I get asked a LOT about my hair. Some people seem to think I actually created my entire company around the branding of my hair. (that’s kinda funny!) No, the company came first and one day I was inspired to add pink to it. That’s about as romantic as the story gets. It wasn’t a big strategy, but I now see how it leaves a blueprinted message of who I am everywhere I go.

The most common thing people ask me about is what I use on my hair, how often I wash it, what my morning routines are, etc etc. So I thought I’d do a fun Friday post on WHY I started only washing my hair one time per week and how it changed my life! 

First things first: Colors like pink, raspberry and cranberry fade really fast. I am not a fan of the photos of women with  cotton candy colored hair who had pink but let it fade out super fast with cheap shampoos, so I swore that if I did colors like this in my hair, I could not end up looking like that.

When I first had this done 6 years ago (yes, it’s been that long!) it faded fast, and I had it colored a LOT, like sometimes touched up every 2 weeks. Then I discovered a secret just last year that my assistant Abigail (she also runs our apparel company Today’s Mood) told me about. She said, “Wash your hair only once per week and use more oil to keep it soft.”

At first I thought this would be pretty counter-productive. Wait a minute, I thought to myself…. did you just say to wash it less and add more oil? WHAAAA?

Yes. That IS what she said. But there some really specific details we don’t want to leave out. It’s very important that you pay close attention to WHAT you use when you wash your hair, HOW you wash it, and also, what KIND of oil you’re using as well.

First things first. My personal path to only washing my hair once per week looks like this:

Day 1. Hair is washed, dried and curled/straightened. Add oil at end and then spray with hairspray. Looks great!  Takes about 30 minutes start to finish. When I apply the oil, it’s about the size of a nickel in my hand, rub hands together, add to ends, then sides, back and on the top and bangs last. It’s amazing what this does! If you use a good oil, it won’t make your hair dirty either. 

Day 2. Because of the extra oil for softness, I’ve noticed that my hair doesn’t really mess up that much when I sleep after day 1. Its like when I get a good blow out at the blow dry bar. So today I just touch up my bangs with a big fat round brush and my blowdryer for about 2 minutes, apply some more oil to the rest of the hair, scrunching and getting it all over to make hair shine and I’ll touch up the ends of my hair with a curling iron. Takes about 5 minutes to do my hair. YAY!

Day 3. This is when I have to add a little moisture to my bangs, use the round brush and a little oil on top, refresh my hair. Rescrunch the rest with oil again, take the big round brush and blow the ends out straight (as they are getting bed head curls by now) and touch up with curling iron. Takes about 10 minutes. NO problem!

Day 4. This tends to be my BEST HAIR DAY ever. Isn’t that funny? I do the same as day 3 to the top of my hair, add a little dry shampoo being very careful to use a high end dry shampoo and only spraying 12-14 inches away from the scalp. Restyle with oil and blowdryer and no curling iron today. I’m all set in under 7 minutes!

Day 5. This is when a headband or a hat might come out. Just depends. Sometimes I can get away with just parting my hair on the side. But applying the oil again my hair looks shiny, not matted down, fluffy and nice. AMAZING. Many times I go all natural on this day. Very little touch up.

Day 6. I either shampoo and redo day 1 today, or I wear a beanie or hat all day. This is a great day to just let my hair rest. Comb, pull back, done. 🙂 I also love wearing no makeup on this day too. 

Day 7- BACK to day 1 again! That’s it! 🙂

So….. you wanna know the ‘secret oil’ trick eh?

Well it all depends on what shampoo you’re using, what your hair texture is like and how often you dry, curl and refresh your hair. Abigail has hair with a very coarse texture. She is part Indian and Hispanic, so her hair demands a LOT of oil. She uses a much more thick type of oil that I will. She also uses a very deep conditioning shampoo and conditioner. I however use Agave oil. It’s incredibly light, makes my hair silky smooth and I can use it everyday. I’ve tried about 15 other oils, different kinds, and this is by far my FAVORITE! A 2oz bottle lasts me about 4 months. 

When we recently went to Hawaii for two weeks, this really saved my hair from the typical dryness and fading I have encountered. 

Sandi’s FAVORITE TIPS For Only Washing Your Hair Once Per Week: 

#1 TOP FAVORITE I can’t live without it, changed my life! Agave Oil Shampoo and Conditioner has totally transformed the texture of my hair. I’ve used Devine’s Oil and it is great too but I keep going back to the Agave oil and conditioner the most. ABSOLUTELY love it, can even use the oil twice per day! It smells amazing too!  The bottle of agave oil lasts me 4-5 months, so it’s very cost effective.  (Please see Fav #2 for how I shampoo my pink hair vs my roots) 

PLEASE NOTE: If you spend more money on a good shampoo, you can go up to a week without washing. You will be able to now afford a great shampoo as well, because you aren’t using it everyday. So stop using cheapo shampoos that strip your color, cuticle and more and invest into YOU! Get a good shampoo!

#2 TOP FAVORITE that I use on my pink is from Deva Curl. I LOVE their new super luxurious creamy coconut line called DECADENCE.  I use the NO POO on the colored parts of my hair. The bangs and the new pink ombre’ ONLY gets the No Poo OR I just use conditioner. I ONLY use shampoo on the roots and about 2 inches down. The rest of my hair doesn’t get shampoo so that the colors lasts a long long time. 

#3 TOP SECRET TIP: Stop rinsing out the conditioner so much. When you go to a salon, there are two reasons your hair looks great, is super silky and manageable. The first is they use a great shampoo, conditioner and most of the time, a great oil as well before blow drying. The second reason is this- they DO NOT rinse out the conditioner all the way. Just count to 1,2,3,4,5 and step out of the water. Squeeze that conditioner into your hair and let it soak in. Your hair will look gorgeous!  I use conditioner ALL over my hair, some people only apply it from their ears down. You choose. Test don’t guess. See how it works for you.

#4 TOP SECRET SMOOTHING CREME: I love Devine’s LOVE smoother. I can make my hair naturally curly or I can blow it out and it works just the same. I use the size of a quarter and it’s amazing. Used right before the oil before I blow dry and it’s like I went to the blow dry bar! 

When I started only washing my hair once per week my entire life was changed! I could sleep in, read more in the morning, sip my coffee slower or even take a long luxurious bath in the morning a few times per week. What was I thinking when I had little kids washing, drying and doing my hair everyday? That was silly but it was what people did years ago.

My hair grows on average 1.5 inches per month. CRAZY I know. I believe it’s because of two things: #1- the oil I use and the lack of overdoing it with shampoos, styling, etc. This helps the hair to stay healthy and it can grow faster. #2 is I have been taking a supplement now for over 6 months that really makes my hair full and amazing. My hair has always grown fast, but with hormone changes when I turned 51, other health challenges, etc I have even experienced seasons of hair loss! This product, HAIR ANEW has changed my life. I think it also helped when I grew my eyebrows out last December. That’s another post I’ll do… 😉 

ENJOY your hair and have fun! Let me know how it works for you, only shampooing once per week! Even if you go 3 days, you’ve still cut your time down a lot during the work week. Do what works for you!

With love,

Sandi Krakowski

P.S. There are affiliate links in this article. For my hard work in sharing my tips, I’ll get a teeny tiny commission from Amazon so I can buy more!  YAY! (Hey small business owners, you should do the same!) I would never recommend anything I don’t already use and believe in. 🙂