Do you always have the urge to wash your hair right after your workout? What if you didn’t need to after every session? There are a couple of reasons why you should wash your hair after every workout, but if you don’t have the time or if you don’t feel the need, there are plenty of other ways to make your hair look clean without possible damage that can be caused by over-shampooing your hair.
Use Dry Shampoo
We all know dry shampoo can be applied when we wake up and our hair looks greasy, but we don’t have time to shower, but you could also put some dry shampoo in your hair before working out. It can help absorb the sweat while you work out and allow you to be able to run some errands or get lunch with your friends, but still fit that daily workout in. Just make sure not to overuse the dry shampoo as that can lead to clogged hair follicles and unsightly product build up.
Wash Less Frequently
When you work out four to six times a week, washing your hair every time is going to start to cause some damage. Your hair is beginning to have its natural oils stripped away, rather than just cleaning hair of dirt, and that will make it look all dried and damaged. Why don’t you try washing it every two to three days instead? No different than what people are told to do already; just because you work out, doesn’t mean you are immune to damage from a harsh shampoo habit.
If you are someone with rather oily hair or someone who works out often, you should be using a sulfate-free shampoo. Here at Keranique, we have our “Keranique Scalp Stimulating Shampoo” which is a sulfate-free shampoo that will be more gentle on your hair than a drug store shampoo. Sulfate-free products tend to be gentler and lighter on your scalp, helping to eliminate the overproduction of oils.
Rinse Your Hair
Just because you worked out and got all sweaty doesn’t mean you need to shampoo your hair right at the very second you finish. Instead after working out, you could just rinse water through your hair. By rinsing your hair out, you are taking out excess sweat but not completely washing out all the natural oils and stripping your hair. Just get rid of that sweaty feeling but also not cause any unneeded damage to your hair.
Only Condition Your Hair
If you are able to get away with just a rinse, you may also want to condition your hair to remoisturize what oils your hair has lost when the hair cuticle opens up in the warm water. Unlike shampoo, when you just rinse and condition your hair during the shower, you are recreating moisture in your hair and making it all shiny and soft. Whereas when you wash and shampoo it every time, you are removing the natural oils every single day to the point where your hair is going to be dry and frizzy.
Aftermath of Sweating
When sweat is mixed with your scalp’s sebum oil, it can begin to block your pores and harm your hair follicles. Unfortunately, this can lead to hair loss or a harder time growing new hair. Workouts and sweating can also sometimes lead to fungal or bacterial infections such as dandruff. If you are someone who sweats a lot during a workout, it is probably best to find time to shower. On the other hand, if you don’t sweat a lot and you don’t normally have oily hair, you can most likely get away with washing your hair less frequently than right after every workout.
No matter the workout, there’s always a solution for your hair, but as you can see the solution is not always to wash your hair. Whether you decide you are someone who should just rinse their hair out after a workout or if you are someone who will just use dry shampoo beforehand and call it a day, the answer doesn’t always have to be shampoo. Allow your hair some time away from the stripping of oils and see how your hair is glowing with all its natural oils glistening through. Why ruin perfectly good hair or your health when you can have both!
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This article is not intended to treat any disease or offer a substitution for professional medical advice.
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