How Often Should a Man Wash His Hair, and With What?

Is it bad for a man to wash his hair every day?

Wash your hair as often as your scalp gets oily, and for most men with short, straight hair that means every day or every other day. The American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) says a man with straight hair and an oily scalp may shampoo daily, while dry, curly or thick hair can wait until it needs it, as long as it gets washed at least every two to three weeks. Cleveland Clinic dermatologists add age to the picture: younger people tend to have oilier hair, and the oil glands slow down later in life. DermNet notes that sebum output rises up to fivefold in boys at puberty and that adult men produce slightly more of it than women. So a schedule that suited you at twenty can be too much at fifty. Does a daily wash do harm? On straight hair, the evidence says no. In a 2021 study in Skin Appendage Disorders, paid for by a shampoo maker, four weeks of daily washing left less sebum and less itch than a week without shampoo, and none of the measurements found damage to the hair. The volunteers had straight or lightly wavy hair, so the result says nothing about tight curls. The same paper found that people who washed more often rated their own hair loss slightly lower. A few hairs in the drain after a shower are normal too: the AAD puts ordinary shedding at 50 to 100 hairs a day.

Long hair, a cap and hair product change the schedule

Length mostly changes where the shampoo goes. On a short cut the scalp and the hair are almost one thing, and one lather does both. Once the hair covers your ears, the AAD advises putting shampoo on the scalp only and conditioner on the ends; Cleveland Clinic explains that the oil the scalp makes takes time to travel down the strand, which is why long and curly hair runs drier and can go longer between washes. A winter hat, a cap or a helmet keeps the scalp warm and flattens the hair, and the AAD rule still applies: wash when the hair is dirty or oily, whatever the calendar says. Cleveland Clinic adds that even daily training does not by itself mean a daily shampoo, and that dry shampoo soaks up oil between washes but should not replace a real one. Hair product is the other factor. Barbers often find old paste and clay at the roots along the hairline and around the crown, the places a quick morning wash misses, and hair carrying that film sits flat and stiff whatever the cut. If you style every day, Cleveland Clinic suggests a clarifying shampoo once or twice a month to clear the build-up. At 044 Barbershop in Kyiv our styling service starts with a wash, so you can see how your hair sits once the scalp has been cleaned properly and the hair dried and styled.

Choose the shampoo by what the back of the bottle says

The word "men's" on a bottle tells you little. A review in the Indian Journal of Dermatology sorts shampoos by scalp and hair, not by sex: oily, normal, dry, everyday, two-in-one, deep-cleaning and medicated. The difference lies in the cleanser. Shampoo for oily hair uses strong detergents such as lauryl sulfates and no conditioner, and the authors warn that hair stripped of all its sebum turns harsh, dull and frizzy, so keep it for a scalp that is greasy by evening. An everyday shampoo uses mild detergents for men who wash in every shower; it usually carries no conditioner, so long hair needs one after it. A two-in-one adds a silicone, dimethicone, and the review says it replaces the sebum it washes off with a silicone film that leaves hair soft and free of static. A three-in-one works the same way and is sold as a body wash as well. On a short cut it saves you a bottle; on long hair a separate conditioner on the ends does more. Flakes call for an anti-dandruff shampoo with an active ingredient, and for straight hair or an oily scalp the AAD suggests a daily wash with the dandruff shampoo twice a week; our article on dandruff and a dry scalp covers which ingredient suits which flakes. Bring the bottle you use at home to your next haircut, and the barber can look at your roots and scalp and say whether that shampoo suits the hair in the chair.