Having grown up playing sports and thinking that there was absolutely no way I could go more than two days without washing my hair, I often kept finding excuses thinking that it needed to look freshly washed to look good. During my freshmen year of college, I got my hair permed, which was awesome, because one of the side effects was that my hair did not need to be washed as often. The different texture and me wanting to preserve the perm meant that I no longer was dreading the day after washing it because my hair did not come off as dirty and oily to me. Since that has grown out, I wanted to challenge myself to consistently wash my hair less. Now, I am able to go up to four days in between washes, and here are some of the things that have worked for me!
When I was still in high school, I usually would use the dry shampoos that my mom decided she did not like and did not go out of my way to look for ones that would do well for my hair. A brand that I now love to use is Batiste. They have many different options including different scents, different dry shampoos for different hair types, and ones with different tints for darker hair colors. Even though my hair is dark brown, I use the clean and light version because I really enjoy the lightly fragmented smell, and it is not hard for it to blend into my hair. I found that using it the night before when I go to sleep would also help it absorb into my roots and that way, I usually could go straight to styling it in the morning. Having the dry shampoo is my hair also made it easier to style when braiding or wanting to look sleek in a ponytail. Adding a little to hair even on a cleaner day can help restore some volume.
I like having something to fiddle with especially when trying to do something that involves listening, and usually that meant I would end up playing with my hair. I notice that throughout the day I was constantly touching it, running it through my fingers, flipping it around. Part of this was because to me my stick-straight hair needed to be moved with my fingers as an attempt to get some volume into it. I started carrying things with me to fiddle with or would try to only play with the ends of my hair, so I was not constantly disrupting the roots or accidentally tangling it.
In addition to needing to stop touching my hair, finding hairstyles that would last me throughout the day was something essentially to getting me to train my hair better in between washes. One of the easiest styles was doing two French braids. It was perfect for work, helped minimize the look of oiliness, and it meant that I was removing it as an option to fidget with. I have started doing this on the days that I really was starting to feel “meh” about my hair and it has helped make that last day really pull through without feeling worried about the look of my hair.
Some of the things I have really enjoyed about this experience are that I feel like I am better able to plan out my days, and it has significantly cut down on my shower and post-shower getting ready times. I choose to air-dry my hair and it can take up to several hours, but if I am only doing it about twice a week it doesn’t feel like such a big chunk of time in my overall schedule. The process definitely takes time, but it is something that I feel can really be beneficial to your hair. The days I do wash it I feel like I do not lose usually as much hair in the shower, and it looks cleaner for longer. It was definitely worth the wait and effort for me!