I go seven days without washing my hair on the regular. During this post I even had a residency interview, and had no worries about my hair. Before you gasp and judge my hair dirtiness, let me explain a few reasons why I've been training my hair to go seven days in between washes.
1) My color lasts longer.
I've spent a pretty penny on my balayage, toner treatments, and re-lightening. I love my hair color, and allowing my toner and brunette coloring to not diminish quickly is a priority of mine. It saves me money when I lengthen the time between appointments.
2) I don't need to strip my hairs natural oils.
Allowing me to brush through my "dirty" hair every day disperses the natural oils my hair makes. My hair keeps shine, and will have less split ends (because the dry brittle ends are moisturized). The blonde ends were bleached (twice) and keeping them oiled up is helpful to prevent breakage. Less damage.
3) It makes it easier to style, especially tease and hold curl.
As you'll see in the photos, my hair holds curl the entire week and typically only requires 1-2 curling iron exposure a week.
4) Less heat exposure with styling and less time in the morning.
See above, but less curling iron use, less blow dry use, less time in the morning, and less damage.
Ready to give it a try but worried you'll be a greasy mess? A few months ago I began by washing it twice a week for a couple weeks and then went straight to once per week. I'll be honest, jumping from twice weekly washings to only once made my hair pretty greasy by the end, until I got used to it. I recommend going twice a week and then to every five days, before stretching it to seven.
I've been washing my hair once per week for three months, and my hair has adapted, and I've required less "maintenance" products to cut the grease as I needed early on. If you are a newbie you'll have to adjust your dry shampoo usage, requiring more (if not everyday) than I do now. For reference, I went through one bottle in about 1.5 months in the beginning, but now do not require much spraying when I use it. And yes, you can still work out.
What you'll need:
dry shampoo (also love more affordable ones here and here) // lightweight hair spray (cheaper @ drug store)
optional - but I always use - texture spray or styling cream (thanks to my salon $$)
hair dryer // boar brush and comb (for dispersing oils and teasing)
<< I apologize for the poor lighting in some of these photos >>
Day 1: Washed (a good thorough wash, I lather, rinse, repeat, to be sure of a good clean), styling cream, blow dry, styling cream again, curled with 1 inch barrel (brushed through), light weight hairspray
Day 2: Brushed through yesterday's, it stayed for the most part
Day 3: Brushed through the day before's but touched up curls with a 1.5 inch barrel and light weight hairspray
Day 4 : Dry shampoo around the crown. Touched up some curls on the top layer with 1.5 inch barrel, teased the crown with the boar comb, pinned the rest back for loose waves.
Day 5 (interview day): Brushed through everything entirely, pinned back sections and curled everything with 1 inch barrel, hairspray, texture spray (or dry shampoo) around crown, texture spray in the hair for body and volume in the curls
Day 6 : Brushed through yesterday's style (now much looser waves), dry shampoo.
Day 7 : Texture spray around crown for lift, texture spray in ponytail for volume
At night: I either twisted it up and slept on it using this tutorial or I just slept on it normal. I also use a silk pillowcase (awesome sale on one here) so it keeps my hair not as frizzy and doesn't mess up my style much when I keep it down.
Did I exercise? Yes I worked out and sweat four times this week. I either let the sweat dry and managed any nasty areas with dry shampoo OR I used my blow dryer and blew dry the crown area where it was most wet.
Potential Problems:
Extensive nasty grease that dry shampoo can't control - go back to decreasing days in between washes. Maybe you need to try every other day and slowly expand it out.
Flaky products - ideally dandruff should decrease by keeping your scalp moisturized with natural oils. However, if your products are not good, they can stick and flake. Use one of my recommended dry shampoos / hairsprays / texture sprays because I've run into this problem and found things that work for me at least. Here's a review of my favorite hairsprays .
Let me know if you've ever done this! Would love to hear your tips as well!