If you turn to the internet for grooming advice, you can find articles that tell you to wash your hair daily and also, ones that tell you it’s bad for your hair.

During my last visit to my hairdresser, I decided to ask her what she thinks about this from her professional approach. Whether she thinks the hype, and if she can answer once and for all: How often should I wash my hair? 

“The whole concept of not shampooing your hair to let the natural oils do their job is a complete and utter misinformation, based on the dish soap-like shampoo we used 25 years ago,” she  says. “If you’re using a decent shampoo nowadays, it won’t strip your hair. If anything, it’ll leave it softer and healthier than it was before.”

There are other reasons, too, one of which is a general misunderstanding of the science behind the “self-cleaning” myth. “It would take about a month for the natural oils to make their way from your scalp to the tips of your hair—even if it’s just a few inches long—and do what conditioner can do in 20 seconds,” she explains. “Plus, you’d have to brush your hair about five times a day to help the oil along.”

So if leaving a day or two between washes doesn’t, in fact, do our hair a solid, how often should we be shampooing our hair? It all depends on how active you’ve been lately. 

She told me: “If you’re on vacation, binging TV shows on the couch, you could go days without shampooing, but if you’ve gone out to the club the night before, or you hit the gym that morning, it’s a good idea to wash your hair — if only for the sake of smell. Either way, depending on how much oil your scalp produces, I would never go more than three to five days without a wash.”

You also need to shampoo if you start to notice your hair clumping up as if it has product in it, since that means it’s actually filled with dirt and gunk. And unless you’re the creature from the black lagoon, there is literally no situation in which you want the words “dirt and gunk” associated with your body. (If you are the creature from the black lagoon, thanks for reading, and especially for wondering “how often should I wash my hair” when you don’t even have hair. You’re a champ!).

Lastly, if you do not wash your hair often, you can get dandruff. If you already have this problem then we actually have a great product in stock that can help: 

RECIPE FOR MEN ANTI-DANDRUFF COOLING TONIC and RECIPE FOR MEN ANTI-DANDRUFF SHAMPOO.