I’m sorry mom, but sleeping with wet hair won’t hurt me that much

My mother has always had a thing when it comes to sleeping with wet hair. I remember when I was little and I would just get lazy and tired of blow drying my hair every time after I wash it (I shower at night). Sometimes, I just want to drop right onto my bed and fall asleep, but I would always hear my mother say, “Blow dry your hair right now! You can’t go to sleep with wet hair! You’ll get headaches when you wake up!”

But I went to sleep with wet hair a few times anyway, and I never woke up with any headaches. My head might have felt a bit uncomfortable when I went to sleep, because sleeping with something wet under you isn’t always pleasant, but that never caused my head to start feeling like it was about to explode. But still, my mother continued to say, “Blow dry your hair!” There was even one time when she called the doctor and had my pediatrician explain to me a few years back that sleeping with wet hair was not healthy. I didn’t really understand what the doctor said, but she said something about my neck and getting hurt when I slept with wet hair. Well, I sort of believed her. After all, this was a doctor, and who doesn’t believe in what a doctor says? Medicinal advice from a doctor is like gold–you just don’t question it.

But I’ve been getting lazy again and I don’t feel like blow drying my hair, especially since I found out that blow drying hair a lot is bad for it. It can make the hair straighter (something to do with the hydrogen bonds), but it can damage the hair as well. So, I try to leave my hair to dry naturally as many times as I can. Even so, I still hear my mother yelling, “Blow dry your hair right now! You’ll get a headache! Or, you can get fungus!”

I was getting pretty fed up with all this and decided to actually check up if what my mother says were really true. It turns out that NO, everything is like a midwife’s tale or some traditional myth. Here’s an interesting excerpt:

1) Excessive washing of hair causes hair loss/dryness

FALSE: Frequency of washing doesn’t harm hair. Wash it as often as you like, although the recommendation is three times a week. The right shampoo for your hair type and texture will actually add moisture, body and beauty to your hair.
2) More shampoo means cleaner hair

FALSE: Don’t waste your shampoo! A dollop of quality shampoo, about the size of a quarter is usually enough for long hair. Very long hair may take a little more.
3) Conditioner helps repair split ends

FALSE: No conditioner can “repair” damaged hair. What it can do is smooth down the cuticle and make hair seem in better condition. A good conditioner can also prevent damage from occurring in the first place.
4) Blow-drying produces hair loss

FALSE: Blow-drying can damage, burn or dry hair, which can cause it to fall, but the hair will grow back immediately. This is not permanent hair loss.
5) Sleeping with wet hair causes scalp fungus

FALSE: Scalp or fungal diseases can’t be caught from sleeping with wet scalps. Scalp infections require prior involvement with infected sources such as humans, tainted hair care tools or animals. Scalp fungus (tinea capitis) mainly affects children, whose immune systems make them more susceptible to skin infections.
6) To get your hair to grow, brush 100 strokes each day

FALSE: Brushing that much can damage the hair cuticle. NOT recommended! Actually, your hair reacts better to a comb than a brush. Brushing it will only lead to split ends and hair breakage.
7) Sharing combs and brushes can spread scalp diseases

TRUE: Lice and other parasites can be transported from scalp to scalp through the sharing of combs, brushes and other hair care tools.
8 ) Cutting hair makes it grow faster and/or thicker

FALSE: This common misconception comes from the fact that hair is thicker at the base than it is at the tip, so shorter hair appears thicker at first. Cutting your hair does not affect its normal biologically determined growth rate or overall texture. Thin, limp or fine hair will not ever grow thicker in response to a haircut. Plump up your hair by using volume enhancing hair care products, experimenting with a hair fattening blunt cut or getting a texturizing perm or color treatment.
9) Color treatment causes hair loss

FALSE: Most hair coloring products contain chemicals that can do serious harm to the hair itself if not properly used, but it wont instigate hair loss.
10) Salon products are identical to drugstore products

FALSE: Although there are exceptions, salon products generally contain higher quality, more expensive ingredients that are designed to consistently provide more intensive cleansing, moisturizing and conditioning results. The quality ingredients found in salon products are not usually found in drugstore brands. If in doubt – read the labels.
11 Long sun exposure favors hair loss

FALSE: Your hair acts as a shield against the sun. Hair loss appears at the follicle level and so the sun would have to penetrate at this depth to do any damage.
12. Diet is related to hair loss

TRUE: it’s important to eat right in order to be generally healthy. However, no individual food has been proven to be beneficial or detrimental to hair.
13) Stress causes hair loss

TRUE: Severe stress (e.g. surgery or a death in the family), can shut down hair production, causing temporary hair loss (alopecia areata). The scalp usually recuperates, though, and hair grows back.
14) Wearing tight braids, ponytails or buns causes baldness

TRUE: Traction alopecia is a very real hair loss condition that is quite common amongst older African American women. It results from wearing tight ponytails, cornrows or buns over an extended period of time. Over time, hair breakage or loss as the result of tight, stressed styles, can become permanent. Avoid this potential problem by opting for looser styles that minimize scalp tension.
15) Smoking causes gray hair

TRUE: According to J. G. Mosley of the Leigh Infirmary in Lancashire, England in an article in Science News (January 11, 1997) smokers are four times more likely to have gray hair than non-smokers. Even worse, smoking has been conclusively linked to accelerated hair loss.

- Source

So next time, if someone tells you that if you sleep with wet hair, something really bad is going to happen to you, know that it can’t happen. After all, if that was the case, the human race would not be alive. Our cave men ancestors would have died out long ago in the wild.