This 'Queer Eye' host says you should wash your hair only twice a week. Are dirty locks the way forward?
After watching — and weeping over — Netflix’s new batch of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy episodes, it’s only natural to wish that you had a personal Fab Five handy to administer makeovers and confidence-boosting mantras.
Well, you pretty much do. The show’s resident grooming expert, Jonathan Van Ness, has been doling out beauty advice to his Instagram followers, no ambush or camera crew required. His latest pointer, however, is bound to raise some eyebrows with the lather-rinse-repeat constituency.
Van Ness, who also works as a hairstylist in Los Angeles and New York City, recently shared his secret to achieving shiny hair (and with that glossy mane of his, he should know). Is it a magical serum? Some fancy salon treatment? A conditioner laced with exotic pearl extracts?
Nope. In a nutshell, it’s nothing.
A post shared by Jonathan Van Ness (@jvn) on Feb 20, 2018 at 12:48pm PST
According to Van Ness, the best way to build up shine is to not wash hair on a daily basis. In fact, he tweeted, more than two shampoos a week is overkill.
Though many of Van Ness’s followers expressed doubt in the comments section, Kali Ferrara, a stylist at the Roy Teeluck Salon in New York City, confirmed to Yahoo Lifestyle that overwashing can damage hair.
“Washing your hair too frequently can lead to not only dry locks, but a dry and upset scalp,” Ferrara said. “Scalp health fully equates to the health of the follicle, and therefore the hair that grows out of it. Try to wash every other day or even every third or fourth day for optimal scalp and hair health. Not only will the hair be less dry from the overuse of detergents, but the scalp will have time to secrete the natural sebum it produces, resulting in the moisturizing of the scalp as well as the hair.
“The more moisture (natural or from conditioning products), the shinier, healthier, and longer the hair can grow,” she added. “The first couple of weeks when you are detoxing from daily washing are the toughest, but once your scalp becomes balanced, you’ll wonder why you washed every day in the first place.”
Ferrara also offered a solution for those struggling with the “dirty hair” concept.
“If you are a daily gym-goer and hate the idea of going on unwashed, just rinse thoroughly and condition,” she saidd. “Many conditioners on the market contain enough active ingredients to cleanse the scalp and hair just enough to get away with not having to shampoo every single day.”
Wes Sharpton, resident hairstylist at Hairstory, suggested other alternatives to keep unwashed hair feeling fresh.
“If you’re a person who has a tendency to get a little oily and you want to go longer in between washing, I’d suggest throwing hair powder in preventatively instead of waiting until you get oily to use it,” Sharpton told Yahoo Lifestyle. “I recommend putting it on a dry scalp after washing so that it absorbs the oil your scalp is creating before it goes down your hair shaft.
“There are also people who find that their hair needs a bit of moisture in between washes, so a great way to do that without stepping into the shower is to use an oil atomizer. I throw water in and add a few pumps of Hairstory’s Hair Balm into the atomizer and shake it. This can then be sprayed all over curly or dried-out hair for a refresh.”
Ready to say adieu to your shampoo?
Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:
How people really feel about the new fishtail eyebrows trend: ‘No. Just no.’
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