People often struggle with greasy hair, and sometimes it’s difficult to understand how and when to wash your hair when you have this issue. It is important to wash your hair so that it stays clean from debris and excessive oils, but what if the way you are shampooing and conditioning your hair is actually making your hair oilier?
Some ways to wash greasy hair in order to reduce the oils and still keep your hair clean is to wash your hair every other day, condition your hair from the shaft of the hair down, and use a hair mask once every week or two.
It is very tempting to wash my hair every day, since I do have oily hair; however, I have found that if I wash my hair every other day I get better results. Washing your hair every day can actually cause your scalp to produce more oil than it needs, which makes your hair even oilier! Your hair needs the oils that are annoying you; it just needs them in moderation.
So, when you wash your hair every day and the natural oils get washed away, your body kicks the oil production in your scalp into high gear. In order to get the best results, I thoroughly wash my hair with gentle shampoo once every other day. In between washes, I use baby powder or dry shampoo to keep my hair smelling and feeling clean. Using baby powder or dry shampoo also keeps hair from looking oily while your hair is in between washes.
While we are on the subject of shampoo, it is helpful to mention that some shampoos are specifically made to deep-cleanse your hair, which can greatly help when you have oily hair. Sometimes, hair product build up can be the cause of oily hair. Neutrogena sells an anti-residue shampoo, and there is a tea tree deep-cleansing shampoo by Tisserand. These deep-cleaning shampoos rinse away all the stubborn product and oil build up in your hair, leaving your hair purified and feeling clean. If you still find that there is build up in your hair, you might want to consider using fewer hair products.
I only use conditioner in my hair after I shampoo my hair. A big reason that we use conditioner is to replace the oils that were lost from our hair when we shampooed it; that is why I don’t condition my hair on the days I don’t use shampoo.
When I condition my hair, I take a bit of conditioner (a pile about the size of a quarter) and work it through the shaft of my hair. What I mean by this is that I don’t put conditioner on the top of my head, also known as the scalp. I only put conditioner about midway through the shaft of my hair and really focus on putting it on the ends of my hair.
Oils are produced in your scalp, so typically the ends of your hair are going to be much drier and less oily than your scalp. Since my hair gets oily when I condition the roots (scalp) of my hair, I stay away from products that contain both shampoo and conditioner because I would then have to apply the conditioner in the product to my roots when I applied the shampoo.
Only use the deep conditioners for natural hair when conditioning the shaft and ends of your hair, will keep your hair from feeling oily, but it will also keep it from being dry, which can cause breakage.
Once every week or every two weeks I like to use a hair mask. I use an argon oil hair mask which leaves my hair feeling soft and shiny. I apply it all over my hair, including on my scalp, and I let the mask sit on my hair for about twenty minutes. I then wash the hair mask thoroughly out of my hair. It would most likely benefit people with oily hair to shampoo and condition their hair as normal after they rinse out a hair mask, especially if the hair mask contains oils.
This is how I get my hair to feel healthy and clean. This is only advice, so please feel free to adjust these tips to fit your needs. Good luck, my friends!