If it’s one thing that continually comes up in conversation when clients are having hair/scalp issues it’s that I recommend shampooing twice each time you wash your hair. This invariably causes a surprised reaction followed by the question “Really?”, yes really!
I promise you it’s necessary! I’m not just saying it to make more money – truly! I just want you to have the best results possible.
Here’s what’s happening when you shampoo your hair and why a second (and sometimes third) shampoo is absolutely necessary. And here’s a little tip – we don’t actually want to shampoo our HAIR we really want to focus on the SCALP because a healthy scalp = healthy hair!
The sebaceous glands create sebum (oil) to help protect our scalp (and hair) naturally. The rate of secretion varies from person to person for many reasons (diet is a big one but often it can just be in your genes). If you are on the high end of the scale you’ll need to shampoo more often and MAY be able to get away with only 1 or 2 shampoos each time you cleanse your scalp. However, most people can get away with shampooing every 2-3 days and for young children this is far less as sebum secretion is usually very mild until puberty.
Sebum is produced to help protect our hair and skin from drying out but if we don’t regularly remove this oil it attracts dirt and other contaminants and can lead to all sorts of hair and scalp concerns including infections and hair loss.
Shampoo works by having molecules that have a positive end and a negative end – what this really means is that these fancy molecules help water & oil stick together to be carried off the scalp and down the drain.
Professional shampoo’s, like ME&MY cleansers/shampoo’s, are made to GENTLY cleanse the hair and scalp because we don’t actually want to remove ALL the natural protection and we definitely don’t want to remove any artificial colour or harm the structure of the hair.
In order to gently cleanse the first shampoo is usually only enough to break the oil barrier and it’s the second and third shampoo that removes the oil and dirt. The dirtier/oilier/waxier the scalp the more times you will need to cleanse.
Check out the video I made to show you just how it works (below)! This is a styling product (not ME&MY so shall remain nameless) mixed with a little bit of oil on a white plate so we can clearly see what is happening at each step of the process. I applied shampoo, gently rubbed at it to replicate washing the scalp, then rinsed and repeated 4 times! Yes 4 times before it was clean.
So, my advice is – shampoo twice and your scalp will definitely thank you!
Sara x
