Note: The methods I use to train my hair may not work for everyone, this is based on my personal experience.
If you’re like me, you’d wash your hair every other day without fail. I hated the feeling of letting my hair get too greasy, so I would wash it as soon as the grease started. Since coming to college, I’ve noticed that the hard water has been causing my scalp to be very dry, which then caused my hair to secrete more oils. It just kept getting worse until my hair washes barely lasted a day. I decided to make a change after talking to girls in my class on how they trained their hair to wash it less.
Why you should do it!
There are many benefits to hair training, but the biggest one for me is the convenience. I went from washing my hair 3-4 times a week, to now, washing it twice a week. It may not seem like a lot, but it takes a lot of time to wash, style, and dry my hair, even if it’s just a few times a week less.
After a little time of hair training, your scalp will stop overproducing oils, and will overall make your scalp healthier. Washing your hair dries out your scalp, which leads it to overproduce oils to counteract the wash. After a little while of not washing as frequently, your scalp will get used to the new routine, and start producing less oils.
Another benefit is saving money. Good shampoo and conditioner can cost a lot, and by washing your hair less, you will end up using less products. If you cut your wash days in half, your products will last twice as long, cutting your spending in half.
How to: tips and tricks!
Start by adding an extra day in between your washes, and if you don’t think this is manageable, then add an extra day between every other wash. Once you start to get comfortable with that add, another day. So, at this point, if you were washing your hair every day, you hopefully should now be washing every 3 days. You can stop here, or keep extending out, whatever you are most comfortable with. I suggest trying to get down to once or twice a week, but if that is not reasonable for you, stick to every 3 days.
- When washing your hair, make sure you lather well and really get into your scalp.
- When conditioning only do from your mid-neck down to prevent excess grease in your hair around your scalp.
- If it’s not a wash day, but you feel like you need to wash your hair, just rinse it.
- If you have thinner/straight hair, it might be harder to train your hair because the grease will show easier, but dry shampoo will be your best friend.
- If you go to the gym, coordinate a schedule that matches with wash days. I wash my hair on Mondays and Fridays, and those are the days I tend to do cardio at the gym because I know I’ll be sweaty.
- Wear your hair up more to prevent touching it and making it greasy with the oils from the hands.
- On wash day (if you wash at night like me) wear your hair up in a bun, wear a hat, or use gel and try the slick back ponytail to hide the fact your hair is greasy.
These are just the tips I follow, and they have worked very well for me! If you’re not seeing results after about 2-3 weeks, I would add more wash days in. Every hair type is different so play around with it and see what works best for you!