Less frequent washing might be your best beauty move.
Beauty draws us with a single hair. --Alexander Pope
It’s our crowning glory. Yet, in our pursuit of conquering the unruly, straightening the tightly curled, curling the poker straight and tinting the color, our hair is repeatedly abused with countless chemicals, and stripped of its natural oils—and both are washed down the drain by gallon after gallon of water. As women begin to update beauty routines with natural and organic products, hair salons are reporting a backward shift to an approach popular during the Eisenhower administration: weekly wash and set appointments.
Jeffrey Lyle at Boston’s Emerge Spa and Salon suggests outsourcing your shampoo to a professional adds both convenience and allure; “When it’s a little dirty, it actually looks smoother and shinier.”
When Sydney-based radio host Richard Glover interviewed Times of London columnist Matthew Parris, who hasn’t shampooed for more than a decade, “so many people called saying that they wanted to try it, too,” recalled Glover. He challenged his audience to go without shampoo for six weeks. Eighty-six percent of the over 500 participants who reported results said their hair was either better or the same. One participant, Emma Rowles, 22, blamed her former “itchy scalp” on shampoo and announced: “There’s no way I will ever let a drop of shampoo anywhere near my head again.” Rowles’s results were not uncommon. Once Glover's listeners stopped shampooing so often, participants reported dry hair became normal, straight hair took on a flattering wave, scaly scalps were soothed, and oiliness subsided.
Let’s review the key reasons to wash your hair less frequently (or, for the brave few, not at all):
- Waste and expense
a. most use way too much shampoo and conditioner, too often
b. gallons of water to rinse it out
c. more bottles of product mean more packaging waste
d. less power used for blow dryers, curling irons and/or flat irons -
Allowing the scalp's sebaceous glands to do what nature intended
The function of sebaceous gland is to secrete an oily substance to protect the skin from getting dried and scaly. Otherwise the skin after getting dry would shed off. - To enhance each individual's inherent beauty
What if the hair products marketed for these issues—which often cost a pretty penny---are actually the culprit and not the remedy? Is a 6-week sabbatical from washing going to reintroduce our hair to its natural self, and, more importantly, will we fall in love with it?
As Hubert de Givenchy wrote for Vogue (1985), “Hair style is the final tip-off whether or not a woman really knows herself.” Perhaps it’s time begin working with, instead of against, what we were born with.
For more info: Not ready to give up washing altogether? Consider a weekly beauty ritual of washing and styling, with an environmentally- and skin-friendly organic shampoo and/or conditioner. Additionally, try a natural dry shampoo between washes to keep your locks under control.
Click here for a comprehensive list of top-selling natural and organic hair products, tips for doing your own scalp massage, and more!
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