Four Days of Dirty Hair
Four Ways to Style Dirty Hair
When I was little, my mom would style my hair each morning the exact same way. We shampooed it, blow dried it, and curled it, without fail. Once she taught me how to do my own hair, I was off to the races. In fact, up until I was 30 years old, I shampooed and styled my hair everyday. I didn’t understand women who could go two days, four days, or even a week because my hair felt gross to me, after just one day.
My hair is incredibly fine and while I have a lot of strands of it, it’s thin—which is indicative of most blonde haired people. Due to the texture, I never felt comfortable with waking up and getting my day started. My hair would feel hot against my head from sleeping. It would feel dirty and flat. But one day, I decided to give dry shampoo a try.
The day that I discovered dry shampoo, I began to fully understand the enigma of not shampooing my hair each day. In no time, I was a pro. In the upcoming weeks, my once squeaky clean hair was now two days old. Fast forward a few months and my now-two-day-old-hair was going on four days. Currently, I average between four and five days in between washings and I use the BEST dry shampoo: IGK First Class Charcoal Detox Dry Shampoo.
BUT, now that I’ve become a pro at dirty hair, I thought I’d share the styles that help me get through four to five days, but the most important part is the prep. Trust me, if you nail the prep, you’ll be able to get four to five days out of your hair as well.
Prep: Once you’ve shampooed and conditioned, grab a root lifting product. Spray at the base/roots of the hair. Be prepared to blow dry within the next few minutes (otherwise, the root lifter won’t work properly). Next, use a heavier holding cream. I like to use Align because it helps protect my hair from heat, in addition to giving me hold and texture. I do NOT use an oil because this will only make your hair more sleek and textureless. Once you’ve applied from base to ends with product, begin freely blow-drying at your scalp and lifting up your roots, until you’re about 50-75% dry. Then, go back through, section off using a round brush. OR, do what I do and flip your head upside down and keep drying (if you have naturally curly hair, you’ll want to use a round brush).
Day One: Now that your clean hair is blow dried, if it’s anything like mine, it looks like a frizz ball because you failed to use a round brush—which is completely fine. Begin to section off and use your flatiron for beachy waves, careful to start at least 1-2 inches away from the scalp. Once you have completely curled all your sections, begin to run your fingers through your hair. Flip it upside down, shake it out. Once you’ve shaken it out, take your dry shampoo and spray around your hairline on your face as well as the part that you’ve created and work through. This will give you the prep and grittiness needed for the days to come.
** A little tip. I use a thick Scrunchii hair tie and put my hair up each night during bed. This helps with tangles and helps to keep it out of my face when sleeping and oddly enough, it doesn’t give me a huge kink in my hair, which is a serious win!
Day Two: The second day is mí favorito! Once I’m ready to begin my day, I simply take my hair out of my thick Scrunchii and spray dry shampoo again on the hairline by the face as well as my part, around my ears and nape of my neck. Then I work through. Usually, I don’t even have to curl or touch up on day two. Every once in awhile, I’ll have to add a curl here or there, but that’s it.
Day Three: By this day, my hair is extremely loose waved. I often have to touch up many if not all of my curls this day or flat iron it.
Day Four: By the time day four hits my hair naturally wants to go back in a ponytail since I pull it up each night to sleep. So I go with it. I add again a lot of dry shampoo, then pull it two time through the ponytail and do a fat bun on the top of my head. You can style however you’d like, but my hair basically stays like this since it’s dirty. It’s perfect!
So voila!
There you have four days of hair styles to work with. You can also incorporate braids or different techniques that will give you longevity.