How long is ‘too long’ to go without washing your hair?

[JuneRoses]

As in, it still looks nice and doesn’t smell, but hasn’t been washed in x amount of days? I can easily go 3-4 days without washing my hair but I do it anyways because I think it must be gross not to, even though it looks and smells perfectly fine. For clarification, I’m just talking about hair, not bathing in general. If anything, my hair gets easier to manage and the style looks nicer if it hasn’t been freshly washed. I have straight hair if that matters at all, and I use dry shampoo which gives my hair nice volume.

TLDR; Gross, wash your hair regularly regardless! Not gross, only wash it when it looks/smells bad.

Up to a week. But need to tie it up for the last 2 days

It completely depends on the person and their hair type. I have very straight, fine hair and quite an oily scalp so I can really only go 2 days without washing it. After day 1 it needs a touch up with dry shampoo. My best friend (a hairdresser) has thick, curly hair and can easily go a week - it doesn’t look greasy or smell. I’m very jealous of her!

I could easily go 4 days.

During Covid I managed to stretch hair washing to once a week. It needed tying up for the last couple of days. Now, perimenopausal, I usually leave it a week, no tying up needed.

I wash mine about every 3 weeks 😀

Depends on hair type I think. I can get away with 3 days but no more than that.

48hrs. It's quite fine.

I tried it leaving it for longer in the pandemic and all that happened was I got an itchy scalp.

Wow that’s incredible. What’s it like by that point?

3 days is my max, very fine hair. And it’s better washed every other day.

I wash mine once a week. It took me nearly three hours to dry it yesterday so that's all I can manage.

Ds is 10 with long hair and every other day is the longest his can be left otherwise it smells. Dd is 16 and needs to wash hers the same. I wash mine every day unless there's some reason I can't like being really ill. I've washed it daily since my teens and I'm 48 now. If I don't wash it it feels manky. It's long and in good condition.

I know from these threads that other people don't need to wash theirs as often and that this doesn't mean they smell.

I do now notice lots of people with greasy hair that I can smell. I do have a super nose though. I've noticed since Covid that people aren't as clean. You'd think it would be the opposite.

Four days absolute max and that’s only if it’s been blow dried in salon.
After three weeks it surely must reek to high heaven?

I have a keen sense of smell as well, but I worry that I’m nose blind to my own. I can definitely smell other people’s dirty scalp smell if in an enclosed space like a bus. My husband can’t smell it at all though. I really hate washing my hair for some reason but I do it anyways ‘just in case’.

3 days is my max, I could stretch it to 4 with some Batiste dry shampoo but then it feels a bit yuk. I have quite thick hair and it never looks greasy but by day 3 I can feel the difference.

I feel gross if I go past 3 days

Mine is ok at 3 days and 4-5 days with dry shampoo.

2 weeks? Long, straight hair, always up. No smell and looks great and healthy. 50, so super dry if I wash it more. Get it wet in summer, every day.

DD once a week. Curly Girl method. Long, curly gorgeous hair. She spritzes with Penhaligons hair perfume.

Once a week. More or less frequently if needed

I have very thick hair - can take 4hrs to dry in winter so probably do it every 4/5 days, have left it a week but that's a bit too long..

Once a week usually unless going somewhere special. Don't need to put it up in between.

Spritz it daily with frizz reducing spray

I wash mine every day just because it's part of me and the rest of me gets washed every day, in the shower.

Never occurred to me to not to.

I can go 3 or 4 days, but would need to do my fringe every day and probably give a dry shampoo spritz.

I can push to three days max, by which point it's stuck to my head and I just feel 'yucky'.

Once a week. It's still fine then but I'm just in the habit of washing and drying it every Sunday. So no idea how long I could potential go before needing to.

Before my mid-40s, it was five days.

3 hours😳 you must have an amazing head of hair. I'm kinda jealous, well apart from the 3 HR drying😅