How Often Should You Wash African-American Hair For Growth?

For normal hair, it is advisable to wash your hair three times a week, while for coarse or dry hair, you should wash it once or twice a week. However, a little tactic needs to be applied.

Here is the thing, washing your hair constantly tends to make your hair dry, since your scalp struggles to retain moisture. On the flip side, if you avoid washing your hair when required, you tend to develop an oily scalp, which isn’t so healthy for your hair.

Before determining how regularly you’ll need to wash your hair to enhance its growth, you should consider the density of your hair, its curl pattern, and its porosity, especially for your African-American hair type. As you read on, you’ll get to how often you should wash your hair to achieve healthy growth.

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Factors That Determine How Often You Should Wash Your Hair.

The following factors will help you determine how regularly you wash your hair.

1. Your daily routine

Exercise and chores can cause your hair to be sweaty, sticky, and smelly. When you notice such, you shouldn’t wait for your pre-planned hair wash day. You can quickly wash out the dirt and dust immediately from your hair.

This doesn’t mean you should wash your hair daily. Using some kind of shampoo regularly can be detrimental to your hair, and excessive washing can also bring about a dry scalp. Rather than wash with a shampoo, you could decide to rinse your hair with a good conditioner.

2. Your hair type

If your hair is dry, you should wash your hair less often than normal. This is because your hair might turn frizzy and porous if you wash it consistently. On the other hand, if your hair happens to be oily, you should consider washing it more often, since leaving the oil to accumulate will attract more dirt to the hair.

3. The length of your hair

Oil glands are found in your scalp and circulate down the strands of your hair to keep it moisturized. It takes more effort to keep longer hair moisturized since they are not as oily as short hair. So you will need to watch how often you wash it.

4. Usage of Hair Product

Most of the styling products you use for your hair may require that you wash them off. This could be because of the ingredients used in its formulation, their build-ups can be harmful to your scalps.

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How Often Should You Wash Your African-American Hair For Growth

When you begin to notice things like an unpleasant smell, flaking, greasy strands, and severe itching, it indicates that your hair is due for a wash. However, the frequency with which you wash your hair depends on your hair type.

African-Americans also have different hair types, so you would need to know what category yours fall into and how regularly you should wash it to maintain healthy growth. Here are the different hair types and what their washing routine should look like.

1. Regular hair

If your hair falls under the regular hair type, it means that the oil produced by your hair settles more on your scalp than on your hair strands. On that note, you can decide to wash your hair 2 to 3 times weekly to get healthy hair.

2. Curly or coily hair

If you have curly or soft hair you would want to wash 2 twice a week, since your hair type doesn’t need a consistent massage

3. Dry hair

For over-dry hair, it is advisable to wash your hair once a week with a sulfate-free shampoo and silicone-free conditioner. Also, make sure you use good hair oil to assist your hair growth.

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Why It is Essential To Have A Hair Wash Routine

It is important to wash your hair within specified intervals for these reasons:

It helps to maintain the health and strength of your hair. Washing your hair regularly within a specific period helps to enrich the hair. When you use some hair products like a leave-in conditioner, you give your hair room to take in useful nutrients which will help strengthen the hair.
Washing your hair in due time allows your scalp to get massaged, which stimulates the roots of your hair and causes it to grow.
Giving your hair a good routine hair wash helps to take away dirt, sweat, oil, and product buildup that have settled on your hair and scalp over days.

The gentle friction and message experienced by your scalp when being washed help the free flow of blood across your hair cells, which is needed for its growth
When you wash your hair with a good shampoo, and conditioner, the fragrance in them helps to eliminate bad odors on your hair accumulated from dirt, sweat, or dandruff.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Can I Wash My Hair With Only Water Daily?

Yes, you can freely wash your hair with well-treated plain water. Cold water will be most suitable for the daily wash. You should also check for excess chlorine or bleach in the water, which can cause dryness and split ends on your hair.

Why Does My Hair Remain Oily Even Though I Wash It Regularly?

Sometimes, your hair can be considered oily due to the consistent usage of some hair products. Hormones and their changes could be a factor. Or it could be an aftermath of the shampoo you used. To avoid this, you would need to get a shampoo specially made for oily hair.

How often should you oil your hair African American?

You don’t have to oil your hair every day as an African American. It’s fine to apply oil on your hair once a week, however, a good rule of thumb is to oil your hair before going to bed and then wash it off the next day.

It’s Your Turn

How often you should wash your hair as an African-American depends on how oily or dry your hair is. Oily hair often requires at least 3 days of washing in a week, while dry hairs can make do with 2 days a week.

Over to you, how often do you think you would need to wash your hair based on the information you’ve just gathered?

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