There’s nothing like a good hair day to give you an instant boost of confidence. Whether you visit a salon religiously, or are just a wash and go kinda gal, there are some time frames you should observe to keep your tresses happy and healthy. Luckily, we’ve created a little guide to give you some idea of how often you should be doing all things hair and hair care. Read on for all the info.

How Often Should You: Wash Your Hair

There’s no better place to start than with the basics when it comes to hair care. How often you should wash your hair depends on quite a few factors. We’ve all heard that washing your hair less frequently is more ideal. Washing too often can lead to things like breakage, split-ends, and dryness, causing your hair to lose its luster. However, washing not frequently enough comes with its own troubles, such as inflammation and clogged pores. To help you decide how often is best, we’ve broken things down according to a few common hair types.

For thick hair that isn’t very oily, once a week is fine. Thick hair distributes oil better than other types, so there’s less need to wash regularly. Hair that boasts tight curls should wash every 3 days. That holds true for dry or damaged hair, too. For fine, flat hair, or oily hair, go every other day. Ditto for those who have loose curls or wavy hair. For normal hair, go 2-3 days as needed.

How Often Should You: Trim Your Hair

Like shampooing, how often you trim your main has some things to take into consideration when it comes to hair care. Your favorite stylist may have beaten into your head that the rule is to get your hair trimmed every six weeks. If that seems like a bit much, it’s because it actually is. Yes, trimming is important to keep your hair healthy, and to keep away damaging split-ends. But, depending on hair length and type, you can likely go much longer without harming your tresses.

For short, styled cuts, you will want to trim your hair often. The ideal here is between every 3-7 weeks. This has more to do with keeping your style intact than actual hair health. For medium length, healthy hair, going for a trim about 3-4 times a year is just dandy. As far as long hair goes, you have to keep in mind its age. Long hair is older, and thus more likely to break, thin, and have split ends. Because of this, you should hit your fave salon for a trim every 8 weeks or so.

How Often Should You: Heat Style Your Hair

It’s no secret that some of us can’t live without our hair dryers, curling irons, or flat irons. But, these beloved tools can really do a number on your mane. To avoid nasty side effects like dryness, damage, and split-ends, you’ll want to limit styling tools that use heat. Ideally, you should only blow out your hair about 3-5 times a week. As for a curling or flat iron, in a perfect world, you would only use them 1-2 times a week.

How Often Should You: Dye Your Hair/ Get Highlights

There are some rules for proper hair care here as well, and they have nothing to do with your roots showing. Coloring your hair too often can do significant damage. It can make your hair more brittle, which leads to breakage and those dreaded split-ends. For color treatments, to maintain a healthy head o’ hair, wait at least 4-6 weeks. Also remember that the permanent dyes are much harsher than the semi-permanent types. If you’re going semi-permanent, you can color your hair a little more often.