Alternative Natural Hair Care: I Don’t Wash My Hair

What Im about to tell yall will break ALL the natural hair rules you’ve ever intuitively contrived or read across the natural hair blogosphere.

My number one alternative secret kind of makes me sound like a horrible person but here goes: I dont wash my hair. I said it. *drops mic*

Ok I should ammend that: I wash my hair EXTREMELY sparingly. Like, I just washed my hair for the first time this year this past weekend. The last time I washed it before then was around Christmas and the time before then was around August.

No, my hair is not constantly dirty nor does it wreak. If I get sweaty for whatever reason I will rinse my hair out lightly in the shower and if for whatever reason I am heavy on products (like when I used a ton of gel to replicate an updo Im trying for graduation last week) I know I need to cave in and wash. But I am very deliberate about this so I only pile on product when its close to wash time anyway. Sue me.

The reasons I dont really wash my hair are manifold. For the longest I really struggled with developing a realistic and time efficient wash routine. I tried washing my hair the way the blogs say is best (pre poo, detangle, wash in sections, rinse out condition, deep condition, leave in condition, product and style) in almost every variation imaginable. I tried to detangle in the shower, before everything and at each step. I tried deep conditioining before washing, applying hot oil treatments the night before to cut down on time, etc. and my results were always mediocre at best. I felt that despite the monumental effort my hair did not feel as moisturized as I would have liked and it would not, for the life of me, stay detangled or become any more manageable at any step along the way. My post-wash styles were always lackluster as well.

And the kicker was that through all of that detangling and manipulation I was losing devastating amounts of hair despite my patience snd gentle treatment. My hair is just INCREDIBLY kinky, diversely patterned and very high shrinkage and all of that moisture was a recipe for shrinking, tangling, matting and heart-shattering breakage.

So I dont know when exactly I began my no wash regimen, but it was out of response to hair washing methods and advice that were not suitable for me  no matter what I did. So I took matters into my own hands and decided to do what was best for me and my hair and my hair has definitely thrived since I freed it from the torture of washday!

I have read about others, though not black and natural, who do not wash their hair and also have had success. What do yall think? Could you try to stretch out your washes or is my method too extreme?  I would love to hear your thoughts and how you all handle wash day rituals!