Yeah in this age of misinformation I think it’s really important to not just share the truth, but also avoid saying something that could be interpreted in an anti-science way. No the commenter doesn’t explicitly say “never use soap” but, as written, that’s what’s implied.

All the people who poses reading comprehension skills in this thread

Lol yep tell me more about your reading comprehension skills

Jesus Christ the uninformed comments in this thread. Are you seriously saying soap is bad?

You do understand the benefit of removing viruses from your hands, right?

Washing with soap and water is one of the key public health practices that can significantly slow the rate of a pandemic and limit the number of infections, preventing a disastrous overburdening of hospitals and clinics. Source

I can only hope you were only trying to reference scalp care rather than the benefits of soap as a whole.

But either way you’re wrong.

So unlike hand soaps etc, shampoo is not trying to sanitize your hair. Washing is to remove dirt and grease, not necessarily kill microbes.

Yes sebum is beneficial to the scalp. And yes stripping too much sebum from the skin (washing too often) can lead to dryness and irritation and dandruff symptoms.

But dandruff can also be caused by fungus and bacteria, see the “Causes - > Microorganisms” section of the Dandruff Wikipedia article. The fungus mentioned here specifically feeds on sebum, so not washing enough to remove that sebum can cause that fungus to thrive.

So yes washing too much can cause dandruff, but so can not washing enough (I linked this interview with a dermatologist in another comment, they say the same thing here.)

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer here. But doctors do recommend washing your hair regularly - how regularly depends on a variety of factors.

Co-washing only (washing with conditioner and skipping shampoo) is highly recommended for folks with extremely curly hair.

I tried it with my largely straight and thin hair and it was a disaster for me. But different hair textures require different solutions.

Re: “all the after-products” Again, different hair types require different solutions. A heat protectant product (applied on damp hair after washing and before drying and styling) is really important if you’re using heated styling tools for straightening or curling your hair. Even moreso if you’re also coloring your hair, which can make your hair more susceptible to heat-based damage. Additionally, for certain hair types and cuts, styling products are absolutely necessary to achieve the look you’re going for. My hair won’t hold a curl without adding product to it before styling.

As I say on another comment on this thread, my hairdresser does recommend that I shampoo twice on wash days to ensure I remove all the dirt/grease/styling product. Shampooing once (with my SLS-free shampoo) wasn’t getting my hair clean enough.

So yes, including after-care products in your routine may necessitate different cleaning steps compared to someone who isn’t using the same products. But again, what you are doing with your hair and the type of hair you have also influences the types of products that are valuable for you to use (shampoo, conditioner, and aftercare.)

All that said, claiming that haircare is all advertising “with a bit of social dynamics and zero science behind it” is misleading, uninformed, and incorrect. 😘

Since you sound like you want science, here’s an interview with a doctor of dermatology.

Google tells me yes H&S does use SLS in the US, confirmed here On their US website

I did see a Reddit thread as a search result that says H&S dropped SLS as an ingredient in Europe - the thread was from 11 months ago, but I also didn’t open it to check the details. And I haven’t watched the video so I don’t know what region this guy is in.

Edit: rechecked the post and it looks like this guy stopped shampooing 7 years ago (so before H&S dropped SLS in Europe.) From my memory as a long-haired woman/regular consumer of haircare products, I would say concern over SLS started within the last 10 years. So potentially this guy in the video was making his decision to stop washing right around the time the industry was becoming aware of the risks of this ingredient. But again, that’s all conjecture based on my experience as a mildly informed consumer of haircare products lol

So admittedly I haven’t watched the video.

But it sounds like this guy has a sensitivity to SLS - Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. It’s a cleaning agent in a lot of shampoos that can lead to skin dryness and irritation - aka it can cause dandruff.

Cutting out that chemical by not shampooing anymore would help… but also these days most (more expensive) shampoos have dropped SLS as an ingredient because it’s a skin irritant for most people. So he probably could have just switched to a different shampoo.

If I remember correctly, SLS contributes to a good lather: the shampoo getting foamy so it’s easy to spread around your whole head/all your hair if it’s long. So SLS-free shampoos are a bit less foamy. My hairdresser recommended that, on wash days, I shampoo twice with my SLS-free shampoo to get a more thorough clean. However, I do not wash daily; I wash my hair every 3-5 days depending on how much I’ve exercised and whether I’m home or in the office on days 4/5.