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.

Every other day. I can push it to 3 days if I tie it up the third day, but I'd rather not.
I have quite fine hair and it just looks lank and feels horrible if I leave it longer.
I'd love not to have to though.

Yes! But I can only manage 24 hours.
Its odd really, I have a very thick head of hair, and most people with my hair type can go for weeks without washing their hair.
My scalp itches so much after one day I look like I have nits, so it gets washed daily!!!

I try to do a co-wash after a few days from the shampoo wash. With cheap apple conditioner - get it right into the roots, massage in then rinse out well. It does a good job of getting rid of most of the oil so you can stretch out longer and train the hair for longer to go without. Also use arrowroot powder after a few more days to get rid of more. Try to keep shampoo to a minimum (maybe weekly) for various reasons.

About 3 weeks .. .mine always has and does pretty much look after itself . It's thick and curly and doesn't smell at all, is not greasy and not dry . But will look dull after 3 weeks and might feel dirty.
After about 3 weeks I wash it in baby shampoo and put a conditioner on it . I wear it up 99% of the time.
In the summer if the weather is super hot around max 2 weeks as it sweats.
If I washed it twice a week it would itch and frizz and wouldn't feel great and to me smells mouldy because it's constantly wet.
It probably doesn't smell moudly but it has a wet/ mould smell like drying wet washing in a room with no ventilation.

Twice a week for me. It doesn't get greasy but as I don't brush it between washes I need to detangle it by then

Just on the dry shampoo point - please be careful as it usually is made from talc.

There's a brilliant podcast series on the BBC about talc risks: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0jdqlck

Mine looks and smells totally fine for 7 to 10 days, fine, coloured, collar length and tends to be a bit dry, prone to going frizzy if it rains- it goes fly away if I wash it more -

Every day

Ooh, hair perfume sounds great! I’ve never heard of it before, so I looked it up - which fragrance does your DD use?

It goes really greasy and horrible after a couple of months, but then it kind of regulates itself. I washed my hair using only water for a year. It didn't smell bad at all. Just neutral.
My hairdresser was so shocked as it was the best condition it's ever been in! I'm back to washing once a week or so now as I've got highlights again. My hair feels so dry compared to how it did when it was natural and I only used water.

I recently went 2 months due to surgery that meant I couldn’t wash it until it was fully healed after a skin graft. It wasn’t great, but strangely, not as bad as you might think after 2 months. No dry shampoo or product of any sort. Normally, I easily go a week or could go 2 at a push if it wasn’t dirty. My hair was very greasy when I used to wash it daily or every other day. But not anymore.

Every other day as it's greasy. Even on the in between day I use dry shampoo as it will be greasy half way through.

Have a friend who washes hers every day because it greasy.

Luna. It is absolutely lovely, fresh and citrousy and about 60 pounds I think? But lasts 6 months. Contains Argan oil. She has long hair and it wafts and smells fabulous. Only gets it on her birthday though!

Two days is my limit, every day ideally.. gate the greasy lank feeling

I only wash once a week usually but wash my fringe daily in the shower as it goes flat.
If I cook something like a curry I do an extra wash as the smell lingers in your hair!

@QueenOfThorns replied above but forgot to tag.

2 days, I can get away with skipping washing one day but not 2

Three days tops, I tend to wash it - and dry it- every other day. If I left it weeks it would look, I don't know...much worse than day three.

Can definitely get up to 10 days! I have very thick/long hair though so it goes up most of the time!

My late MIL washed hers about twice a year. She brushed it every day and washed the brush each week. She wore her hair in a bun and it never seemed to smell or looks anything other than clean and tidy.

If you have a mixer tap you can get a metal thing that screws onto the tap and then you can fix a proper shower hose to that. No popping off!
It also has a little lever so you can just have a normal tap again.

I've stuck a hat on and left it 4 days when at a festival - what else can you do, really? It's OK after 3 days, but I prefer to wash it every other day.

I am the same now. Early 60s, long grey hair. Regularly complimented too.

Depends on hair type, person, age, activity level and climate.

If you live someone hot and very humid in the summer like the southern states in the USA then you need to wash every day because you are sweating so much including scalp.

But UK northwest in the winter and not exercising then 5 days at least.

4-5 days if I don't have any product on it, any more than that it looks ok but I start to shed. I used to have to wash it every other day so whilst it's nice I don't have to waste so much time washing it anymore, it makes me feel old!