To wash hair once a week - disagreement with Mil!

[Enidblyton1]

Just wondering how often your DCs have a bath/shower and wash their hair? Mine (aged 5 and 2) have a bath most evenings - at least 5 out of 7 days a week - and wash with soap. Hair wash once a week on a Sunday.
Mil was horrified to learn that they don't have a thorough wash every single night and appalled that hair is only done once a week.
Now I'm beginning to doubt my routine..... AIBU?

My DD has hair wash once per week, her hair is beautiful. It doesn't smell or look even close to being greasy.

The children have a bath/shower every 2-3days. Depending on how mucky they are with playing outside etc.

Min dd had a bath 3 x a week. Hair washed once a week. BUT in my defence her hair is massive, long, thick, and gorgeous, but the battle she puts up is horrific. You would think I was strangling her. So once a week will do for us thank you.

Bath every day, never wash hair! DS hates it, and as his hair is short, never looks dirty and doesn't smell, I don't see the need. I do sometimes rinse it with water, but don't use shampoo.

My 2 year old needed daily bath and hair wash between 6 months and close to 2 years old because he was very mucky. Always experimenting with which foods made the best hair gel. He finally seems to have grown out of that so I've shifted to alternate nightly baths and hair washing on a 'when it is dirty' basis which is a relief as he's always hated it.
My 5 year old has had twice weekly bath and hair wash his whole life. He never got that grubby as toddler. Now he's at school I am sometimes having to make him have more baths as he's discovered a love of rolling in the dirt. I still don't wash his hair more than twice a week though.
Go with what works for your children op. Its not really any of your mil's business.

Once a week washed with shampoo and conditioner. Then they swim 2-3 times a week when it gets rinsed with water in shower after.

As an adult I shower/ bath daily, and hair rinsed at pool also with just water, but only wash my hair with shampoo and conditioner once a week also.

Shower every day (bedtime routine) hair once a week. Or more if he has been swimming.

At that age - a bath every night as part of bedtime routine but for relaxation rather than "washing". So we never used soap or any kind of bubble bath or shampoo.
BUT when DS was about 6/7 ish it did become noticable that he needed a hair wash and getting him in a bath became a struggle. I'd read about soap dodging kids with slight disbelief so that served me right!

Bath and hair wash everyday in our house. But RD is a 3yo muck raker / dirt magnet! I remember the days of weekly hair washes and sporadic baths from the 70s/80s and really could imagine doing this now but each to there own.

*their own!

Sounds fine to me. Washing your hair too often isn't good for your hair anyway.

I really question how much people who only wash kids once a week how much playing outside and exercise their kids can be doing. DS (6) gets filthy every day (unless he is ill and hasn't been out).

He runs about with his mates, races them on their bikes and gets really sweaty. He picks up wet muddy balls, strokes lots of neighbourhood dogs. At school he does sport every day so he's been in the mud or has grass stains on him and his fingernails are filthy. There is no way he would be ok without a shower every day.

I just want him in a rock solid habit of washing everyday anyway so it's an expectation when he is big and stinky.

I go with when I think my 15 month old needs it - so might be every day might not be for 3 days. His hair tends to get a bit sweaty and smelly

Sister, in winter when it's muddy they're wearing clothes. Hands get muddy, wash hands. Shoes get muddy, clean shoes. DS doesn't do headstands in the park, hair doesn't get muddy. In summer it isn't muddy anyway.
We will need more washing when they're older, yes. I think teaching them clean when you're dirty is of more benefit to that than teaching them bath at bedtime, most teens shower in the morning and after sport don't they?

I bet your MIL, didn't have her hair washed more than once a week, when she was little OP, depending on her age , of course.
Definitely in the sixties, a bath on a Sunday night, usually shared with siblings, hair washed, sometimes with fairy liquid, nails cut, was the norm !
It wasn't about being scruffy, it's just how it was. 😄

Definitely in the sixties, a bath on a Sunday night, usually shared with siblings, hair washed, sometimes with fairy liquid, nails cut, was the norm !

It depends where you were! My grand-mother remembers washing her hair with fairy liquid DURING THE WAR, because she had nothing else, but even then the kids were bathed every single day, adults using buckets I think. (So I've been told, I was not there).
It is true that some boarding school didn't schedule showers every day. I don't know how much about cavemen personal grooming, but washing every day is not a modern thing at all. If you read stories from men rotting in the trenches during the first world war, many were missing their daily bath too.

People didn't have enough heat or access to water to have a bath everyday before indoor bathrooms became common and that wasn't until the sixties and seventies.

I think that washing daily with a flannel/soap/water was standard for most of the twentieth century, but that isn't having a bath or washing your hair.

My DS (5) had a bath/shower every other night & a hair wash once or twice a week (he hates having water on his head, has a major meltdown about it). & my DD (10 months) also baths every second night but she has her hair washed each time. When I was little I was bathed once a week and hair washed once a week. It's just whatever works for you and your child

Ours are teenagers now and shower daily without being prompted. Partly I think that's because nightly bath/hair wash was part of their routine since being babies.

My grandfather had a bath every day because he was a miner. His children didn't.

The 60s is hardly the dark age, maybe the poorest could only afford the bath house once a week, but most people gave a bath to their kids every day!

MauWest, your grandmother is spinning you a yarn. Fairy Liquid was not launched until 1950!

I think you wash your children enough TBH! My 18 month old is bathed every other evening and hair was once a week as well. I would wash her hair more but she is mixed race & her hair can get very dry with over washing!

A good clean down and hair brush twice a day when it's not bath night

DD has always bathed or showered everyday (unless of course there was some actual reason not to) as part of her routine and hair wash once a week on a Sunday, ready for school. She does have Afro hair though which needs washing far less than European hair. If her hair has been in cornrows sometimes it's not washed for 3 weeks, doesn't smell and is perfectly fine when washed once the plaits are out.

All hair is different so will require different routines. Every day does sound excessive though, but then again I've never had very fine hair so can't say whether it would actually need that or not!

All mine shower daily. My son and daughter wash their hair once a week, or less. Their hair is dry, and I even oil it a little. Sometimes, mid-week I condition it only.

My other daughter washes hers every 3rd day or so as it gets oily.'