My Hair Washing Story: How I Went From Daily Washing To Washing 2-3 Times A Week

Okay you guys. I have to say that I never expected to write this post. I really never did. I was someone who has been washing my hair daily for literally all my life. It’s what I was used to and I didn’t hate it. I am someone who loves the feeling of clean hair and I get really irritated when my hair doesn’t feel clean. I have tried not washing my hair everyday back in my puberty and this went terribly wrong, so I thought it just didn’t work for me. Until I decided to give it another try. This was going to be one last try to see if it really wouldn’t work for me. In today’s post I’m going to tell you guys everything about how I finally stopped washing my hair daily after 21 years. If you’re interested in finding out how I did it and how I managed not to go crazy, keep on reading!

Baby steps

The first big thing that I tried to keep in mind is take baby steps. Like I said I really can’t stand the feeling of ‘un-clean’ hair. I think those who wash their hair daily know what I mean by that. It isn’t dirty at all, but you can tell it hasn’t been washed just by the way it feels. This used to make me cringe so dang hard, that I got kind of addicted to washing it. In order to fight that I decided to first do just one day of not washing and use quite a lot of dry shampoo so it would look and feel nearly as clean as it would when I were to wash it. This really helped for me. This one day my hair felt just as good as it did the first day and I didn’t cringe at all.

But because my hair was still so good looking that day without washing it, I felt the urge to not wash it another day. But I tried to hold myself back from doing that. Because if that was going to be a lot worse, I knew I would get frustrated and stop this whole thing. So instead of not washing it another day, I slowly but surely stopped using dry shampoo on the first day, because it really wasn’t that necessary. I kept doing this for about a month. And this is how I stopped actually washing it daily.

From not washing 1 day, to 2 days

After not washing my hair everyday for a month I felt like it was time to transition to not washing it every other day either. Every other day is still quite a lot and I wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t get used to washing it every other day like I was used to washing it daily. If I were to get used to that so much, the transition to two days would be eve harder. So I did it. I didn’t wash my hair for two days. The first time I did this I was actually quite nervous about it. But to my surprise it still looked pretty decent that second day. I did need to use some dry shampoo, but not too much.

However, the more I did it the more I noticed that sometimes my hair was pretty unmanageable that second day without washing. The main factor in this was whether or not my hair had been in a bun for a couple of days. I also felt like on days I needed to go to work my hair would get more oily afterwards. But it was still okay. Because I had taken baby steps I could deal with this. I’d just use dry shampoo and if it was really bad throw it up in a a bun and I was good to go.

Tips & tricks that helped me

Throughout the time I’ve been doing this I’ve learned some tips and tricks that help me make my hair more manageable when I’m not washing it for two days.

• Don’t sleep with a bun! I know a lot of people do this but for me it doesn’t work. If I do so the next day my hair will be shaped so strangely I have to wear it up.
• Don’t get your hair wet everyday. I feel like getting my hair wet can make it more greasy feeling the next day. However, if you have worn a bun one day and you don’t want to the next day, you can actually make it wet so it’s not crazy the day you want to wear your hair down.
• Use dry shampoo before you go to bed. When you do so, the dry shampoo works way better. Because you move around on  your pillow a lot the dry shampoo really works into your hair and it will result in a clean hairdo in the morning.
• Don’t use too many products in your hair. This is a pretty obvious one, but try to use as little product as possible. All it does is weigh your hair down and make it more greasy.
• Take baths instead of showers. I feel like this makes it easier not to get my hair wet. And I also just love taking baths, it’s so relaxing!

Positive aspects

I never used to see not washing my hair as something positive, but now that I have done it for a longer period of time I have noticed that it actually comes with quite a lot of pro’s!

• It saves sooooo much time. Showering used to take at least 20 minutes for me back when I washed everyday, now it only takes 5 minutes on days when I don’t wash my hair.
• It saves a lot of product. Because you wash less, you need less product. I do think that whenever I do wash my hair I do need a bit more product because my hair is more dirty than it was when I washed it daily, but it still saves a lot of product.
• My hair looks more healthy. I feel like the quality of my hair has improved. It’s much more shiny and it doesn’t break as easily anymore.
• I appreciate washed hair much more now. Whenever I do wash my hair, I feel like a flippin’ hair model now. I love it.

Negative aspects

Like we always say here in the Netherlands: “Every pro comes with a con” and that’s true for this as well. There are certain things that I don’t like about not washing my hair daily.

• I think about it way too much, it takes up a lot of time. It takes so much time in my head to think about when I’m washing it, when I can’t, what plans I have this week and how I’m going to deal with everything.
• Sometimes I can’t wash it after work. For example if I work two days in a row, I can’t be washing it both days. And sometimes I do really feel like it after work because well, sometimes it can get pretty dirty.
• It stresses me out knowing for example that I can’t wash it on Christmas day and that my hair won’t be perfect on Christmas. But well, I survived.

Conclusion

All in all it has been quite the experience for me. I’m really glad that after all this time I finally decided to give not washing my hair daily another chance. I used to think that it just wasn’t possible for me, but it is. It really is, it just took a bit of courage to give it another try. I love how my hair is more healthy now and I love how much time it saves me! It really surprised me how well I actually handled it as well. I expected to go completely crazy because of the cringy feeling I get from unwashed hair, but I totally slayed that. I’m pretty proud of myself to be honest!

And that brings us to the end of today’s post. Thank you so much for reading it and be sure to let me know how often a week you wash your hair and how you handle it!