How often should you wash your hair, and is "rinse and repeat" necessary or just marketing? Can you overdo it with shampoo? Good Housekeeping Health & Beauty Analyst Chiara Butler breaks down the dos and don’ts of hair washing — how much product to use, when double cleansing is worth it, and whether your hair can really get "used to" a shampoo.
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00:00Shampooing is going to be healthy for your scalp and healthy for your hair, so don't be afraid of shampooing.
00:05Hi, I'm Kiara Butler. I'm a health and beauty reviews analyst at the Good Housekeeping Institute,
00:10where we test beauty and personal care products every day.
00:12Today, I'm answering questions all about hair washing and sharing expert intel.
00:16This is Good to Know.
00:19First question. Is it true that it's bad to wash your hair every day?
00:23So, no. If you have an oily scalp and it gets oily every single day, it's totally fine to wash every day.
00:29There's a myth that it's bad to wash your hair every day because it's going to be stripping or damaging,
00:33but really, it's important to wash those oils away to prevent them from building up because it could lead to scalp irritation.
00:40Personally, I think that people are probably not washing their scalps enough.
00:44There's a big, like, no-poo trend where people are not shampooing their hair,
00:48but there are real downsides to not cleansing your scalp enough.
00:51Shampooing is going to be healthy for your scalp and healthy for your hair, so don't be afraid of shampooing.
00:56Next question.
00:58How often should I be washing my hair?
01:00If you have finer and thinner hair, you're going to want to wash more often.
01:02If your hair is more textured and thick, you can go more days without washing.
01:06If you use a lot of products like mousses and hairsprays and hair gels, you want to wash more often to prevent buildup,
01:12but generally, it's good to wash about twice a week.
01:15Okay, here's a good one.
01:16Should I wash my hair in hot or cold water?
01:19Wash your hair with warm water that feels comfortable for you.
01:22Washing with really hot water is going to dry out your scalp and your skin, so definitely don't go too hot.
01:27There's a myth that cold water closes the hair cuticle and makes your hair shinier.
01:32That's not true, so you don't have to suffer with a cold rinse.
01:35Next question.
01:37Do I actually need sulfate-free shampoo?
01:39No.
01:40This is a huge myth that we're trying to bust all the time.
01:44Sulfates are a type of surfactants, and surfactants are cleansing agents,
01:49so they help dissolve the oil and dirt on your hair so it can be washed away by the water.
01:54People tend to believe that sulfates are really drying and damaging to their hair, but in
01:58a well-balanced shampoo formulation, it's not going to be an issue.
02:02In our lab, we test shampoos with consumers, and we cover the labels so that people don't
02:07know which brand they're getting, and we find that shampoos with sulfates often perform
02:11better than sulfate-free shampoos.
02:14If a shampoo doesn't contain a sulfate, it's going to contain another cleansing agent that
02:18probably costs more but does the same thing that a sulfate does.
02:22So you're paying more for sulfate-free.
02:26What ingredients should I avoid in my shampoo and conditioner?
02:29Generally, there isn't really much to worry about.
02:31If you have really sensitive skin, you might want to be aware of colored shampoos, so purple
02:36shampoos and blue shampoos, or shampoos that are really strongly fragranced.
02:40You might want to look for something that has a more subtle fragrance.
02:44Almost every year, a new ingredient in a shampoo is the subject of controversy, and just because
02:50that ingredient is controversial and people are concerned about it doesn't mean that it's
02:55been proven to cause harm.
02:57So a lot of ingredients can get a bad rap without a lot of evidence that they've actually
03:01been harmful or caused people issues and irritation and things like that.
03:07What ingredients should I look for in a good shampoo and conditioner?
03:10Shampoo and conditioners are really about the full formulation rather than any one single
03:16ingredient.
03:17I don't always read the back of the bottle when I'm picking out a shampoo, just because
03:21the formulation matters so much more than any ingredient that you're going to find.
03:25The formulation is what the chemist creates in the lab.
03:29They're putting together the cleansing agents, the conditioning agents, the preservatives,
03:34the water, everything together, and then they're testing that final product.
03:38Those claims that you're seeing, like hydrating, smoothing, anti-frizz, color protection, those
03:45claims are going to be tested really well on the final formulation.
03:48It's usually not one particular ingredient that makes the shampoo effective.
03:53It's the whole system.
03:56What are parabens?
03:58Parabens are a preservative which helps your shampoo not go off while you're using it.
04:02So it's not going to smell bad, grow bacteria, grow mold.
04:06It'll stay stable for the time that you're using it.
04:09If we didn't have preservatives, basically we'd have to keep our products in the refrigerator
04:13and they would spoil like milk.
04:15Parabens have become controversial because of a study that found them in breast tumors.
04:20Now this sounds really alarming, but just because that they were found there doesn't
04:24mean that the parabens caused the breast tumors.
04:28The majority of studies that we have don't indicate that the parabens that are used in
04:32cosmetics today are dangerous to human health.
04:35It's not that common to see parabens in shampoo and conditioner anymore, but if you do see
04:40it on your label, don't worry about it too much.
04:43Okay, here's a good one.
04:44Is there such a thing as too much shampoo?
04:47Yes.
04:48If you apply more shampoo than you really need, you'll just be rinsing it down the drain.
04:52So I have a shampoo bottle here, so we'll show you about how much to use.
04:56You can start with this, a quarter size dollop, slather it into your scalp, and if you feel
05:01clean after that, then you're good to go.
05:04Shampoos are formulated to clean the scalp in one wash, but if your scalp is very oily,
05:10you might want to wash twice.
05:12Personally, sometimes I do wash twice if I've gone a long time between washes.
05:15Okay, next question.
05:17Does expensive shampoo work better?
05:19Not always.
05:20And this is something that we test all the time in the lab, and we really often see that
05:23budget shampoos perform just as well or better than high-end shampoos.
05:28You definitely don't need to break the bank when buying shampoo and conditioner.
05:31The companies behind a lot of affordable drugstore brands, they do a lot of investment in R&D,
05:37which means research and development.
05:39So that means they have a huge team of chemists and a lot of people creating the ingredients
05:44that go into the shampoo, and creating the shampoo itself, and testing it for the claims
05:49that you're going to see on the packaging.
05:51Pretty much they are going to do what they say they're going to do.
05:54It's good to buy a matching shampoo and conditioner, because when chemists are formulating them,
05:59they usually test them as a set.
06:01So all the claims that you see apply to using both the shampoo and the conditioner together.
06:06You'll get the best effects when you use a matching set.
06:10Does color-protecting shampoo actually work?
06:13Yes.
06:14We tested these shampoos in the lab, and I have some color swatches to show you the results.
06:21So this is what the hair looks like right after it's dyed.
06:24This was our winning shampoo that protected the hair color the best.
06:28And this was the losing shampoo that faded the hair the most.
06:32So color-protecting shampoo works because the culprit in hair fading when you take a
06:36shower is actually the water, not the shampoo itself.
06:39So these shampoos have special polymers in them that prevent the water from soaking into
06:45the center of the hair, where the dye molecules are, so that they can't be washed away.
06:50It's good to use a color-protecting shampoo because it will extend the life of your hair
06:54color.
06:55On to the next question.
06:57What is clarifying shampoo for?
06:59It's good to use a clarifying shampoo if you have a really oily scalp, or if you have a
07:03lot of product buildup on your hair.
07:05So clarifying shampoos are going to be less conditioning than other shampoos.
07:09They're really just about cleansing.
07:11A lot of shampoos, they have cleansing ingredients and conditioning ingredients.
07:14So it's not just your conditioner that has conditioning ingredients.
07:18So clarifying shampoos are going to have fewer to none of those conditioning ingredients.
07:23If you've just done a ton of styling, if you have a ton of mousse, hairspray, gel, or if
07:28you just get really oily, it's good to just reset with that clarifying shampoo to make
07:32sure that your hair and scalp are clean again.
07:36Do shampoo and conditioner expire?
07:38Yes.
07:39There's no product that can last forever.
07:41So usually products will have on the back of them what's called a period after opening
07:45symbol.
07:46It looks like a little jar with the lid open.
07:49And inside of the jar, it will say 12M, which means that it's good for 12 months after you
07:54start using it.
07:55The way you're going to know if your shampoo has gone off is if the color changes or if
08:00the smell changes, that's a sign that you're going to need to throw it out.
08:04Should I be switching out my shampoo and conditioner?
08:07I remember hearing when I was a kid that your hair could get used to a shampoo so that it
08:12would stop working on your hair and it wouldn't clean your hair anymore.
08:15That's not true.
08:16Your hair doesn't know what shampoo you're using and it's not going to misbehave because
08:20it gets used to something.
08:21So if your shampoo and conditioner are working for you, you can just keep using them.
08:25Thanks so much for watching.
08:26Head to goodhousekeeping.com for more tips on hair washing and other beauty topics.