair everyday but I never knew why. Growing up my hair use to get greasy after one day of not washing it but now I can go a couple days before it starts to thin out and I need to wash it. I think it’s interesting how our hair changes over the years. When I came to Penn State, I found out they have hard water (contains dissolved minerals) compared to soft water (what I have at my house) which caused my hair to be extremely knotty after washing it. I ended up having to go out and buy ion hard water shampoo which helps prevent the build up of the minerals in the water. I never would have thought that different kind of water would affect my hair as much as it did.
I have a problem with shampooing everyday, so I was drawn into this post! I have heard that it could be bad for you, but I never realized that it could cause hair loss and scalp irritation. Now I just have to find away to avoid sweating in the heat to be able to avoid washing my hair. I will definitely start washing my hair every other day and try to protect it!
I was really interested in reading this because I hear a lot that you shouldn’t wash your hair every day, but I never believed it. Your post finally gave me the exact reasons I have been looking for. It was also really helpful in the fact that you listed some certain circumstances like your hair type, level of activity, and skin type, to really help me understand what I should do for my hair.
I really liked your topic because it was different from the other posts. I find the claims that you make in it very true because I have a pixie and my hair can feel too oily if I shampoo everyday. So washing every other day is what I do. I knew what would happen, but I never knew the chemicals in shampoo that are positive and negative to our hair.
Great subject! I was especially interested in this topic because I have been struggling with this for so long. From my own experience, I have realized the more I wash my hair the greaser it gets. I have tried every single thing and nothing has worked. Ive also seen that if someone washes their hair to frequently it can effect their skin. The shampoo can seep through a person’s scalp and cause dryness and also acne. So, watch out!
Good topic! Since I have been at Penn State, I have taken usually two showers a day, and naturally washed my hair. Before I came to PSU I did wash my hair once a day as well. In your blog, you wrote, “WebMD says that only a ‘small group of people need to shampoo daily, those who exercise a lot, with fine hair or living in a humid place.’” Here at PSU, I believe I qualify for a person living in a humid place, especially in these dorms, but by reading your post I learned to not wash it twice due to the Sodium Lauryl Sulfate in the shampoo!
I really enjoyed reading your post, and found some reassurance in reading that I am doing things right as I wash my hair every other day. That being said, it still kind of freaks me out that there are so many harmful affects that come from a necessity the human population relies on… After reading your post I looked into it and found more interesting facts about shampoo that you may be interested in! http://www.webmd.com/beauty/shampoo/how-often-wash-hair