do you wash your hair every day?

[Fruit Sucker]

So this is a bit personal, but do you wash your hair every day after work? I can't help feeling like I have bacteria in my hair when I've been at the hospital, even though I avoid touching it. My hair is dry though and I dislike washing it every day.

[Bubbly26, BSN, RN]

My hair texture is very course and very dense. If I was to wash my hair every single day, it would be a disaster waiting to happen. My hair ends up tangling really bad. My hair is simply in the hair grade that does not need to be washed every single day.

[vintagemother, BSN, CNA, LVN, RN]

I don't wash daily. I also belong to a racial group whose hair typically doesn't require washing daily because the oil produced by the scalp tends not to make it down the curled hair strands.

My scalp does produce oil, but the amount of work required to wash, condition, straighten and style my hair is not an undertaking i will attempt without 2 days to complete the process.

[NickiLaughs, ADN, BSN, RN]

If I washed my hair every day I might never get everything on my to do list done. it's super thick, and long (now). I might try this no shampoo thing everyone's swearing by. I have really dry scalp in winter though, wonder if anyone has remedies for that?

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

I have really dry scalp in winter though, wonder if anyone has remedies for that?

Tea tree oil works wonders in curing dry scalp. You can obtain the medical grade tea tree oil on Ebay.

[vintagemother, BSN, CNA, LVN, RN]

If I washed my hair every day I might never get everything on my to do list done. it's super thick, and long (now). I might try this no shampoo thing everyone's swearing by. I have really dry scalp in winter though, wonder if anyone has remedies for that?

Is your dry scalp flaking? Or just itchy? Mine is dry, too. (Itchy And flaky before I cut it short) When my hair was long, it was a major problem. I tried tea tree shampoo (Paul Mitchell generic) it didn't help.

I have not tried commuters suggestion of medical grade tea tree oil, but it sounds like a good idea.

I tried moisturizing my scalp, but it was only a temporary fix. Now that my hair is short, it's less of a problem. (No itch) I have to (yuck) scrape my scalp before I wash to get rid of the flakes. I still get flakiness within a few days/ a week of washing.

My hair dresser said it's not unusual and it happens to a lot of people and to increase my fluid intake. I recently stated omega and multi vitamins.

[Gooselady, BSN, RN]

Remember microbiology? Where you were given a petri dish and told to take a swab from somewhere, a door knob (that was my choice), one guy did his arm pit (grew colorful yeasts). I only got ONE colony of S. epidermidis, such a disappointment.

But what REALLY contagious or illness producing germ is gonna grow in your HAIR? Or stay alive longer than an hour? Influenza is a virus that is supposed to be able to live outside it's host, and there are a few others, but they aren't going to COLONIZE your hair.

I'm the least germ phobic nurse I know. I did have a Cdiff patient's foley rupture and spray me in the face with urine (not a vector for Cdiff but still), and I stuck my face under hot water and used this special soap for Cdiff we were using at the time to scrub myself. My face felt like a plastic mask for the rest of the shift and my hair was in worse shape. I have very long hair, below my waist but kept it up in a braid or sloppy bun at work, but I never worried about GERMS getting in my hair :shrug: . I don't worry about germs in general, but don't eat things on the floor or touch my face at work without hand sanitizer (don't want the cold or flu viruses). Otherwise I don't have a vague creeped out sensitivity to GERMS, and haven't had a cold since last spring.

I did get West Nile fever this summer, from mosquitos coming through a hole in a window screen, I got bitten over and over again just sitting in my house. So I guess that is an example of why I should be more vigilant in some ways.

[IrishIzCPNP, MSN, RN, APRN, NP]

If I washed my hair every day I might never get everything on my to do list done. it's super thick, and long (now). I might try this no shampoo thing everyone's swearing by. I have really dry scalp in winter though, wonder if anyone has remedies for that?

Not washing will allow more of the natural oils to stay put...so not washing would help.

[WellThatsOod]

My scalp is much healthier using just conditioner.... I used to have pretty horrid dandruff and seborrheic dermatitis, but it has virtually disappeared since I got away from the sulfate shampoos.

Thanks for the tip. Love the name, I feel ya lol.

[Wolf at the Door, BSN]

Funny when I got off work Sunday I thought about making this topic. I am AA female. Depends on how I style my hair 3-7 days with shampoo. Avocado Oil is great for Seborrhea dermatitis. Along with DHS zinc shampoo.

[ixchel]

My mind is blown right now. So wash less, get less oily? Maybe cut down on itching? Should I make this a gradual transition, or go cold turkey for a few days? How often should I CO wash? I have fine, mostly straight hair that requires blow drying or ironing, but don't use any products outside of washing. It's down to my waist, if that makes a difference.

[Bbett, MSN, NP]

Everyone's hair is different obviously. The whole "it gets less greasy the less you wash it" does NOT work for me. I just use sulfate free shampoos and I wash my hair every day. I don't have dry hair or anything invest in a sulfate free shampoo and a good conditioner.

[pfongk]

I wash my hair after every shift due to the amount of sweat I produce at work. On the days I don't work, I will condition only if I've been in the water and the rest of the time it's just a rinse under the shower when I wash myself.

My hair is rather thick and frizzy though and I remember when I lived down south, if I washed it in the winter and didn't blow dry it, my hair would still be wet enough that I could not only wring water out of the middle and under layers of my hair, I could also snap it off due to it freezing on my way to school.