Hey Friends, for the most part I try not to get my dander up about the small things in life. But I do have a small list of "issues" and two of them came up recently, so I thought that I would rant a bit about:
Pet Peeve #1: people telling other people how often to wash their hair
Pet Peeve #2: sleep trackers
For all things NaBloPo head over to The Inbetween in Mine
Let's take these two topics one at a time
Hair Washing Frequency
As best I can remember, at some point in my 20s I heard a lot of chatter that you aren't supposed to wash your hair everyday. That shampoo is bad for you (the "no poo" movement). That's it better for your hair if you go several days between washes. People rave about how much they love dry shampoo, and I hear frequent brags about only washing once a week.
When I started hearing all of this stuff, I experimented with not washing my long, straight, and thick hair and it was a disaster. By day two it looked terrible and I felt like I had an oil slick on my head. Brushing did nothing to help "distribute" the "natural oils". Rinsing in water only or water plus a shot of apple cider vinegar just made the oil coating on my scalp worse and turned my hair into straw and gave me gnarly tangles to comb out. When I finally did wash my hair it took two days of shampooing to get back to normal and a ton of hair came out when I combed it afterwards. I repeated this experiment many times because I mean if everyone is saying that it's fine and/or better to stretch out the time between washes then it must be true. Finally I came to the conclusion that skipping washes was not for me.
I remember once a friend was telling me about her teenage daughter "she washes her hair every day and it's so annoying!!!! I keep telling her that she can go longer but she says it just gets greasy. Why is she being like that??????" I think that's when the thought came to me that - whoa - people are different and maybe just maybe for some people it is better to go longer between washes and for freaks like me it's better to wash every day. It's just not that time consuming, you know. Yes I wish I didn't have to blow dry my hair (on those unlucky days when I have early on camera meetings) but what are ya gonna do?
In short, I don't care how frequently or infrequently anyone else washes their hair. You do you, dude.
Like many of the topics that I write about, I don't actually know anything about hair, so let's cite an expert: "in general, shampooing your hair every day is not inherently bad".
The reason that this peeve got on my radar is from the big stink last week when a bunch of dry shampoos got recalled for having high levels of cancer causing chemicals in them. And my reaction is, "dude, I'm not surprised".
Your turn: how often do you wash your hair? Do you think it's "bad" to wash every day?
ZZZZZ....sleep trackers
My first experience with a sleep tracker was when I won a fitbit in a work fitness contest. I took it to bed with me and was excited to learn how I slept.
The verdict: not enough. In a perfect world I'd go to bed at 10 and get up a 6 on workdays, but the reality is that most nights it's closer to 11 and back when I was running I was getting up at 5:30 on some mornings. While I'm usually in bed for at least 7 hours, the sleep tracker would record barely 6 hours of sleep. I sometimes spend 8 hours in bed but I never ever never get 8 hours of sleep on my sleep tracker. My Garmin is much snarkier than the fitbit and often rates my sleep as poor.
My take: this is garbage data. I often wake up before my alarm, I never take naps, for the most part I feel alert and chipper throughout the day, and I don't sleep in much later on weekends that I do on weekdays.
Solution: I try my best not to look at my sleep data and honestly I should probably just disable it and be done with it. I only wear my Garmin three nights a week as it is (the three days when I get up earlier than the rest of the fam and need it for the alarm clock function). For an example of how using a sleep tracker can be useful, see Tobia's excellent post.
The reason that this got on my radar is that when I was traveling last Friday I heard Maintenance Phase's episode on "The Sleep Loss Epidemic". They did a hilarious take down on a "sleep influencer" and the history of where the recommendation of 8 hours a night comes from. Their conclusion: if you feel good when you wake up in the morning, your sleep is fine. If you don't feel good, or if you have a change in your sleeping patterns, then you've got something that you need to look into. As with so many other things in life, quantity doesn't tell you anything about the quality.
FWIW since I've talked about this in comments on other blogs and once in this space, I do go through phases where I have trouble falling asleep or wake up and then can't get back to sleep. I've noticed that once it starts not being able to fall asleep starts to become a habit.
My go-to's are Mediation Oasis podcasts and Paul McKenna's I Can Make You Sleep (a hypnosis CD). I downloaded the Mediation Oasis files back in the days of rss feeds so I'm not sure which exact ones I have, but I don't think the particular ones are important. I forked out $3 for the app but I found it cumbersome to use so I stuck with the same old files that I downloaded back in the day. And no I don't have a CD player next to my bed, I ripped the CD back in the days when people ripped CDs so it's all on my phone. I don't actively try to participate in the meditations (i.e. I don't try to be aware of my left foot and process whether it feels heavier than my right foot...who cares) I just listen to them. I think these programs work because they shut off my brain and (rude but true) they are boring so I think it's just the act of listening that makes me drowsy and helps to break the habit of not being able to sleep. So if it's useful to anyone else, that's what I do. When my sleep gets bad I don't need the tracker to tell me that and also it does nothing to help get me back on track.
Your turn: how's your sleep in general? Do you use a sleep tracker and if so is the data useful? Any tips or tricks for when you can't sleep?
Good night everybody! I hope that your hair is clean to your standards and that you sleep well tonight!
"Sleep quantity doesn't tell you anything about quality" - so true!
ReplyDeleteMy average sleep over the last seven nights is 8h 43 mins. Quantity enough.
HOWEVER: The quality of my sleep is rubbish if I've had alcohol the night before. On nights like that, my body battery doesn't fill up and my stress levels remain high during my sleep.
So now, I'm thinking about stopping alcohol altogether. Even one glass of wine messes up my sleep.
Without my Garmin, I probably wouldn't even have noticed that there's a problem. I found the data very useful!
Love the idea with the podcasts!
If it makes you feel better, my body battery is showing 5/100 right now. That's another feature that I should disable since it's not giving me any useful info.
DeleteAlcohol is tricky for sleep. I wish there was another answer besides giving up, but there we are.
My sleep tracker experience is very similar to yours. All it told me was that I don't sleep enough (what I already knew without the tracker).
ReplyDeleteI know and without having a path to get more sleep it's really useless.
DeleteWow I didn't know people felt so passionately about hair washing?! I don't think it would ever cross my mind to tell someone to lessen their washing frequency? But if that was happening to me it would be a major pet peeve!! I just wash it...whenever. I'd say 2-3 times/week? My hair doesn't tend to get overly greasy, so it's easier for me if I don't wash it everyday because of the hassle of getting it dry (so I wear a shower cap - covered in watermelons, so as cute as a shower cap can get, but it still looks ridiculous). There are definitely some weeks I'll go 4-5 days in between washes, but I recently got my hair cut so it's a lot harder to do this now that I can't just pull it up into a bun which hides all sorts of bad hair days!
ReplyDeleteI used a sleep tracker years ago on my Apple Watch but it was a nuisance and was just another thing to track and stay on top of. I have issues with low energy (at least partially related to a health issue I'm trying to get resolved), so I never feel like I get enough sleep, but I average 7-8 most nights?
Yes, I've known a few people with very strong feelings about not washing hair. Plus all of the no poo folks and dry shampoo companies.
Delete1) I wash my hair every 2-3 days, but this is a relatively new thing in my life, like within the past five years or so. Prior to that I never could have skipped a day as my hair was so oily and it would make my face break out. Now my hair is thin and brittle and washing every day would probably make me bald. TL;DR, people are all different and also DIFFERENT THROUGHOUT THEIR LIVES. It drives me nuts when people say that there is one way to do thing, because NO THERE IS NOT.
ReplyDelete2) I do use my sleep tracker and other than on the weekends, I never get 8 hours of sleep. I listened to that podcast too and it cracked me up. I am a 7 hour-ish kind of gal and that works for me. I never nap, I have tons of energy, and other than certain times of the month, I sleep just fine. We don't all NEED THE SAME THINGGGGGGGSSSS.
Anyway, I hear you on these!
Thanks Nicole, it's nice to feel heard! And how cool that you heard the same Maintenance Phase episode!
DeleteI wanted to say exactly what Nicole does on point 1: why do people think that there is One True Way to do ANYTHING? That is not how life works. And most people can not manage to talk about what works for them without a strong hint of "you should do it this way too" and it's so annoying. I have to wash my hair every day or it is an oily mess. I do think that may change, as my hair is actually changing a little recently, more curly/wavy/whatever especially on one side, so maybe this will happen too, not shampooing every day. But boy, I am not there now.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like we are hair twins! And also probably twins in that we've never told anyone else to wash their hair every day.
DeleteWell, I'm with Nicole on the hair washing- my hair is thinner now (sigh) and it's better for me not to wash it as frequently. I agree there's a lot of judgment on this issue (weirdly!) Like my son was scolding my husband recently for washing his hair every day. I don't know why it matters to someone else how often I wash my hair- but apparently it does.
ReplyDeleteI've never used a sleep tracker. I know I don't sleep enough most nights- working on it!- and I think having a tracker tell me that would just make me feel worse. I agree with you- I don't need a sleep tracker to tell me I'm tired. I like your recommendations for hypnosis CDs and podcast. I agree that listening to something boring like that would help shut your brain off and make you relaxed.
Good pet peeves!
Thanks Jenny!
DeleteI don't wash my hair every day because I'm cheap and lazy. Shampoo and conditioner are expensive. I do not want to have to dry my hair and do all the styling every day. So, I *should* wash it every day because it gets greasy and gross, but I do not and I do not want anyone to say anything to me about it because it's not their hair. You do you and what works for you!
ReplyDeleteThose are legit reasons that I can respect!
DeleteHa! I have a post coming up later this week about how people are so divided about hair washing frequency! (I wash my hair as infrequently as possible, but that's because I have very dry skin so it doesn't get oily quickly.)
ReplyDeleteMy sleep is bad, in general. I am a super light sleeper, so ANYTHING disturbs me. My husband most of all, lol.
EXCELLENT!!!! Great minds think alike and I can't wait to read your post.
DeleteI have no opinion about how frequently someone washes their hair, unless it looks dirty/disheveled. I have very fine hair which is prone to getting oily and so I am definitely on the "wash more frequently" side of things... although I have tried to extend periods between washes (esp. since I started working from home), because I am lazy and don't want to wash my hair every day. However, I think that blow-drying it is much more harmful to your hair than washing it frequently.
ReplyDeleteI am usually a very good sleeper (meaning that I fall asleep easily and usually also stay asleep through the night) but my sleep tracker says that my sleep quality averages 65%... which I would have expected to be higher. I could definitely benefit from more sleep (I think I average 7 hours, and would like to get 8), but other than the occasional night of tossing and turning (don't we all?), I'd think my sleep is pretty good.
My favorite WFH game is hair dryer roulette. Every day it's a gamble on whether I'll have to be on video before my hair dries. I've had some close calls;-)
DeleteSame for sleep. I hit a lot of 60 percents and fair and poor sleep nights according to the tracker...but what I am supposed to do with the information?????????????? And why haven't I disabled the stupid thing already? That's the real question.
Great post. I once knew someone who only washed her hair once a week and it looked great every day. I worked with her so I saw her every day. I washed mine every day for most of my life. I switched to every-other-day maybe 10 years ago, and then like 2 years ago I switched to every 3 days, and that seems to work best for me. I agree- everyone's hair is different. I have a FitBit and I always sleep with it and I love my data! It's definitely not totally accurate but good for trending over time.
ReplyDeleteExactly - we're all different and I think we all come to find what works best for each of us.
DeleteJust curious, do you find that the Fitbit gives better/different data than Garmin? I had a Fitbit a long time ago and from what I remember it didn't have a lot of info.
I'm going to take your first pet peeve up a level. Anyone who tells others that there is one way to do it and it's their way - ignoring individual differences. Hello? Is it not obvious to these people that *people are different*? I do not have your hair, Beckett, nor do you have mine. (Although, okay, I'm with you in the wash-every-day minority...) You do you. My motto in life. :)
ReplyDelete