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How to cut down on shampooing and still use hairstyling products?
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After reading something on this website about how shampooing more than 2 or 3 times a week isn't really good for your hair, and being an everyday shampoo girl myself for my entire life, I've decided I'm going to take the plunge and spend the next few weeks training my scalp to be okay with this major cutback. However, I've tried cutting back before and always go back to shampooing everyday because 1) I must still blow dry and flat iron my wavy hair everyday to get it to look good, and therefore use straightening/heat protection products on it and 2) just warm water rinsing on days I'm not shampooing does not get rid of the product from the previous day. Has anyone discovered a way around this problem? Thanks so much for the help!
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I cut back to shampooing every other day when I started coloring my hair auburn because the color was fading so fast. I wash, condition and blowdry my hair the first day without any styling products. I don't rinse and redry the next day. I use the Matrix Biolage Oil Control Treatment. It doesn't do much appearancewise but it does make it feel less dirty. I style it with a combination blowdryer/curling iron thingy that I got at Trade Secret. If it's being really uncooperative, I use Bumble&Bumble Brilliantine but only if I'm desperate since it makes my hair look limp.
My hair is fine and I find that any leave-in styling products weigh it down too much the next day so I'm best off not using any. I'm not thrilled with my current routine and am considering switching back to a haircolor that I can wash more often. I've been doing this over a year and have never gotten used to the feel of unwashed hair. It doesn't look awful the second day but it doesn't look great either. I'm not sure I want to be a redhead that badly.
I remember the those "I just washed my hair and I can't do a thing with it" ads from when I was a kid. It seems like such bizarre concept. I love the way my hair looks and feels just after it's been washed. It dries so quickly on it's own because it's fine that blowdrying it isn't a big deal. -
I wash my hair & condition it every other day. I still condition and rinse on the days I don't wash. I have to wet it down to get rid of "bed head hair", so I condition it to seal the hair shafts and prevent damage from styling it. The conditioner seems to help get some of the styling products off, but it always feels good to wash it the next day.
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Using a conditioner to wash on days when you are not shampooing can help remove styling product residue.
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You're correct that water alone will remove hair color. It's not because of the pH necessarily (although that has some impact). It's more because water causes the hair fiber to swell up like a sponge. That makes the color molecules inside the hair shaft more mobile and they can then leak out.
A sponge is actually a good model for what is happening. Coloring your hair is like adding detergent to your dish sponge and letting it dry out. The detergent gets locked into the sponge. The next time you get it wet, the detergent is rehydrated, comes to the surface and can get rinsed out.
This is the same type of thing that happens with hair dye. -
Since you do have to wash your hair eventually, is there anything you can do to minimize the color loss? Do the shampoos that claim to "lock in" the color actually do anything? I've always assumed that they don't and pick shampoos based on how they smell.
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Based on some actual (unpublished) testing that I did, there were really no differences between shampoos and their ability to protect color. Some of the color protecting sprays actually work but shampoo brand didn't much matter.
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^^Does coconut oil dissolve hair color in the hair? Maybe there are oil-soluble substances in artificial hair color that dissolves when treating the hair with coconut oil.
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Hm, I wonder if shampooing with cooler water would help prevent the dye from rinsing off. Isn't cool water supposed to make the hair swell less?
Maybe a dry shampoo might be good, too ...
However, speaking as someone who uses henna+indigo and HATES showers that are anything short of scalding, I'm not one to talk. Henna won't fade out even if you threaten it at knifepoint, and I cannot stomach cool water on my head. I tried dry shampoo one time and was horrified to discover that it's ... really not a good idea for very, very, very thick, coarse, wavy hair. I swear to you, I put almost a quarter cup of orris root powder and cornstarch in my hair, and it VANISHED. My hair actually ate it, I swear.
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