When I got my hair coloured (at the incredible April Egan salon) a few months back, I decided to conduct a little experiment with some new products to see whether I could cut down the amount of times I washed my hair in a week without looking like a greasy mess. So I thought I’d share with you exactly how I’ve switched up my hair care routine, because let’s face it, washing hair is a chore and wouldn’t we all love to do it less?!
Hair Washing
Red hair is the WORST colour to try and maintain, it just doesn’t stick like brunette and blonde do! A while back, I wrote a post about what I do to try and make the colour last in my copper hair, but basically it boils down to washing it WAY less. But for a gal who washes her hair every day, this was a pretty intimidating thought!
Luckily, there is no real science behind it, you just have to put up with getting a greasy noggin for a bit. I started by cutting down from washing my hair every day to every third day, did that for about 2 – 3 weeks, then every fourth day etc. etc. until you get to once a week.
Confession – I only managed once a week for about a month (two weeks of which I was on holiday so didn’t need to wash my hair as much anyway!).
It had huge benefits:
- MUCH quicker showers
- Longer time in bed
- Less water usage
- Less product usage
- Less blow drying time
But there were also some pretty big downsides:
- My hair felt really greasy by day 5 so I wore my hair tied back a lot more
- Residue on my scalp made it feel itchy
- A few spots on my scalp and behind my ears
As soon as I started getting little pimples behind my ears (because I totally wasn’t washing them properly without washing my hair), I threw the towel in! Now, I am washing my hair twice a week and already much preferring it.
As I write this post, I’m on day 3 and my hair is clean enough to wear down. I predict I will wash it again in two days, leaving it five days since the last wash instead of seven.
The Products
Over the past few months, I’ve been experimenting with different products to help me on my hair care journey. As I started to wash my hair less often, I tried John Frieda’s Luxurious Volume* range (specifically the shampoo, conditioner and in-shower treatment), because I thought it would give my flat, greasy hair a bit of life.
I love a bit of John Frieda – their shampoo for red hair is one of the best I’ve tried – and I already own their Fine to Full blow out spray, which I find actually does what it says on the tin. The shampoo and conditioner in the same range made my hair feel squeaky clean and I did notice the same thickening that I get from the blow dry spray (although I haven’t yet tried them all together).
The one thing I wasn’t such a fan of, perhaps a little bizarrely, is just quite how clean my hair felt after washing. I got that thing where my hair literally squeaked when I squeezed the water out, and I felt a bit like my natural oils had been stripped out.
I have heard that with skincare, you treat oily skin with oil, so maybe the same is true for hair? Try using richer, more oily products to get LESS greasy hair?
My New Hair Care Routine
After all that trial and error, I have now decided that I will aim to wash my hair twice a week, using a mixture of a rich, oil-based shampoo. My current favourite is Colour Goddess by Tigi, which smells DIVINE and leaves my hair feeling so soft. This one doesn’t really get into a lather, so I massage the shampoo into my scalp and a really generous dollop of the conditioner through the lengths, then leave both on for a minute or so before rinsing out. When I first did it, it felt weird, but now I’m used to it, I love the condition it leaves my hair in!
How often do you wash your hair? What are your favourite hair care products?
♥ JH
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Having to wash your hair only twice a week sounds heavenly. I’ve tried several lines from john frieda, but I’ve never really found a match, only the detangling conditioner, but it’s no miracle wonder! Happy to read that you have found your way!