How to wash your hair properly!

Now you might think you’re perfectly capable of washing your own hair. You’ve been doing it for years right! It’s a simple task, sometimes a bit of a chore admittedly but never the less, easy. Well my friends I hate to disappoint you but you may be wrong.

Let’s go right back to when you first shown how to wash your hair. Who showed you? your Mom?….your Dad?…. your guardian?… truth is you probably don’t remember being taught how to wash your hair but I can guarantee this was done when you were a toddler either in the bath, under the shower or over a sink. Well that’s the first mistake, the bath!….

Bath water usually contains bubble bath and whatever else is swilling around in there with you. Gulp! NEVER wash your hair in the bath. That’s a big no no.

Under the shower is absolutely the right place for hair washing. Fresh running water on tap. Good start, but then what happens. Well I’m going to hazard a guess you wet your hair down, slap on some shampoo, quick rub a dub dub , rinse, slap on some conditioner, and then rinse. Does this sound familiar….thought so!

Ok so let me help you out here. First things first…..

You will need the following:

#1-A towel to wrap your hair in when you emerge from the shower. Throw this over the shower door because you’re going to need it half way through the process too.

#2-Shampoo, make sure it’s the right shampoo for your hair type. Your Stylist will help your choose the right one so you don’t waste your money on buying the wrong kind. The ingredients in professional products are of a higher grade, especially the silicone ingredients. Cheap silicone puts a great shine on your hair but it will also put a great barrier on your hair too. This is bad because it builds up in the hair and can prevent your colour from penetrating enough to get the best coverage you need. Also a build up of cheap ingredients will coat the hair eventually making it greasy, lank and lifeless.

#3-Conditioner or Treatment mask. Again the above applies to the brand of Conditioner or treatment you use

Ok so now you have the equipment you need, let’s get on with the process…..

Preperation

It’s all in the preparation. Wetting your hair down is the first step, wet it thourghly, lift the hair if it’s long and part the hair as the water runs through it to make sure the underneath is really wet as is everywhere else.

Next step is to apply the shampoo. A ten pence piece size is ample. Pour it into the palm of your hand then gently rub your hands together, apply to your hair either side of your head and distribute all over the hair working it all the way through, again lifting the hair to make sure you get some right in the base of your neck. Most shampoo’s have an ingredients called Sulphate. This is what we refer to as the ‘Bubble Factor’. Sulphates are what create the bubbles, it’s the cleansing agent that removes dirt and grime from your hair. With emphasis today on the environment etc some people prefer a Sulphate Free product and some hair brands have replaced the sulphates with other ingredients to still allow the Shampoo to foam up. Just bear in mind Sulphate free shampoo will not bubble and foam but will still cleanse the hair, you might just feel like it’s not.

Now you have to rinse the hair, not of every last bubble because you’re going to repeat the above step again. Yes, you do shampoo your hair twice. This isn’t just a ploy by hairdressers to get you to use more product so you have to buy more. Oh no there’s a reason for shampooing the hair twice. The first shampoo will start to lift the dirt out of the hair, the second one will go back in and really finish the job properly. The lather will be greater this time round which means cleaner hair.

Ok so now you have rinsed all the shampoo out, and I do mean ALL. If you leave shampoo in the hair before you put your conditioner on then you might find your heir gets greasy quickly or it lacks shine. Here’s an explanation as to why that happens…

Imagine roof tiles or fish scales. They overlap right? Your hair is the same, it has cuticles that overlap similar to the example above. This is the science bit. Shampoo is negatively charged, it’s scientifically developed to open up the lapped over cuticles and draw out the impurities, dirt and grime.

The Conditioner is the opposite, it’s positively charged so developed to draw into the hair shaft and close the cuticles down. This is what gives you a nice smooth sleek surface on your hair. Now if you opt not to use conditioner then a couple of things are going to happen. Firstly, if you colour your hair then the Shampoo opens the cuticles and cleanses the hair but without conditioner to close them down again the colour molecules can gradually escape which is why some people get colour fade. Secondly, the hairs surface won’t be as smooth because the cuticles are left flapping open. Makes sense right?

Also, this will explain why you need to make sure you rinse the shampoo out of your hair thoroughly before applying Conditioner because if you don’t then the Conditioner will close the cuticles down and lock in the shampoo left in the hair. This can be why some people get dull, limp , lank hair or dry itchy scalps too.

So now you know to rinse that shampoo right out of the hair, this is the part where you need that towel draped over the shower door. You did drape the towel right?…

Whilst the shower is till running and you’ve squeezed the excess water out of the lengths of your hair grab the towel and gently squeeze your hair with it to remove any excess water left. You’re doing this because if your hair is dripping wet then you’re only going to dilute the conditioner….why would you want to do that! You’ve paid good money for it right and it has a job to do which it won’t be able to do if there’s so much water in the way. I recommend a good fifty pence size amount of Conditioner or Mask. Again put in into your hand , gentle rub it through your hands then distribute it through the mid-lengths and lengths of your hair adding a bit to the scalp and root area last. Now you’ve done that leave it to work it magic whilst you carry on with your shower. leaving your conditioner in a few minutes will mean your hair will get all the benefits of a great conditioner and/or mask. Feel free to gently comb it through too but only with a wide toothed comb or brush designed to be used on wet hair.

Finished your shower, then rinse your hair thourghly but not excessively.

Done! your finished! Does that sound like the same lesson you were given the first time you were shown how to wash your own hair? Did the sales assistant in the supermarket or pharmacy explain this to you as you were choosing a shampoo to buy off the shelves? No thought not but that is how to wash your hair properly. It sounds far more time consuming reading it through like this than it actually is and once you’ve got into the habit of doing it properly you won’t even realised you’re doing it. So go on give it a try the next time you wash your hair, which by the way can be daily ,if you so wish, as long as you have the correct products for daily shampooing.