How often do you wash your hair?

Shampooing can be a stressful exercise for those with hair loss. It is not uncommon for a hair loss sufferer to have countless strands of hairs in their palms during shampooing. This is because the act of shampooing simply dislodges hairs that are already in their telogen phase (the resting phase). If it isn’t dislodged whilst shampooing, then these hairs will gradually fall out once a new hair pushes it out.   

For those with hair loss, they simply have a higher proportion of hairs in the telogen phase compared to those without hair loss. Shampooing less will not solve have an effect on this.

Shampooing is important; it is the same as washing your face. After all, your scalp is just skin. It contains sweat glands, oil glands (sebaceous glands), dead skin cells plus environmental debris that builds up throughout the day - you wouldn’t want any of these sitting on your skin for too long!

Hair gets greasy just like the skin on your face if not washed for days. Greasy hair can also make your hair appear thinner. A buildup of sebum (oil) produced from the sebaceous glands can also lead to issues such as blocked follicles or dandruff. So, for these reasons we recommend washing your hair every day.

To decrease the rate of hair fall, the solution would not be to shampoo less often (and have an unhygienic scalp!), but to treat your hair loss.  

Conditioning your hair after shampooing is important too. Dry hair develops when your hair doesn’t get or retain enough moisture. This reduces its sheen, can make it appear frizzy and dull, and even cause your hair to become more brittle and break easily. Which is why for thinning hair, retaining as moisture is key to keeping as many hairs on the scalp as possible!

After shampooing, it is also essential that the hair and scalp are well moisturised in order to prevent the overproduction of sebum (oil) which can lead to scalp build up and clogging of the hair follicles.