15 Ways You've Been Shampooing Your Hair Wrong

The key to a good hair day might just be a shampoo away.

1. You've been fooled into thinking that your shampoo HAS to lather.

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Sulfates (sodium laureth sulfate and ammonium laureth sulfate) are industrial-strength cleaning ingredients that you should avoid at all costs in your shampoo, especially if your hair is color treated. You'll be washing your $200 dye job down the drain.

2. If you're rinsing your hair in hard water, you should do something about it.

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Shampooing with hard water can make it dry and straw-like. To combat this, use a chelating shampoo once a week. You can even install a special water filter on your shower head that costs about $70.

Source: Free People

3. If you have bleached hair, you should really be using a clarifying shampoo.

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Because bleached hair is more porous, it's especially important to use a clarifying shampoo on a regular basis. It will absorb unwanted yellowish tones from the environment, hair products, and sweat. A good clarifying shampoo will help dissolve that buildup.

Source: Woman's Day

4. If your hair seems dry, it might be the silicones in your shampoo.

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If you see an ingredient called dimethicone* in your hair products, chances are that it's drying your hair out over time. The silicone coats your hair, giving it that nice slippery feeling, but it also prevents moisture and oils from penetrating your hair.

*Dimethicone copolyl and PEG modified dimethicone are water-soluble silicones, which means they wash out with water and do not coat the hair as long as you rinse out thoroughly.

Source: Marie Claire

5. Drying your hair with a T-shirt instead of a towel can really help tame the frizzies.

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A towel creates friction, which will cause tangles and split ends. Instead, after washing, squeeze the excess liquid out with a cotton T-shirt and wrap it onto your head.

Click here for more detailed directions.

6. You should apply dry shampoo the evening before, not the morning of.

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Apply dry shampoo BEFORE you go to bed. The tossing and turning will help to work it in, eliminating any white powder blotches, and you'll wake up with more volume.

7. Don't apply your conditioner to sopping wet hair.

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Wring your hair out before you apply conditioner. The water dilutes the efficacy of your conditioner and it won't work as well.

[source: All Women Stalk]

8. Consider co-washing for your natural hair.

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AKA washing with conditioner instead of shampoo. Co-washing instead of shampooing will help your hair retain moisture while very gently cleansing it. Just make sure your conditioner doesn't contain any silicones, or your hair will feel weighed down.

Source: Curly Nikki

9. If you have gray/graying hair, you should be using purple shampoo.

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Purple shampoo will help to counteract yellowing. And you should do a monthly rinse with lemon water to clarify.

Source: Good Housekeeping

10. Don't just rely on a shampoo for color-treated hair if you're trying to maintain a dye job.

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Using a sulfate-free shampoo and following that up with a color-depositing conditioner is the best way to maintain your color.

Source: xoJane

11. If you have really thick hair, you might be using way too much shampoo.

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Instead of wasting your shampoo, dilute it with warm water in a nozzled squeeze bottle. You'll be able to spot apply the shampoo to your scalp in order to maximize cleansing.

Source: Hair Boutique

12. You really should be leaving your dandruff shampoo in for at least 3–5 minutes.

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Letting the shampoo sit will help it work its magic. Two more tips: Use a shower-safe scalp-massaging brush like the Tangle Teezer to really work it in, and make sure you rinse very, very thoroughly.

13. Adding a couple drops of food coloring can help neutralize unwanted tones.

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A couple drops of green food coloring will help keep unwanted reds from showing up in your dark brown hair. A couple drops of violet food coloring can neutralize yellowness in blondes.

Source: Glamour

14. You could actually benefit from a double shampoo.

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If you have a troubled scalp, use a clarifying shampoo first. Rinse, and THEN use your medicated shampoo. This will help to remove dead cells and debris so that your medicated shampoo can really penetrate.

Source: Huffington Post

15. You could actually benefit from not shampooing your hair at all.

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Instead, you do a baking soda rinse and an apple cider vinegar rinse. Read the full directions here. One cursory Google search for "no poo" will bring up hundreds of testimonials from women proclaiming "my hair has never been so soft" and "this is seriously ah-mazing."

Some people even swear by just adding some baking soda to your shampoo to exfoliate and remove gunk.

But it really depends on your hair type, so experiment at your own risk.

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