This morning I wasn't running late for work. In fact, I was up earlier than normal and I still skipped washing my hair. I skip washing my hair as much as I can. As much as I like having clean hair, I hate the effort of having to double wash and condition, and then there's the whole drying and styling process. I am fatigued just writing about it.
Over the past few years, skipping hair washing has been easier than ever thanks to dry shampoo. No warm water left? Use dry shampoo! Going to a festival? Dry shampoo! Need a lie in? You know the answer. Dry shampers is the answer to pretty much all of life's hair washing dilemmas. And it's a good styling aid too.
It's also probably causing a helluva lot of damage to your hair.
Sorry.
It's true.
Advertised
When the two sides of her hair "looked like they were slowly drifting away from each other at the part", serial dry shampoo user and writer Olga Khazan of The Atlantic reluctantly concluded that her thinning hair might be the curse of the must-have hair product.
Olga's research brought her to the dark side of Google, with images of bald patches and sad people, and a Belfast woman saying, “just wash your hair people!”. But, isn't over-washing hair bad for it too? Olga got to the bottom of it by conducting a poll of eleven hair experts and dermatologists, and in kind of good news, only three definitively agreed that dry shampoo makes hair fall out.
However, the overall conclusion (you may need to sit down for this) is that dry shampoo is simply not a washing substitute and that it can damage hair. It works by soaking up excess oil, which may make it look un-Snape-like but in the meantime ends up irritating your scalp, which in turn can lead to hair loss. According to the experts, I'm definitely using too much of it.
"One hair stylist said all it would take is using it three days in a row, while a dermatologist advised against three days per week, consecutive or not. Dhaval G. Bhanusali, a dermatologist in New York, drew an even harder line, saying dry shampoo on more than two days per week would be excessive."
Maybe the only solution is to just wash my damn hair every single day? Or give up hair-cleansing altogether. Anyone a member of the No 'poo movement?
