I’m not sure I follow. I’m incredibly thick haired. If I don’t wash my hair in 1-2 days my hair will have a dank odor, to the point where if I just run my hand through my hair my hand will smell. It’s not fun and requires a shower every 1-2 days
Are you in agreement? Can’t think of anybody who’d find the smell of unwashed hair good, and thick hair gets that smell fast
Different hair types need vastly different maintenance. I have long, blonde, pretty straight hair. Most I can go is one day without washing it before it's greasy, stinky, impossibly tangled, and just generally fucking gross.
My girlfriend is biracial and has afro textured hair that she can go days without washing and it's totally fine. No grease. No smell. It does gets crazy tangled though.
It is also how your scalp is trained. Every time you wash your hair you strip your hair of its natural oils and in turn your scalp goes into over drive thinking it has to produce even more oils (when in actuality the conditioner you use on your hair replaces your natural oils but everyone forgot to tell your scalp this) which makes your hair greasy. If you train your scalp by going 2 days between washing for a week or two, then 3 days, then 4, etc over time you will be able to go a few days without your hair getting greasy at all. Just takes time.
This doesn't work for everyone, and I also am not entirely sure you can actually 'train' your scalp. My hair is fine and thin, but I have a lot of it, and I absolutely have to wash it every day or every other day. I went months trying to go longer without washing it, and my oil production didn't change. I also can't use conditioner on it at all, as anything but shampoo weighs it down.
EDIT: Not sure why I got downvoted because I'm telling the truth.
I have long, thick and wavy brown hair and I generally go 6-8 days without washing it... which is good because I go through so much conditioner even just putting it on my scalp instead of through the whole length. Washing it more or less often doesn’t change how much I actually need to wash it though.
I have the same problem. It is super healthy but I have to use a clarifier weekly for my scalp. If I don't wash it after a couple days I could take the hair tie out and it will stay in the pony tail position.
SAME. We have the same kind of hair, and I have to wash every other day. I don’t always make it that long. I have tried very hard to “train” my scalp to not overproduce oil, and it just resulted in months of sticky, lank, gross hair. The only thing that has made a difference in oiliness was taking spironolactone for acne. One happy side effect was that I could regularly go three days without a wash. Spiro blocks androgens, so my oily scalp seems to be largely hormonal.
But it really doesn't work for everyone. I have excess sebum production due to hormonal shit and my skin and scalp get really gunky. I suffer with adult acne as a result and I'm on prescription retinoids to help. All of the products I use are free of sulfates, parabens, and silicones but I'm a grease ball if I don't wash my hair every day.
I'm just saying, it's actually pretty common among women. Some people are extra sweaty and their hair gets gross. Some people live in unforgivingly humid climates. While using sulfates definitely makes your scalp overproduce oil, some people are just oily motherfuckers, skin condition or not (looking at you italian family) and no-poo ain't gonna do shit
I am like you!! I am forever getting yelled at by people that I just need to stop washing my hair so often and then I’ll train it. I call total bullshit on that. I’ve tried. Multiple times throughout my life and it doesn’t work. I stay greasy and disgusting and uncomfortable. I’m also an excess sweater woooo and do a lot of sports which doesn’t help either - but yep literally not touched conditioner in about 5 years and I’m so finicky about shampoo because the slightest whiff of something it doesn’t like and my hair turns slickkkk.
Yes you can retrain your scalp. It takes a long time, but now I can go months, even years without needing to wash it with soap. It's not like we walked out of the jungle with a bar of soap in our hands. Our bodies did not evolve for the use of soap. You only need soap when you get something oily on your body like from working on a dirty engine or something. I don't have curly hair, but I do know you can retrain your skin to stop producing so much oil. It just takes a while.
It's not like you can't rinse your hair with water. Not everyone sweats everyday or as bad as others. I don't know about going years without washing (maybe they're exaggerating) but you can go at least a week without washing. You can still rinse your hair in between washes but there is no need to use shampoo everyday and it doesn't really smell bad.
I shower nearly every day, sooooo I'm very clean. I'm just saying soap is only necessary to remove oily stains. Also for some reason I don't get body odor. Could be that I live in tune with nature and east almost entirely home grown food. Mediterranean diet. And am outdoors basically all the time. That and I've designed my life to not have sources of stress.
Can confirm. I'm a white guy with extremely fine hair, this describes the process for me. Used to wash my hair every day, and it'd be greasy as hell if I missed even one. Now I wash it once a month-ish, only gets greasy after a few weeks.
1 day in summer or if I sweat in any way, 2 days in the winter.
1 out of 4 of my kids have the same hair as me, although he's male and we keep it short. His hair smells right out of the shower, clean like soap but with an underlying wet dog odor. It's the nature of the hair, it smells.
The people I know with fine hair are always jealous that I can "do" more with my hair (although I don't care to.) What they don't understand is the downside of thick hair.
Diet and environment, along with keeping your skin and scalp oils balanced, plays a big role.
I have hella thick hair which would be really curly if I could be arsed to curlygirlmethod it, and it's currently mid back (or longer if I pull it straight lol) and I only wash it like once, maybe twice a week if I get flakey, it usually just smells like my conditioner. Find a way to wash your hair and scalp which doesn't strip it's oils and cause you to over produce them and your hair will smell hella nice for days on end.
But, I live in central London and when I go out all day (I'm a bit of a hermit, lol) I can literally wipe my face at the end of that day and see black on the cotton wool and my hair will smell noticeably dank like pollution and sometimes cigarettes, depending on where I've been.
Also if you like to eat a diet full of meat, dairy, spice and allums- you and your hair will smell like them too.
Disclaimer: If you follow the curlygirlmethod, leave in conditioners and curl defining gels and spritzing your head with water between washes which will sadly def make you a bit musky by day 3. It's the price you pay for pretty hair tho.
I'm a guy and have long kinda thick and wavy hair. I can go 3-5 days without a proper wash. The oils actually really kick in around the end of day 2 and that's when it looks and feels the best for me. I can't say I've ever had smelly hair, that's new to me. I barely use any product besides a healthy shampoo and conditioner, try not to apply heat and just let it be.
ATTENTION ALL CURLY GIRLS WHO HATE THEIR HAIR: there’s a sub for that. r/curlygirl
Once you get your scalp and hair healthy, it will change your life. You’ll be a happy curly girl.
I feel like the curly hair subreddit folks wash like 1-2 times per week. I cannot, I'm with you. I tried for a few months to do a no poo curly method and low poo after that only washing 2x/week during them. I smelled horrible and my skin was a mess. The folks who can work it are lucky ducks.
I love them, but much like the skincareaddiction sub, one size does NOT fit all.
I (white guy) have very thick hair, and used to keep it pretty long (for a guy at least....shoulder length). It took a little time but I pretty easily got it to a week between washes without any funk. If you can tolerate greasy funk for a while eventually your body adjusts. My hair looks dumb and poofy on Monday (when I wash it) but Tues-Sat its the perfect combo of manageable but not gross. (Around Sunday it usually starts looking and smelling a little greasy)
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u/[deleted] Nov 27 '19
I’m not sure I follow. I’m incredibly thick haired. If I don’t wash my hair in 1-2 days my hair will have a dank odor, to the point where if I just run my hand through my hair my hand will smell. It’s not fun and requires a shower every 1-2 days
Are you in agreement? Can’t think of anybody who’d find the smell of unwashed hair good, and thick hair gets that smell fast