And speaking of the scalp, keeping your scalp clean is an incredibly important factor in hair growth, as Jennifer Korab, hairstylist and colorist educator with Pureology, explains. “Washing your hair regularly promotes hair growth. This is because hair washing involves gentle scalp massaging which stimulates the hair roots and increases blood flow to your hair.”
Signs You Need to Wash Your Hair
After a few days of product, sweat, and grime, your hair is going to start looking and feeling a little worse for wear. When is it time to bust out the shampoo? “Some signs to wash the hair are when the scalp becomes itchy, the hair appears oily, there is flaking or visible buildup,” Dr. Garshick explains.
And as gross as it sounds, you want to watch out for smell, too. Dr. Camp told us if you notice a smell coming from your scalp or hair, that’s a pretty good sign that you need to wash your hair. And scarily enough, “bacteria and yeast accumulate on our scalp and hair and can produce an odor as a result of breaking down naturally secreted oils on the scalp.”
How Often You Should Wash Your Hair
We’d love to make it easy, but there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to how often you should wash your hair. “I would recommend every two to three days as a general rule. This can differ by hairstyle and texture,” adds Korab. And as she mentioned, your hair type and texture plays a huge role.
Hair Type
Straight Hair
Depending on how oily your scalp is, you can wash straight hair every three days or so. “Those with oily hair or dandruff may find that it is important to wash more frequently, while those with dry or thicker hair may not need to do it as often,” adds Dr. Garshick.
Curly Hair
If you have curly hair, you might find that you don’t need to wash your hair as often as your straight-haired counterparts, since it tends to not get oily as easily. Of course, if you have fine, curly hair, you might find you need to wash every three to four days. “Curly hair tends to be more amenable to less frequent washing because it tends to be drier than straight hair,” Dr. Camp adds. “It is thought that it is more difficult for oils to coat the length of curly hair than straight hair.”
Coily Hair
Coily hair can be washed less frequently than both straight and curly types. Like we mentioned earlier with curly hair, coily hair also tends to be drier. Frequent washing with this hair type might result in incredibly dry hair, so it’s best to wash once a week at most.
Hair Texture
Fine
Dr. Camp explains that people with fine hair might feel the need to wash once a day or every other day, since fine hair usually shows greasiness much sooner than other hair types.
Medium
If you have medium-textured hair, you can wash when you feel like your hair starts to get greasy. “Those with oily hair or dandruff may find that it is important to wash more frequently, while those with dry or thicker hair may not need to do it as often,” explains Dr. Garshick.
Coarse
Dr. Garshick and Dr. Camp both explain that the thicker and coarser your hair is, the less you need to wash it. Depending on how active you are and how clean you like your scalp to feel, you’ll want to wash coarse hair textures every four to seven days, or whenever you feel like you too much extra buildup (one word as opposed to two) and oil.
