[humming a Quebecois folk tune] Medieval V : You’re washing your
hair again?! Didn’t you just wash it yesterday? Modern V : Yeah, but I saw in a magazine that
hair gets dirty if you don’t shampoo it every day. Medieval V : Okay let me pretend I understand how
magazines and capitalism work. Was it an ad? Modern V : Well, yeah.
Medieval V : For a shampoo company? Modern V : I think so.
Medieval V : That makes more money if you use up more shampoo?
Modern V : Well, I guess. But wouldn’t they know what they’re talking about,
since they make shampoo? Medieval V:
Look, I’m used to feudalism and I can see what’s wrong with this picture.
My LEAST favorite haircare myth from back in my professional hairstylist days
is that hair should be washed daily, and I am quite pleased
to see this attitude starting to die out. But as a fashion history nerd,
what I’m really curious about is : after centuries upon centuries of washing hair weekly,
or monthly, or never, how and why did we end up with this myth in the first place?
Hi, I’m V. Now that I’m not doing hair anymore I like to get on the internet and chatter about
fashion history, especially when I can use all the stuff I learned at my old job. I cannot count the
number of times my clients would come in, sit down in my chair, and then apologize to me that their
hair was dirty because they hadn’t washed it that day, even though I was about to wash it for them!
[Whispers] If you like hair myths, you should subscribe now because next
month I promise to insult like half the Bay Area by talking about Viking hair.
The stuff we know as “shampoo” is only about a hundred years old, but that refers to a very
specific kind of bubbly haircare product, and it’s far from the only hair-cleaning method out there.
Surfactants, which are the stuff that makes bubbly cleaning products of all varieties work,
have existed in various forms for millennia. Soap, probably the best known of these,
existed in France from the 4th century, and it was sometimes used for hair-washing : A physician
from Constantinople named Theodorus Priscianus says that the Franks had a soap they used to
wash their heads. For more info on why you would not want to wash your head or any other part of
your person with lower-quality soap, click up here {point up and left}. In other parts of the world,
different types of surfactants were used, depending on natural resources. I’ve read
of quinoa saponins being used in South America, Sapindus or soapnuts being used in South Asia, and
gugo in the Phillipines. Outside of washing with a surfactant and water, hair was kept clean through
a combination of brushing or combing, braiding, and clean headcoverings, such as the linen caps
and veils worn in Medieval Europe. I only wash my hair weekly and while I mostly use modern
curly hair methods, having linen pillowcases from Brooklinen definitely helps my hair feel clean for
the full week. I actually just got something new from their sister brand Marlow, a pillow
brand designed to help you sleep better. Right now, you can buy 2 Marlow pillows and save 25%,
or buy 4 pillows and save 40% with my link below! So y’all probably know by now that I have SERIOUS
chronic neck pain and an unfortunate tendency to injure myself in my sleep because of it. I’ve
tried all sorts of normal and ergonomic pillows, but there’s nothing that’s been comfortable for me
all the time. I would have to switch out pillows before bed or in the middle of the night.
I figured anything that was Brooklinen’s level of quality was worth a try, and these pillows have
not let me down! My favorite part is that you can make the pillow firmer or softer by zipping or
unzipping it here. So if my neck issues need something different I don’t need to grab a
whole different pillow— or even worse, take out the filling like some other adjustable pillows.
The filling is chopped cooling-infused memory foam, so there’s a great balance of support
without the sort of too-solid pressure that can set off my fibromyalgia. I am pleased to report
there have been 0 sleep-induced injuries since I got these pillows. And maybe this is coincidence,
but I’ve also had a lot more good hair days . . . or I’ve just slept well enough to actually
do my hair in the morning . . . Either way, it’s a win for my weekly washing routine.
The word “shampoo” did not enter the English language until around 1814, thanks to a Bengali
fellow named Dean Mahomed, who ran a bathhouse in Brighton offering steam baths and other
“medical” spa treatments. The word “shampoo” was an Anglicization of the Hindi word “champi”,
referring to therapeutic massage. How exactly the word “shampoo” went from meaning “massage therapy”
to “hair-washing product” is less clear. It could have something to do with massaging the scalp
when washing hair (which, my hairdresser self wishes to remind you that you should always do),
or the herbs and essential oils Mahomed’s treatments used, but there’s still quite a gap
in my information there. This coincided with both the decline of 18th century-style hair powder, AND
some major improvements to soap-making that meant hair-washing was a much more attractive option.
English cosmetologist Andrew Pears developed a glycerine soap in 1807 which could be produced
on an industrial scale— although it should be noted that his company used extremely racist
advertising to promote it. Throughout the 19th century these newer, gentler soaps could be
used either on their own to wash hair, or as part of more complex recipes : in 1889,
Ella Rodman Church recommends combining egg yolk with “half a teacup of ammonia, a table-spoon each
of oil of bergamot and melted toilette soap . . . a teaspoon of powdered borax, and a quart
of rain-water”. She then emphasizes that this is for “a monthly washing of the scalp . . . frequent
washing injures the young growth”. Brushing was still considered a more appropriate
daily cleaning method; Good Housekeeping magazine says “Once a fortnight is often enough to wash
well-brushed hair, despite the charms Amelie Rives pictures of ‘a woman’s hair daily washed’”.
The Delineator in 1894 offers a much simpler recipe of castille soap shavings dissolved in
warm water, to be used once monthly. Even into the early 20th century, it was believed “one of
the greatest mistakes of most women and men is to wash the hair of the head too frequently”.
So then then 1920s rolled in and changed EVERYTHING. So much of the
modern hairdressing craft is based on methods developed in the 1920s, because the change was
so drastic. The default fashionable hairstyle went from long hair pinned up in some way, to short
“bobbed” hair. These shorter cuts needed washing more often both for reasons of cleanliness,
since there’s less hair there to absorb natural oils, and pinning it up is no longer an option.
And for styling, either so the hair could be wet-set into curled shapes like finger waves,
or to remove the heavy gels and styling products used to create those curled and set styles.
Even people who kept their long hair would often use similar styling methods for updos that
mimicked the short cuts. During this period the weekly wash-and-style became an institution,
and hair salons found themselves with much more business as work that was
previously done by domestic servants like ladies’ maids was instead brought to them.
Shampoo itself also changed quite a bit around this time. As well as plain soap and homemade
preparations, by the turn of the 20th century you could buy shampoo mixes with soap flakes,
herbs and other ingredients combined and ready for use. In the year 1900,
German cosmetologist Josef Wilhelm Rausch began selling a liquid hair-washing soap to go with
the herbal haircare tonics he already produced. In 1927, the company founded by Hans Schwarzkopf
and run by his wife Martha made improvements to soap-based shampoo for better mass-production.
You may recognize his name, because the company is still manufacturing haircare products today.
Drene, developed in the 1930s, was the first non-soap shampoo made using synthetic surfactants.
This is the product we think of as “shampoo” today : Specifically made for washing hair,
and chemically different from soap and other kinds of detergent.
My curly-haired viewers will know this as the much-feared sulfate we work so hard to avoid.
General haircare practices continued much in the same way through the 1950s,
with weekly washing and setting used to create the changing fashionable hairstyles.
It should be understood that this was not the Absolute Universal Way that every person cared
for their hair; just like in any other period you had societal “default” expectations and
individual people followed them (or not) to varying degrees. Of course,
then we had another cultural revolution that changed everything YET AGAIN, in the 1960s.
I should probably preface all of this by saying that that the 60s and 70s are,
aesthetically speaking, very much not my thing. Here I am, diving into a period of fashion history
that I previously have never touched, because social norms and haircare are interesting enough
to me set aside my own visual sensibilities. In short : Several changes to “fashionable” haircare
and styling in the 60s broke the default expectation of a weekly wash-and-set cycle.
The primly fitted dresses of the 50s gave way to less constructed silhouettes like this,
and the neatly set and structured curls of fashionable 50s hairstyles gave way to both
longer, looser shapes, and even shorter structured haircuts like this. The hippie movement of the
later 1960s made loose, unstructured hairstyles even more popular. Styling methods were certainly
still used, but that default expectation of a weekly wash-and-set was falling apart.
Those shorter pixie cuts pretty much had to be washed every day or so to keep them
sitting nicely. {Aside} And, yes, this is bringing me back to five years of clients
coming in and telling me they want a pixie cut because it’ll be no work
and me having to explain that no, having a pixie cut look like this takes more work than my hair.
This all coincided with the invention of what I must admit is my least favorite hairstyling
method out there. The blowout, invented in 1962 when Jewish hairstylist Rose Evansky (of blessed,
albeit frustrated on behalf of Jewish curly girls everywhere, memory) saw a barber using
a handheld dryer and brush to style a short haircut. I wore myself out explaining why
this is Not Great for your hair at my old job so if that’s something you’re curious about,
Hair Youtube can probably help with that. The important bit as far as hair-washing norms is
that unlike earlier setting methods, a blowout pretty much has to start with washing the hair.
I also asked on Instagram for anecdotes from my followers who were around in the 60s and 70s—
it’s so strange to be researching a time where I can talk to people who lived through it!
and heard that even some folks who were roller-setting their hair were washing and
setting more frequently, because the fashionable styles simply didn’t hold up well for as long.
Once-a-week styling is not going to cut it if you want your hair to look like this all the time.
Now that the once-a-week expectation was broken, the floodgates were basically open
for hair product companies to take advantage. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that every
single new hair product was a scheme to make us buy unnecessary stuff. I am quite pleased
at the invention of such wonderful things as hair conditioner in 1970. It’s the tone of the
marketing that I think affected our views. Moving into the 70s, the the fashion was for fluffy,
shiny, voluminous, big, soft hair to go with the “big-” or “soft-look” fashions in clothes.
Instead of the ads just telling you “our shampoo will give you the biggest softest hair ever!”,
the ads are telling you something is wrong with the hair you currently have. You should be afraid
your hair will look limp and dull and greasy. How gross! You’ll have to wash it more so it’s clean
and shiny. Isn’t your hair the nicest right after you’ve washed it, when it’s “so clean
each strand of hair flows free without clinging to its neighbor”? This shampoo is gentle enough you
can wash it every night. See, it says so in the brand name! Maybe you have dandruff. You should
be worried about having dandruff, and you aren’t, says the leading manufacturer of dandruff shampoo
to this day. This one in particular’s a trip : There’s just so many levels of messaging here.
Wouldn’t it be nice to wash your hair every day, how important frequent washing is to clean hair,
how other shampoos will ruin your hair if you use them often enough, so of course the solution is
to buy this shampoo instead of, say, washing your hair less often. Because then your hair
wouldn’t be cleeean. I think this is actually the first period where I’ve seen ads talk about
hair “looking clean” as a visual quality rather than “being clean” and “looking beautiful” or
“shiny” or what have you. Daily shampooing did not automatically become the norm for
everyone : The wonderful Muse of Muse and Dionysus was kind enough to ask their mom about her natural
hair routine in the 60s. Mama Muse described washing her hair every two weeks and wearing
braids and ponytails in between, or having her hair hot-combed for special occasions. However,
that did not stop advertizers from targeting natural-haired folks with this daily-shampoo
messaging; they just changed their wording a bit. So what’s the lesson here? Never underestimate
the willingness or ability of marketing to make up a problem so it can sell you the solution.
The number one goal of advertising is to get you to buy something, and for quite a while, making
people feel ashamed and inadequate has been a very effective way to do so. Your unwashed hair is
dirty, so buy more shampoo! Your hair is dry from too much shampooing, so buy conditioner! Your hair
isn’t voluminous enough, so buy hairspray! And so on. It’s capitalism at its finest— and by finest I
mean “willing to throw such things as ‘truth’ and ‘self-esteem’ and ‘good sense’ by the wayside”.
What frustrates me even more is that this same marketing is also driving the movement
away from daily shampooing! Shampoo is too drying, so you should buy co-wash and dry shampoo instead!
I am very, very happy to live in a time and place where we are spoiled for choice when it comes to
haircare products. You can find something these days for just about every texture of hair and
every lifestyle a person might have. But I am NOT pleased about the amount of shaming and
misinformation that remains in beauty industry marketing, or the power it has. Take it from
a trained professional hairstylist : Don’t believe what you see in beauty product ads,
because it’s not required to be truthful, and it pretty much never has been.
I do really love these moments where I get to use my hairdresser credentials for fashion history
study. Tell me in the comments about either your favorite or least favorite advertising-fueled
myth, and while you’re there why not click the like button and subscribe for more hair history?
Thanks again to Marlow for sponsoring this video. I promise you no problems needed to
be invented to make me want pillows this comfy and versatile; click the link in the
description to get 25% off two pillows or 40% off four pillows. At least when I do insult half
the Bay Area next month talking about Viking hair, it’ll be on a full night’s sleep . . .