To Shampoo or Not to Shampoo? Ouidad Speaks Out

Infrequent shampooing can lead to thinning hair due to blocked hair follicles, according to salon owner Ouidad.

We think we saw the slightest hint of a sneer on “Queen of Curl” stylist Ouidad’s lips when we recently admitted to her that we’d had a keratin treatment, which had left our hair silky smooth and, yes, a lot straighter than it is in its natural state. Ouidad is evangelical about letting curls be curls, but we had been invited to her Santa Monica, CA, namesake salon to experience her latest service — the Luxe Mediterranean Bay Leaf Hair and Scalp Treatment — so she did her best to hide her disapproval and agreed to chat with us about its inception.

In curly-haired circles, it has become lore these last few years that the way to keep ringlets looking their best is to skip shampooing altogether in favor of conditioning alone. The trend owes a lot to curly-haired New York City salon owner Lorraine Massey, who published a slim tome called Curly Girl (Workman) back in 2001 that advocated a “no poo” approach to hair cleansing. Shampooing, Massey proclaims, robs hair of its natural oils, leading to dried-out spirals that are frizzy and fried rather than smooth and glossy. Ouidad, who also owns a salon in Manhattan, says she has seen lots of evidence that shampoo eschewing has, in fact, not been the best strategy for those with waves and ringlets.

“After five or six years of not shampooing, a lot of my clients were starting to lose hair,” says Ouidad. “They were ignoring the skin on their scalp and their pores, or follicles, were becoming dehydrated and blocked. Hair wasn’t able to break through these clogged follicles and the hair that did was finer and thinner.” What these women needed, Ouidad says, was a way to shed the scalp sebum and strengthen the weakened follicles.

Ouidad, who grew up in Beirut, remembered the men in her family going to local barbershops for scalp massages with follicle-stimulating bay-leaf oil to plump up sluggish hair roots, a pre-Rogaine method to fend off baldness and hair loss. Ouidad tweaked the formulas these barbers used, importing bay-leaf oil from Lebanon and mixing it with finely crushed couscous — a natural scalp exfoliator — and other ingredients to create her Luxe Mediterranean treatment.

The steps include a gentle cleansing with Ouidad’s Water Works Clarifying Shampoo, followed by a lengthy and heavenly massage with the couscous and bay-leaf oil mixture and 15 minutes under a hairdryer. In the end, after a second shampoo and a styling, our waves had been coaxed into beautifully defined ribbons. “You look so much better than you did when you came in,” Ouidad said appreciatively. We accepted that somewhat backhanded compliment graciously, because 1) she was right, and 2) we were leaving with a recipe for a do-it-yourself alternative to the $175 treatment. Here it is: Mix 1 teaspoon finely crushed almond powder (make it yourself by running raw almonds through a food processor or look for almond flour at your market) with ½ teaspoon of clove or mint oil, add to your favorite deep conditioner, apply, wrap your hair in plastic wrap and run a dryer over your head for five or 10 minutes.

What’s your favorite salon treatment?