Does washing your hair cause hair loss?

NO. That’s a big fat NO. It’s a common misconception, founded on people seeing hairs wash down the plug-hole, that washing your hair causes hair loss. But it doesn’t.

In fact it’s important that you keep your scalp clean if you want to do everything you can to prevent hair loss caused by DHT. DHT is present in an oil called sebum, which is secreted through the pores in the scalp. There is often a correlation between increased sebum on the scalp and hair loss. In fact the two are related in many (but not all) hair loss cases.

It’s important for the health of your hair that you keep your scalp as free of sebum as you can. Sebum contains DHT, which attacks hair follicles as though the hairs were foreign bodies.

If sebum isn’t cleaned from the scalp daily it can build up and combine with dead skin cells and other pollutants (such as dust, air pollution and hair gel). If this build up continues (which it easily can and often does) the sebum can harden and embed into the scalp, clogging the scalps’ pores