KeraWash guide
Wash day, by hair type
Four routines built on the same five actions — rinse, cleanse, condition, detangle, dry — in the order and the quantities each hair type actually needs. Pick the one that matches how your hair dries with nothing in it.
Straight hair
Keep the roots clean and the weight off them.
- Wash
- Every 2–3 days
- Water
- Warm, cooler final rinse
Wavy hair
Protect the S-bend from friction and from weight.
- Wash
- About twice a week
- Water
- Warm
Curly hair
Sections, moisture, and not touching it while it dries.
- Wash
- Once or twice a week
- Water
- Warm
Coily hair
Pre-poo, work in sections, and seal while damp.
- Wash
- About once a week
- Water
- Warm
What all four routines have in common
The differences between the four are real, but they sit on top of the same handful of rules. If you take nothing else from this page:
- Shampoo is for the scalp. The lengths are cleaned adequately by the run-off. Scrubbing them at full strength is what produces the greasy-roots-and-dry-ends combination people blame on their hair type. The technique is worth two minutes.
- Conditioner goes on soaking-wet hair. Not towel-dried. The cationic ingredients that make conditioner work deposit onto a wet, negatively charged fibre — squeezing the water out first defeats the mechanism. Where it goes and how long it stays.
- Detangle with slip, from the ends up. Never from the roots down, and never through dry knots. This is the biggest single lever on the length you keep.
- Warm water, not hot. Hot water strips the fibre's lipids and irritates the scalp.
- Your scalp overrules your hair type. If it is uncomfortable before the next wash, wash sooner — and keep the shampoo off the lengths if they cannot take the frequency.
How often should you wash your hair?
The honest answer is that hair type gives you a starting point and your own scalp gives you the answer. Straight hair usually lands between daily and every third day; waves around twice a week; curls once or twice; coils about weekly. Those are starting points, not prescriptions — the three-week method for finding your own is more useful than any of them.
One claim to let go of: washing less does not train your scalp to produce less oil. Sebum output is driven by hormones and genetics, and studies that measured it under different washing schedules did not find the rebound the theory predicts. What changes is how much accumulates between washes, and what you are comparing it against.
Common questions
How do I know which routine is mine?
Wash your hair, put nothing in it, and let it air-dry without touching it. The shape it takes on its own — straight, an S-bend, a defined spiral, or a tight coil — is the routine to follow. If it lands between two, start with the lighter one.
Does hair type decide how often to wash?
It decides the ceiling, not the floor. Your scalp sets the floor: if it is itchy, oily or flaking before the next wash, the interval is too long regardless of what your curl pattern would prefer. Wash the scalp and keep shampoo off the lengths when the two disagree.
Is the order of steps really that important?
It is most of what separates the four routines. The same five actions — rinse, cleanse, condition, detangle, dry — produce completely different results depending on when detangling happens, how wet the hair is when conditioner goes on, and whether the hair is touched while it dries.
What temperature should the water be?
Warm, not hot, for every hair type. Hot water strips lipids from the fibre and is a reliable cause of scalp tightness and itch. A cooler final rinse feels good and does no harm; the shine claims made for it are overstated.
Kera offers hair-care lifestyle suggestions, not medical advice. It does not diagnose or treat any condition.