I posted on another forum that I visit that I had swimmers ear yet again and the Dr told me to wipe out my ears after I wash my hair.

I posted on the forum that I don't wash my hair everyday and the one time I do wash my hair I get swimmers ear!

I wonder if they're thinking oh gosh what a slob or anything because I don't wash my hair everyday? But I don't think you can tell. I pretty much have it up in a jaw clip all the time!

yeah most folks dont understand those that dont wash thier hair.
Everytime I tell someone that I don't ,they looked shocked.
They normally ask why too.

I don't think they'll think you are a slob if you don't wash your hair((hugs))

I don't write down when I wash my hair so I don't know the exact last date that I washed it. I know its been a few days though. I think I let it go about a week before washing it? But its also up in a jaw clip and not being touched or anything.

Despite people's ridiculous opinions on how often hair should be washed, there's no need to wash it more often than it needs to be washed, and it sounds like you're doing just that.

This daily hairwashing that is happening these days is a relatively new concept. When I was a kid, two of my aunts who had no kids would go once a week to the hairdresser's for a wash and set. They didn't wash in between. My surviving aunt still goes for her weekly wash and set. The women in my neighbourhood, at-home mothers, having less money to throw around on hairdressers, would generally be seen wandering around, running errands, with curlers in their hair all day on Fridays. They were only washing once a week. I can't speak for men, because I didn't know their "secrets" when I was a kid. No one thought these women were slobs. A weekly shampoo was the norm back then.

It was in the '70s that shampoos began to be marketed as being "gentle enough for everyday". All of the shampoo makers jumped on this bandwagon, the result being that my generation was brainwashed into shampooing every day. Naturally this upset the sebum balance--rebound sebum, if you will--resulting in the need to wash every day or else the scalp would look as though it hadn't been washed in a week.

There's no shame in not washing your hair every time you have a shower, you're not dirty; however public perception is different. You had to tell your doctor about your washing habits, but you don't need to shout it out with a loudspeaker if you're shy about it. No one will ever know. You know that you're not a slob.

As for your swimmer's ear, here's a trick my doctor showed me when I had the same problem. First of all, make sure you're alone, as you're apt to look silly:silly: . After you've dried your ears the best you can lean your head to one side, so that the ear faces the floor. Then hop on one foot (yes I really said that), left foot when left ear faces the floor and right foot when right ear faces the floor. Usually you can feel any excess water drain right out of your ear. It sounds odd, but it worked for me, and I've seen people do it at pools. Give it a try, it's worth a shot.

Lastly, I think that collectively we have to stop worrying about what other people think. I'm still working on it, but I've made progress.:grin:

Please don't hit me, but I think it's an american thing. I don't know anyone who washes their hair every day here. Washing it every day is considered abnormal!:lol:

My hair has not had any water near it for 2 weeks and it is 4 weeks since it had any kind of product in it.

My hair looks, smells and feels clean.

Daily hair washing is just another load of sales pitch by cosmetics companies.

My mom has her hair washed and set once a week and as I child I never washed more than once a week.

I have noticed that my fashion obsessed friends are the ones who wash their hair obsessively every day.

I would not worry about not washing daily, hair does not need it.

I posted on the forum that I don't wash my hair everyday and the one time I do wash my hair I get swimmers ear!

Yeah I used to get this but found an easy way around it. Before I was my hair I put cotton wool in my ears to act as earplugs... so therefore no real water gets into my ears. This is an old solution which I have to do as a kid because I had probelms with my ears which ended up in me having a hole in my eardrum and I could not let any water in my ear unless I could end up with serious damage. But now that everythings OK with my ears and healed up I still plug my ears up before a shower and before I would go swimming etc..

Hope this helps.

I usually now only wash my hair once maybe twice a week and I don't care what people think :lol:

I got swimmers ear years ago from washing my hair and not getting all of the water out of my ears. (I've always washed my hair every other day.) I remember it was kind of painful and I had to buy the drops. It happens.

Please don't hit me, but I think it's an american thing. I don't know anyone who washes their hair every day here. Washing it every day is considered abnormal!:lol:
No, you're probably right. Americans have something of a tendency to think that they can control everything if they just get it clean enough. Hence the daily (or multi-daily) washings, the thousands we spend on antibacterial whatever... Sometimes I just want to go roll in the dirt and laugh at them all.

Course, then I'd have dirt in my hair. :lol:

I've had people look at me strangely if I say I only wash my hair twice a week. Then I point out how long it takes to wash and dry and they understand a bit better.

I have friends with short hair who load product in it to style it everyday, so they have to wash it every day to stop it drowning in gunk. And they say that long hair is hard to look after!

Please don't hit me, but I think it's an american thing. I don't know anyone who washes their hair every day here. Washing it every day is considered abnormal!:lol:

Definitely. We're obsessed with cleanliness and scrub ourselves raw. I used to shower twice a day, and I usually washed my hair both times. I still can't bring myself to wash every other day, it's every day for me. Daily washing is so ingrained in my being that I feel filthy if I don't do it, even though I know how ridiculous that is. Sigh.

Franny, your method of getting water out of your ears is hilarious! Seinfeld reference: Kramer did that in one episode, when they were on the airplane, and it caused the airplane to dive and almost crash. I didn't know that was actual medical advice. :) Right now I just stick Q-tips in my ear to get the water out.

Well, I have been reading books on turn of the century hair care where they were talking about shampooing once a month. I don't think washing your hair infrequently is weird at all. If you can get away with it, it is probably good for avoiding damage!

Have you tried a few drops of rubbing alcohol in your ears after washing your hair? I get swimmers ear and this is my method du jour of combatting it. ALL THE BEST! :-)

Lots of people don't wash their hair everyday :flower:

You can put a few drops of rubbing alcohol or mix rubbing alcohol and white vinegar(50/50) in your ear. Turn your ear toward your your shoulder and let it run out. That should dry it out. The alcohol helps the water evaporate. A dr. told me that.

Please don't hit me, but I think it's an american thing. I don't know anyone who washes their hair every day here. Washing it every day is considered abnormal!:lol:

Exactly what I was going to say as well :) Every second or every third day seems pretty normal and nobody raises an eyebrow when my longhaired friend tells us she washes every five days.

Not washing your hair every day doesn't necessarily mean you don't shower or wash yourself either. With a hand held shower head (very common around here) it's pretty easy to just clip up your hair and take a shower.

As for the swimmer's ear (didn't know that saying before) I'm not of much help. It's a problem for me as well and I always wear earplugs (Speedo's) when I go swimming.

I used to be totally horrified at the thought of not washing every single day...now I go for a week between CO'ings. :grin:

Oh! And I use Swim Ear a lot. It's really just alcohol, basically. I used to get a lot of ear infections (swimmer's ear/oitis or whatever that's called) and found Swim Ear and I've been fine ever since.

I second the Swim Ear or alchohol reccomendation. Works for me. Works for the dog. Keeps my ears happy.

I dont wash every day either. I think when people hear that we don't wash our hair every day, they assume that we don't bathe regularly, which isnt the case. I always clarify now, I shower daily, but only wash my hair every few days. I still get some "ew"-ing, but not nearly as many.

I bathe 'regularly', which doesn't mean everyday. My skin gets horribly dry and annoyed when I shower everyday, and I don't sweat a ton, nor do I work in a dirty environment, so I see no need. I do shower more than I wash my hair, however, and I make it a point to not discuss with people (outside of you all reading this) how often I do either. A lot of people have been very brainwashed into thinking showering daily is a necessity, when it's not for many people. A lot of people will even admit they do it daily only because it's a mental thing, and not because they're un-clean.

Not that she's the end-all on the topic, but Dear Abby did a column on this, as there was a guy who was DISGUSTED to learn that his wife didn't bathe daily, and refused to share a bed with her. The kicker being, he didn't know this until he retired and was home everyday to see that she didn't shower. They had been married 20+ year. If he didn't know for that long, it must not be an issue. I found that very funny.

So, if they do think you're weird are you going to change anything about yourself to accommodate them?

In other words, does the potential opinion of the great unknown "them" really matter? ---even if they were to write back in abject horror (Halloween's coming soon!)

My guess: probably not.

And what if you ARE weird! And what if you WERE the only one in the universe that didn't wash your hair daily. IS that really anyone's business?

No, I'm thinkin' this is an issue that deserves no real worry time whatsoever.....there are much bigger battles in life. Save your energy.

You like your hair and your hair likes you.

My favorite book title on this topic reads as this: It's None of Your Business What They Think of You
heidi w.

PS. I'm weird and rather like it. I laugh a lot behind it!

Please don't hit me, but I think it's an american thing. I don't know anyone who washes their hair every day here. Washing it every day is considered abnormal!:lol:


:smack: I was just in the mood to whack someone. :lol:

I think that you are on to something. Not only does it seem to be an American thing, but a quite recent thing, as well. We as a culture seem to be perfection obsessed. I think that is largely driven by Madison Avenue. Companies want to sell product and they will stop at nothing to do so. Even telling their customers that their hair is too dirty, too flat, too poofy, too tangly, too bouncy, too whatever that product will "fix". And, we, like good little sheep, eat it all up and buy, buy, buy and use, use, use.

There's one thing that I continue to learn... it doesn't matter what others think of you, and normal (or non-wierd) Isn't always a good thing. (of course that's more than one thing isn't it?)
I'll second the alcohol advice for the swimmer's ear (every summer for me since 8 years old ;) ). This discussion has been interesting... the phrase that popped into my mind is the age-old excuse for women to turn down a date...

"I can't go out with you ______, I'm washing my hair that night."

--thanks for sharing how the history of our consumerism has changed so much.. let's hear it for the "wierdos." :wink:

Please don't hit me, but I think it's an american thing. I don't know anyone who washes their hair every day here. Washing it every day is considered abnormal!:lol:

Maybe it's actually an English-speaking country thing - I know the vast majority of Brits also feel thh need to wash their hair everyday.

Yeah I used to get this but found an easy way around it. Before I was my hair I put cotton wool in my ears to act as earplugs... so therefore no real water gets into my ears. This is an old solution which I have to do as a kid because I had probelms with my ears which ended up in me having a hole in my eardrum and I could not let any water in my ear unless I could end up with serious damage. But now that everythings OK with my ears and healed up I still plug my ears up before a shower and before I would go swimming etc..

Hope this helps.

I used to do somthing simualr with coton balls and patrolem jelly. Hope I spelled that right...

My mom used to use white vinegar in our ears when we got swimmer's ear - she would put several drops in the affected ear, then have us lie down so that ear was up (I guess so the vinegar wouldn't run out before it had a chance to work?). It always got the water out! Good luck!

I think people just assume that everyone, especially women, use tons of styling product in their hair everyday. So, in that case, it would seem kind of weird not to wash it out everyday. But of course, you aren't doing anything like that....I'm just saying maybe that's what some people might assume.

There's nothing wrong with not washing it everyday.

My mom always looks at me strangly when I tell her I haven't washed my hair in about 3-4 days though I've taken a shower. She mostly goes "Why, because it looks like crap when you don't, start doing it ok?" Usually I just block it out and say yes to get her off my case, Oh no I've been lying :silly:

I shower everyday, but I'm trying to decrease the amount of times I wash my hair. I used to HAVE to wash my hair everyday, every other day (with a hat) during the winter because I was lazy. I was surprised how easy it was for my scalp to get used to washing every three days!

African Americans tend to understand more. I was talking with some of my black friends once about how I wash my hair everyday, and they said they could NEVER do that, it has to be 1-3 times a week. Now that I've started taking much better care of my hair, I realize that it doesn't even matter if you're black or white, less washing is better!

Hey, I've also got an aunt who does the wash-and-set weekly at the hairdressers :)

And on the topic of how things used to be done: When I was little the old farmhouse that my parents and grandparents lived in had a boiler for hot water that was used once a week (Saturday=bath day) so everybody could have a hot bath - the rest of the week it was simply washing with a washcloth. I had a kind of plastic baby bath tub, not sure if that was for in between or only until I was big enough for the large bathtub ;)

That's why I can't ever see my mom complaining that I'm washing my hair too often :flowers:

When I was a little girl, back in the 50s, we bathed every couple of days and shampooed about once a week. (usually Saturday for church on Sunday)
In the 60s, I had big, high hair like all my friends and used lots of hair spray. Still washed once a week. Late 60s grew to almost BSL (a real hippy - grin)
Early 70s, Twiggy was the influence toward shampooing daily. That short hair looked better when you just washed and went.
Somehow after that, seems everyone shampooed daily. Till now... When I started growing my hair, I found that it was a real hassle to shampoo daily. Then I found LHC and gave myself permission to go a whole week. What a difference it makes in my hair!

African Americans tend to understand more. I was talking with some of my black friends once about how I wash my hair everyday, and they said they could NEVER do that, it has to be 1-3 times a week. Now that I've started taking much better care of my hair, I realize that it doesn't even matter if you're black or white, less washing is better!Yes, what she said.:smile:

Sorry for hijacking this thread a little bit but I'm finding it so interesting that I feel I must ask, are there any threads about how to stretch the time between washes without feeling nasty? I usually wash mine every other day and would like to get it a bit further but it drives me crazy when it gets to the greasy itchy stage around 36 hours...I don't really know what to search for, I get the feeling 'shampooing' would get me about twenty million returns! :lol:

Okay, done with the hijack. I also don't understand how people can wash their hair every day. Mine has never tolerated that well, turns into a big poofy mess. And here I always thought they were lucky! People always give you weird looks if you don't shower every day. I wonder how anyone ever managed to survive before indoor plumbing.. :silly:

Sorry for hijacking this thread a little bit but I'm finding it so interesting that I feel I must ask, are there any threads about how to stretch the time between washes without feeling nasty? I usually wash mine every other day and would like to get it a bit further but it drives me crazy when it gets to the greasy itchy stage around 36 hours...I don't really know what to search for, I get the feeling 'shampooing' would get me about twenty million returns! :lol:



This article (http://www.haarkram.e-something.de/articles/washing_less.html) may be of interest. HTH.