Here’s how often you should wash your hair, according to a dermatologist.

Engaging Introduction

Let me tell you about the decade I spent washing my hair wrong.

I was a teenager in the early 2000s, and the messaging was everywhere: “Shampoo strips your hair.” “Only wash your hair twice a week.” “Your hair will ‘adjust’ and stop being oily.” I bought into all of it. I stretched my washes to every four days, then five. I lived in dry shampoo clouds. I convinced myself that the greasy, flat, itchy mess on my head was “training” my scalp to produce less oil.

Spoiler: it wasn’t.

I finally broke down and saw a dermatologist