"How Often Shall I Wash My Hair?" (1911 Hair-care Advice)
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- Опубліковано 19 кві 2020
- There is a lot of differing advice on how often to wash ones hair in old beauty books, but this article from The Woodbury’s Book (1911) contains fairly standard suggestions. (Some other books do advise washing once a month, but companies like Woodbury’s began promoting more frequent washing during this period in order to sell more soap!)
While an article about washing the hair, a significant portion discusses hair brushing. This is because to the Victorians and Edwardians, brushing was an important part of “cleaning” the hair. It not only distributed the oils, but also helped to remove any dust or other particles. (Women at this time often washed their brushes daily, so that only clean brushes were used on their hair. I can attest that this does help extend the time between shampooing, as some oil is removed by the brush.)
Videos clips from:
Coney Island (1917), Indiscreet (1931), Male and Female (1919)
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I have naturally oily hair and used to shampoo daily. Then I got on a historical kick a few years ago, and now I wash my hair maybe once a week, using modern shampoos. My hair looks nice enough to wear down/loose for two days, then I add some dry powder to liven it up and give it body and absorb oil and it's okay for another day or so, then I wear it up in a bun and it looks perfectly respectable for five more days or so until I feel like washing it again. I add more powder whenever it looks/feels greasy. Before washing it, I often will use egg yolks as a mask on my hair to pre-condition it and give it some nutrition. (I don't use the whites, as they can leave weird sticky white bits in your hair.) The yolks are my favorite thing now! My hair was getting kinky and brittle in the last five years or so, and this treatment makes my hair much more supple and glossy again, while helping it have body and resist flyaways.
I would love to know how close to historically accurate my interpretation might be, and whether my results could be comparable to a woman 100 years ago.
BTW, I have also done experiments with bathing in the sink rather than showering, to replicate the old wash stand and basin vs. tin bath concept, and I'm dying to talk about it, but maybe I should save that for another video of you specifically bring up bathing/bathrooms.
I would think that's fairly inline with historical practices. The only really differences I can see are: modern shampoos contain detergents instead of soap (which is actually a good thing as the pH of soap isn't great for hair), washing every 2-3 weeks was more common than weekly (although some people probably did wash weekly), and that eggs were often used more as a shampoo rather than as a conditioner. In general it sounds like you have a very historical hair-care routine :)
I am actually planning on doing some bathing/bathroom videos later this summer. The taps in my antique bath-tub are broken, but as soon I can get them replaced I have a bunch of video ideas I'd love to try out!
I dont want to be preaching, but it's not very good to apply powder or dry shampoo that often. Even if it gives the appearance of non-oily for one or two extra days, it forms clumps on your scalp and if you could look very closely (with special lenses) it's quite disgusting actually. If you have to leave it on a bun for days for it to look "presentable" you probably should wash it when it "doesn't look presentable" down
@@louisevillela1920 agreed
I also have oily hair and I used to wash my hair twice a week, but then I got into no poo, and also learned of historical techniques from my mom, grandmother and of course from the internet and decided to try it. Then I started using an egg wash for which I found the recipe on UA-cam. They said It’s one of the Edwardian (or maybe Victorian?) hair washing techniques. After a while I started washing my hair only once a week, as it was tiring to prepare the mixture twice a week. My parents used to wash my hair once a week too when I was a kid so that wasn’t and extreme change. And then my mother told me that when she was young (she’s in her late 50s) they used to wash their hair only twice a month, or every three weeks. So I decided to give it a try, since my mom had beautiful, luscious, blonde hair that reached to her hips when she was young, and also, my hair got longer after a while so I got tired of washing it every week. For a few months now I’ve been washing my hair only every two weeks and it’s looking and feeling the best it ever was. And it’s the healthiest too! My oily hair got used to it surprisingly fast and I’ve noticed that the less I wash it, the less I actually need to wash it. If I tried this with regular shampoo it would’ve been a disaster. Now, before washings I also do some oil treatments which I leave on for about 3-5 hours. Castor oil on my scalp and olive oil on my ends. It has done magic with my hair. And I’m now three years without shampoo! YAY
Can you please share the recipe for the egg wash?@@izzybell6735
It maybe works at in cold temperature countries, but certainly not in brazilian's northeast, with a sun to everyone (as we say, here). Edwardians and Victorians had peculiar hygiene habbits, that maches with the climate. Oh, By the way, I Love your videos! 🌷
I'm curious, do you think it is the heat or possibly humidity the reason for the need for more frequent hair washing? It gets quite hot here in the Canadian summer but I've never noticed the need to wash my hair more than I do in the winter. (In all fairness, summer only lasts like 3 weeks though...) I really wish I had some period sources from various different parts of the world, as it would be so much fun to compare and theorize about what differences are because of the region's climate!
@@TheLongHairedFlapper I can say for this specific region. Women here not always wash their hair everyday, but not more than 3 days, If they did some threatment. But in brazilian's northeast, many women goes to work (leave the house) with a wet washed hair, because of the intense heat. So when they get at work, the hair is already dry and shinig (usually a special cream is left on hair). Here, heat is the hole Year, and our "winter" is between january to april, when it rains.
Hmm…my hair becomes an oily mess around the third day after washing. It’s very uncomfortable so I prefer to wash it often. I’d go insane waiting weeks 😨
Interestingly, often the more often you wash your hair the quicker oils accumulate, so were you to wait a little longer you might notice a difference
@@thesparechannel6580 I have done that. Now with COVID I can find out what happens after a week of not washing. Oily slop for a head…
@@HunterDriguez Ah, understandable
I really enjoyed this video! I would love to see more content about "advices" and self care technics from this time period! Really love your productions!
Thanks! I'm hoping to make more in the future, as I have a ton of fun articles saved that I would love to share (some with very good and some with very terrible advice...).
personally i believe it depends on what kind of hair each of us has. I have such fine hair and if i dont wash it frequently it looks like it is damaged or something
Also,if you have (dark) blonde hair, you look like having a completely different hair colour when washed vs greasy - i oftrn envy brunettes!
I have fine dark hair and i have to wash it every three days otherwise it looks like i'm wearing a dark silk veil on my bald head
And one should not forget that they tied their hair up more often than not and they wore hats whenever they went out or went to bed
@@popovka Light blonde hair too. If I go more than two or three days without washing my hair, it'll look like a muddy colored oil slick eew
Thanks for posting!
Three weeks seems rather a long time. Though for the last month without anything else to do I have been experimenting with washing my hair every two weeks when before I was doing once a week.
Two weeks hasn't been bad, if I don't do anything that gets my hair dirty. like a campfire where my hair just soaked up all the smoke.
So I have only succeeded in going two weeks once.
But how do you wash it? And which shampoo?
@@Ladycon8 normally a sulfate free shampoo and not very much or no conditioner. then I just add some hair oil on my ends afterwards
You can trust what the woman says in the video. I wash my hair once a month and it's silky and smooth and soft. I don't have split ends and my friends always envy my hair shininess
@@SkSk-gn1ut I used to wash my hair monthly growing up and my hair was amazing. It was strong and thick and grew super fast. I had ZERO scalp issues. Now that I've been washing weekly for years all I have are scalp issues. My hair is fragile, super dry and tangled. I'm just realizing I think I've been over washing for my hair type. I'm easing back into monthly washes.
I think they were on to something they had long nice hair
I’m watching all your historical hair care videos and I’m awfully curious about what film was the source of that lady in the in-floor immersion…tank? I’m croaking to know.
I was adult years old when I heard people sometimes wash their hair with water only. :-o
Thanks for your channel and content !
I think the clip you are referring to is the one of Gloria Swanson in "Male and Female" (1919). I actually don't care for the movie itself, but I use clips from it all the time as it has some great visuals especially at the start. Gloria's character is super rich, so that floor immersion tank is supposed to be her bath tub 😂
Glad you posted this. Quarantine is the time to expirment with how long you can go without washing your hair lol. I wonder if they went such long periods of time without washing because the shampoo was more harsh?
I sure that was certainly part of it. There was likely a number factors, such as harsher styling products and hair tonics (often high in alcohol), wearing the hair up all day, regular brushing with an always-clean hairbrush removing some of the oil (most advice I've read suggests washing your hairbrush at least daily), plus less frequently washed hair needs less washing (seems counter-intuitive but hair washed less frequently tends to produce less oil overtime).
@@julzalta6466 If it's a myth than my oil glands apparently didn't get the memo, as that is exactly how mine behave. The more I wash, the oiler I am 🤷
@@julzalta6466 Yes, I suppose. I do know all about biases (my degree is actually in Mathematical Statistics.), but it's hard to brush off the oil thing as "fake" when my face and hair are so very noticeably oiler the more frequently I wash them. I suppose I get skeptical as I know how hard it can be to prove correlation amongst things that do have a relationship. Confounding variables and different analytic measures can have a drastic effect on whether or not something is "proved" true or not. (The beard thing I totally get though. That "thicker" experience is just because the cut ends of hair are wider than the natural tips giving the illusion of it being thicker overall.)
I'd be interested in reading the study though if you had a link to the original paper.
@@julzalta6466 That is quite an old study and I can't seem to find a readable copy of the actual paper (I was hoping to look at their sample size and scientific method). Do you know of anything more recent than the 1980's?
@@julzalta6466 ... I just wanted to be able to review the scientific research for myself rather than relying on second-hand information from a stranger on the internet. I'm sorry if I've offended you.
Question, so I exercise about three times a week for about 30 minutes Thursday Friday and saturday. It's kind of intense so I tend to sweat a lot. But I've always wondered about how often I should wash my hair keeping in mind my back to back exercise schedule. I wash my hair about 1-2 times a week as of right now, although I am narrowing it down to only once a week. How do you believe that I should go about this? Thanks!!!
There are a number of things you can so to help extend your wash-times. Have you tried just rinsing after exercise? Sweat is water soluble so it can wash away without any extra soap/detergent (unlike oil). You can thus clean it out of your hair without having to shampoo, although some people find that this can make their scalp produce more oil so it depends.
Another thing to try is a "dry shampoo" made from cornstarch+lavender oil to extend time between shampoos. That helped me a lot while I was "training" my hair to go a week or more without washing. (I can technically go 2 weeks without shampoo, but I usually wash once a week as I like to do an oil-treatment for my hair/scalp health and it needs to be shampooed out). You pour on the dry shampoo and then carefully brush it all out. It's a bit messy but quite effective.
Keeping your hairbrush spotlessly clean also helps keep the hair much cleaner. Many historical sources recommend washing your hairbrush daily, and I can attest that this does actually help! (Not so good for my poor hairbrush though. It's missing half it's bristles now..) Hope that helped!
Am I not showing the top half of my face in this video because I horribly stained my forehead while hennaing my hair? Maybe…. It’s just been one of those weeks!
PS: It probably goes without saying, but this video is mostly for historical interest. I personally wash my hair a bit more frequently than every 3 weeks and I'm not suggesting this is (or is not) the "proper" way to wash. It's just a fun historical tidbit!
TheLongHairedFlapper ...Thank you for your honesty and humor regarding the alleged henna incident. What a cute video! 🌺
At least henna is healthy and natural?? Good luck on your recovery:-)
where did you buy your brush?
Haha, it's actually from a set I got as a baby. It has a teddy bear on the back. I just use it as a video prop, since it looks more antique-y than my actual brush.
I wash my hair everyday
I'm not sure I know what they counted as "washing" their hair. The definition can be indistinct. Did they count it as washing to use mere water to rinse the hair and freshen it? Did they use dry shampoo/ cornstarch to absorb oils before being brushed out daily? Did they use eggs or egg yolks or beer as shampoo, or were those things considered "treatments" while bar soap was considered "washing"? I would love it if we could get more specifics!
This particular article doesn't go into too much detail, as the booklet it came from is basically just one long advertisement for Woodbury soap products. In general, egg "shampoos" are usually listed along with other soap-based shampoos and would have been considered "washing". I've never read of beer in any old beauty books for washing (at least not that I recall), but other alcohol products (including wine) were often recommended. These again were considered "washing", as alcohol is a solvent and would have cleaned the hair quite well. There were various tonics that also had alcohol which might have dried up excess grease, but those fell more under the treatment category. As for rinsing with water, I don't think I've ever read anything one way or another, probably because showers were uncommon. Many women did bathe daily, but it was often a sponge bath. Even if it was a regular bath, I suspect they wouldn't have gotten their hair wet as drying and styling was quite a laborious process (especially in the days before hair dryers!).
Oh and as for dry shampoos, I will direct you to this book from around the same time period: archive.org/details/beautybookofroxa00rion/page/154/mode/2up It's a bit up for interpretation, but I read it to mean that dry shampoo was considered a "real" shampoo and could be used when a regular shampoo would have been difficult/unpleasant (such as in the winter, since again: no hair dryers!). I suspect many women may have used a combination of the two.
@@TheLongHairedFlapper Thanks so much for the link. I shall be reading the whole book.
You might find this video enjoyable too, "Medieval hair washing" => ua-cam.com/video/OYSF3lbwdXs/v-deo.html Beware, you got to have a strong back and/or a good corset 😂
I find reasonable every two or three days,Holy God!!! Nowadays, with all the pollution in the air,and the Covid virus, lurking in the shadow...😱 The sensation of freshly washed, soft and good smelling hair is something priceless.
I wholehearthly agree with you.
I really hate putting my head on my clean pillow case with hair from outside.
Since my hair is long, fine and wavy any type of combing makes it frizzy. I doubt that combing can clean hair anyway. It probably just move the oil from scalp to lenghts but the grease is known for incorporating dirt from the environment.
If you live in a city hair takes an awful smell of smog.
When I washed my hair once a week (for any reason) the water became grey. Same with face cleansing if you spread cleansing milk with a cotton pad.
Wind also carried soil in my head (and nose).
I also had itchy scalp on top of my head and nobody could help with either medicated (harsh) shampoo or whatever.
Since the pandemic I go out with a face mask and a head covering according to season: end of my problems!
No runny nose, no eyes burning no itching scalp anymore!
I change my clothes everyday and take them off as soon as I get home and have a shower. On day 3 or 4 I put a small quantity of jojoba oil on my hair and comb then style in bun or a braid and I'll skip the head covering unless it's very cold. When I go home I wash my hair in the shower, rinse, condition, rinse and that's it. It all takes me less then 20 minutes when I include hair washing.
25 when I shave my legs and put body cream.
If for any specific event I want my hair loose I wash it when I'm back to my cave even if it's not day 3 or 4.
I never use a hair drier. My hair dries in the air without any styling nor styling product. Just choose a very mild shampoo, use just a teaspoon on scalp and you'll be fine.
I think it depends on the texture. The curly it is, the less you don't have go shampoo. I co wash and put in conditioners daily, leave-ins.
The straighter the hair. The more you have to wash. But even then, the more you shampoo, the more your head gets used to the shampoo.
I think once a week is a good amount for any hair, with washing with water and co washes, and conditioners inbetween, or for straighter hair, a dry shampoo.
I don't wash my hair, shampoo often. Maybe like once a week if its really dirty or 2 times a month. My curls are thriving and not as dry and growing so much
I think their hair weren't glossy they were greasy
Maybe they had different standards for that.
And because they never did wash their hair as frequently as we do now, their scalp was used to the frequency of washing once a week or once every two weeks.
The more you wash your hair the quicker your scalp starts to produce oil to compensate.
You can train your scalp to get used to only washing once a week, but it's a process to get there from ( for example ) washing twice or three times a week.
One thing that helps stretch the days between washings is distributing the oil from the scalp through the entire length of hair. You do this by brushing with an animal hair brush every day.
This way it doesn't turn into a greaseball that quickly.
But how many extra days that buys you I have no idea.
I don't do it though.
I used to be able to wash my hair once a week because I had such a dry scalp, but then something changed to my hormones and now I have to wash every fifth day or my hair gets stringy.
I might try the soft brush technique.
I have a hard time believing that, as the Victorians and Edwardians were very into both cleanliness and having beautiful hair. If their hair really was greasy, they would have just washed it more frequently.
I'm a once a week washer myself. I find the brushing really does help stretch washing at least an extra couple days, assuming of course you are starting with a perfectly clean brush. I've read it a number of period books that a brush should be washed every time you use it. It really does make quite a difference (although it's rather hard on my poor hairbrush! The I use regularly is missing half it's bristles...)
@Renee Tsuji I tried a water washing only for a little more than a week a few years ago.
It was during a heat wave and I was sweating so much I felt I needed to wash or rinse my scalp every day.
So I decided not to use shampoo.
Result was beautiful glossy waves.
I haven't reconsidered doing that again.
I'm having trouble stretching my days back to washing once a week again. I use a mild shampoo.
Still has sls though. I can't find a cheap one that doesn't.
@@TheLongHairedFlapper I have a boar bristle brush, the hairs are really very stiff (but feel kind of stimulating on the scalp), much stiffer than your brush appears.
What kind of bristle is in your brush?
I've always heard only animal hair brushes work for distributing oils, is yours synthetic?