How To Work The Greasy Locks

If X-Factor wannabes can get away with not washing their hair, can we?


The latest X-Factor wannabe-popstar Luke Friend- that adorable boy with an adorable name and a great voice- has shocked viewers by stating he does not wash his hair. It got us pondering- how much should you do it? 

There are people out there claiming your hair is healthier without shampoos and conditioners. A bit of cruising on the web and we found LOADS of people stating they don’t wash their hair at all and are better for it.  So with shampoos being so expensive, is this the way to save that extra bit of cash?

Students have a reputation of going unwashed anyway. We’re not suggesting you should become the stinky one in lectures (nobody wants to be THAT kid), but you can hop in the shower and forgo the shampoo.

Hmm grease, my favourite.

The sciencey bit: It takes roughly four to six weeks for hair to start looking clean. Some argue shampoos and conditioners are a bit of a con; your basically paying for a nice smell and not improving your hair. They strip your hair of the natural oils your scalp produces to ward off bacteria, which then causes them to overproduce the oils leading to the wet look greasy effect.

We then make it worse, paying more for conditioner to rehydrate hair after over washing has stripped all the oils. Although long haired people will know that without conditioner you can’t get a brush through.

We tried out a few ways of working that GREASE to save all you skint’uns that extra bit of money that could fund you a bevvy in Faculty tonight.

Ask any hair dresser or dancer and they’ll tell you doing a high bun works best on slightly unclean hair as freshly washed hair doesn’t hold as well as hair that’s a day or two old.

Ta-dah!

Dry shampoo has become a must for all girls. Perfect for when you would rather have an extra half an hour in bed and generally can’t be arsed. It’s not only great for keeping the grease away applied to hair before a night out, but can help to add body to your “do” giving big bouncy hair.

Oh the miracle!

But anyone who is a dry shampoo fiend knows there’s only so many times you can add it before it just looks like you’ve started to go grey (bit like K Middy the other week- is it really grey or had she just not rubbed that Batiste in properly?). During our top notch research on the no shampoo debate we read about boar bristle brushes and white vinegar washes to improve hair, but personally for the hassle we’d prefer a bit of TRESemme.

Not brave enough to forgo the shamps completely? The Tab experiments found the best combination was to go a few days without washing, with the first few days being fine then resorting to a top knot or dry shampoo. We actually found the more time left between washes the longer you could go without them- AND hair looked better than if you washed it everyday.

Look- no grease!

We couldn’t quite brave waiting six weeks to see if it started to look clean, though. No judgements.

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