How often should I wash my hair?
We have all been told to wait four to five days to wash our hair. This is not always true. The correct answer is different for everyone. Lets start with a little fun fact.
“Each hair on our head has a five year life span and then it sheds itself.”
Before you freak out it also regenerates itself. That is often why we have fly always on the top of our head. It does not always mean that your hair is breaking, although for some of us, that is the reason. This is a good thing, it means we are constantly regenerating healthy hair. It is also why we lose around one hundred hairs a day. Now lets see how often each hair type should be washing their hair. I will go over Three specifically, although there are many different types of hair.
Healthy Hair
If you are lucky enough to have healthy hair, so healthy that you tend to get oily the next day, than you can wash your every other day. If you wash everyday you could mess up the pH balance of your hair. We need the oil to protect the cuticle as well as preventing dry, itchy scalp. This can be a blessing and a curse. The constant need to wash you hair due to oil is probably not your favorite thing. You can try only conditioning the ends if your hair gets overly oily the next day. I don’t know about you but I do not like washing my hair because of the blow drying process. Not everyone uses a blow dryer so it might not be an issue for you.
Average Hair
If you have hair that is not totally healthy but not very damaged, this is my favorite place to be. You can go two to three days without washing your hair but you also have the ability to go every other if you choose. This is not the reason I love average hair however. I love it because it tends to do exactly what you want, it still grows at a good rate and it will hold the styles that you want it to hold. I tell my super healthy hair clients, if you are struggling to get your hair to do what you want then you should add a few highlights and damage it up a little. Now don’t go and fry your hair but this is a good place to be at. The reason we want to go every two or three days is to allow the oil that our scalp produces to penetrate the hair strand and rebuild the cuticle.
Damaged Hair
If you are here, don’t cry. It is gonna be okay. Our hair is stronger than we give it credit for. You need to know the science behind hair. Our hair strands are made up of the core, cuticle and this scaly like texture that protects the cuticle. The cuticle protects the core where our hair pigment lies. When we chemically alter our hair by using lightener it breaks down that fish scale like outer later and penetrates the cuticle all the way to the core, so we can alter the pigment within. Where does that leave us, with the need to rebuild the cuticle. The outer layer is gone and it wont be back until we grow a new strand of hair, however we can rebuild the cuticle.
HOW?
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HOW? 〰️
HOW
First what is our hair made up of? Keratin protein! We naturally produce this is our bodies with Biotin. Yup, that why your stylist recommend it. If your hair is damaged, it would be beneficial for you to take Biotin so you can produce enough Keratin protein to have a healthy cuticle. This is not enough however, we need to rebuild the damaged cuticle. If I am gonna help my client do this then I would use the K18 treatments on their hair which are specifically designed to rebuild. I would also tell you to use a keratin oil on your hair. Specifically the ends where you have the most damage.
WHY
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WHY 〰️
Why do the ends have more damage?
Great question, remember earlier when I talked about our scalp producing oil for our hair. Well this is a wonderful thing until you get to about your neck area and further down. These areas are not getting the oil they need like the hair on top of your head but the oil doesn’t hit is as well. This means we need to be adding oil to the ends of our hair.
Catch twenty two, if you are leaving the oil on your scalp for long periods of time. I’m talking weeks at a time you can also cause damage to the hair follicle, remember when I said our hair sheds itself, well if you have caked up oil on your scalp when that strand sheds, the oil can plug the cuticle and that strand will never grow back. This can be a cause of thinning for some.
Conclusion
We all have different types of hair and different habits, just make sure you have the right habits for you to have the hair of your dreams. Thanks for tuning in, till next time…
“...Even the hair on your head are numbered. So don’t be afraid: You are worth more than sparrows.”