Shampooing 101
Let’s talk about shampooing your hair. Are you doing it correctly? How often should you do it? What kind of products should you be using? etc… I’ve found that a LOT of my clients were never educated on proper hair washing before coming to me. So here’s some professional advice for all things hair washing:
1) Shampoo your roots, condition your ends
Most people take a huge glob of shampoo and lather all of their hair in it. Not only is this a waste of product, but it also is damaging to the mid shaft and ends of your hair. It can blow the cuticle open which leads to color loss, and also causes dryness. You do not need much shampoo (Nickel size is usually enough) and you only need to shampoo your scalp. When you rinse, the shampoo runs through your ends which is plenty of cleansing. Next condition your ends NOT your whole head. Also, DO NOT skip conditioner. It is vital to closing the cuticle, and adds softness and shine to your hair. Your hair produces enough oils on its own, your scalp does not need conditioner. I recommend, again, a small amount (this is easy to do when using professional product due to it being highly concentrated) and apply it to your mid shaft through your ends. If you must apply some near your scalp, just use what’s leftover on your hands and run them through the top.
2) Do not wash your hair everyday
And let the argument begin. “I have too, I have greasy hair, bla bla bla “ I promise I have heard every excuse under the sun. You have a couple factors that could be contributing to this and a few ways to fix this. Make sure the product you’re using is made for your hair type, and is professional. I have shampoos and conditioners for all different hair and skin types. If you are, then you do what is called training your hair. For a solid month go one more day without washing it than you were. So let's say you shampoo your hair every morning. Instead, at night spray in dry shampoo (YES AT NIGHT) dry shampoo is used wrongly 97% of the time. You spray a decent amount all over your roots before going to bed, and leave it alone. As your scalp produces oil, the dry shampoo absorbs it. In the morning, brush it out, and you can use a little as a refresher. You will see a huge difference with this. The day you add on can always be a hat or pony tail day. What this is doing is showing your scalp to slow down on production of oils because they aren’t being removed as often and it takes about a month for your hair and scalp to regulate. Your scalp makes its own oils and by shampooing too often it begins to produce even more to rebalance itself so it over compensates and produces TOO much. To see more on this visit my general FAQ and scroll down to products.
3) Do not use extremely hot water
Hot water opens your cuticle which causes color fading and frizz. I know us ladies love showers as hot as satan’s breath, but do not wash your hair in this. The final rinse should be in as cool as you can handle. I stand out of the shower stream, turn the temp way down, and stick my head in to rinse my conditioner.
4) Use professional grade product
Okay. This is something I can go on and on and on about. To make a long story short: the health, condition, and color of your hair is all affected by the pH scale. The pH scale measures the alkaline and acidity levels in everything(1 being most acidity level, 7 being “neutral” and 14 being alkaline.). For your color to hold and your hair to be in it’s “happy healthy state” it needs to be acidic (4.5-5.5 to be exact). Drugstore products are all high on the alkaline side. This blows open your cuticle allowing color molecule to escape, causes roughness, and frizz. These are also diluted 98% water (how do you think they can make so much and sell it for so cheap?) So when you’re “cleansing” your hair it is really not getting clean. Guess what makes up the 2%? Waxes, parabens, and sulfates (see below for what these are). So this is what the cycle looks like: You wash your hair, the product makes your hair and scalp freak out because it is trying to rebalance it’s pH so it starts producing oils, this starts making your hair greasy, not only that, you’re loading all of these gunky chemicals onto your hair and scalp. This makes it DIRTIER, clogs follicles that could lead to hair loss, fades your color, gives you dry flaky scalp, and makes your hair feel like the wax that is coating it. So what do you do? Wash it more frequently because it’s “dirty” and you have a never ending cycle of self destruction on your hair. So with ALL of that being said, professional products are pH balanced, and have technology and ingredients to keep your hair happy and healthy. I will write a long post (like this isn’t lol) to further explain this topic specifically.
Now there are some factors that are subject to change these rules. Curly hair should be washed less frequently, shorter hair more frequently, etc… So this is general stuff. For other questions Check out my general FAQ page!