Today was the easiest hair day ever. How so? I didn’t even comb it after waking up! If my coworkers only knew how rebellious I am! 😀 My trusty black cloth snood is my co-conspirator in this hair-revolution. It covers everything, from forehead to nape of neck.
Here is how I accomplished today’s amazing hair feat: Last night, I braided it, Heidi-style with two braids and small “ouchless” plastic bands. Those little things sure stay put! Slept on the braids all night. They looked pretty good after all that tossing and turning, but the hair above it was fluffed up. I whetted a comb and slicked down the fluffy parts. I picked up another plastic band and tied the two braids together in the back. Then I slipped on the snood right over the whole design and I was ready to go!
This hair escapade is part of my larger plan to wean my hair and scalp off of daily washings. My hair is almost to the middle of my back, so it is past time to be more gentle. I am aiming for every other day to start. How many times do you long-haired ladies wash your tresses?
Veiled Glory 
I wash my hair every other day now that it has gotten longer. The only time I will wash it every day is if I am cooking and that food smell gets in my hair or if I end up sweating alot.
I wear my hair in a braid at night too. And in the mornings, I rotate the braid into a bun and secure it and put my covering on. Done in 2 minutes or less.
I too have to slick all my ‘messy’ hairs back but that’s nothing 🙂
God Bless!
I usually wash it twice a week, but sometimes once a week. I brush my hair out each night and morning. I rarely put it up and never braid it. I wear a hanging veil most of the time, but sometimes I wear a cap or snood and then I put it up in a bun with scrunchies, hairnet, and pins.
I wash my hair every day, because, even if the ends don’t need to be washed that frequently, my scalp gets oily. I wash and brush my hair before bed.
Melinda,
What I’ve noticed with my scalp is that it will produce less oil in a couple weeks of doing every-other-day washing. Your hair needs the natural oils, like a conditioner. When you wash it away frequently, your body keeps producing full-tilt to catch-up. This also contributes to getting dandruff.
On my off days (when I don’t braid and cover), I brush out my hair with a natural bristle brush. I bend over and go from scalp to ends all the way around. This distributes the oils.
~Anna
My hair gets wet everyday in the shower, however I only use shampoo every other day, unless it happens to be a day that I’ve exercised and sweated, then I shampoo.
Depends on what I’m doing. If I’m working in town – twice or maybe 3 times a week depending on the season. If I’m home, once a week in the winter and probably 2 to 3 times a week in the summer. Mine is down to the top of my butt and I do keep it braided or bunned most of the time.
I have fairly oily hair so I wash it everyday…I like your idea about the Heidi braids though…maybe if I tried that out it wouldn’t get so oily…my hair is halfway down my back as well.
I’m in my 40’s so my hair is quite dry. I wash it sunday, tuesday and thursday. This is plenty for my hair. If I’m feeling grubby, I’ll just hop in the shower and scrub w/o washing my hair on the off days.
I have thick curly hair, not as long as I’d like, but getting there. Since it’s usually covered in a snood it doesn’t get dirty very fast. My rule is always twice a week (no matter what) and 3 to 4 times a week in the summer when I sweat. The fastest way to cool down all the way when I’m feeling overheated is to take a shower and wash my hair. Usually I wash it on Tuesday night, Thursday night and Saturday night. I sleep on it wet and it dries overnight into tight Shirley Temple curls all over my head. I brush it very carefully with an extra wide-toothed comb (the boys call it my ‘Fro Comb, because it’s actually made for afro’s) and sometimes I use a special brush that’s made for my type of hair. I’ve always had oily hair, but I found that washing it every 3 days made it healthier than it’s every been, and it seems to be less oily than when I washed it more often.
I have hair down to the bottom of my tailbone, it braids up to just below my waist. I “wash” with conditioner every 1-2 weeks. It’s more like weekly when it’s hot like it is now and more like every 2 weeks in the winter, but I’ll move a wash up if I need to have my hair looking light and fluffy while it’s down the next day. That doesn’t happen often. I mostly braid and bun my hair and sometimes cover it.
I braid in the morning because if I try to get by by just slicking the stray hairs back it looks bad, maybe because of the way my hair is. I can only get away with that if I’m covering and then I have to remember not to remove it in front of people at all. But at night I just remove hair pins and take it down if it’s up. I leave the braid(s) in overnight to keep it from tangling. (Except when I was with my husband, but I’d often do a fast single braid after that just to keep it from tangling, erm, more than it already was 🙂 )
I use shampoo when strictly necessary. Last time it was because I got water-based-adhesive in my hair, and that was over a year ago.
When it’s hot like this I’ll turn the water on cool and rinse my scalp well to get the sweat and stuff off when I’m in the shower washing the rest of me between hair-washings.
It took a few years to work down to this, though. I started with every-other-day washing with baking soda followed by a vinegar rinse and did that for about a year, then I noticed my hair was getting dryer so I backed down to twice-a-week and added conditioner. Then backed down to once a week, then dropped the baking soda entirely.
The only thing about conditioner-only is that you have to choose a conditioner that is meant to be on your scalp. Some aren’t and will throw the PH of your scalp off or expose you to stuff you don’t really want on your skin. Otherwise you just put the conditioner on your head (I dilute it about half with water to make it easier for me) and then scrub your scalp with your fingertips like you would with shampoo and rinse, holding the hair up away from your scalp with your fingers so that the water can get down to the skin of your scalp to really rinse it well.
That’s what works for me. (Another aspie, with an obvious hair perseveration. 🙂 )