Do you experience problems with hair that flakes the very day you wash it?
It can be super frustrating when your hair starts to look unwashed at the end of the day if you’ve washed it in the morning.
I don’t have a miracle cure that will solve the problem once and for all, but I can help you find the right shampoo and I can give you some advice that can help make the problem less and hopefully easier to live with.
Read on and learn a lot more about what you can do to make your hair less greasy.
Avoid wearing a cap or hat – You should avoid wearing a cap, hat or other headgear as much as possible. It heats up your scalp and makes your hair even greasier.
Why does someone have an oily scalp when it’s not a problem for others?
If you have hair that tends to get greasy quickly, it’s because your sebaceous glands in the scalp are producing too much sebum. The sebaceous glands are located in the hair follicles and when there is an overproduction of sebum, the hair will quickly start to flap and look greasy.
There may be several reasons why you have greasy hairs. Here I look at the 4 most common causes – see if you can identify with one or more of them.
Washing your hair too often?
The most common cause is actually too frequent hair washing. When we wash our hair, we cleanse our hair and scalp of sebum. This is a signal to the body to produce new. And if you frequently wash hair, your sebaceous glands think they need to produce in abundance.
The best thing YOU can do is actually skip a hair wash. The change in sebum production may not drop immediately, but if you hang in there, production will often drop back to normal levels after a while. Experts recommend washing hair no more than 3 times a week, preferably less.
What hair products do you use?
As a rule, we want to do as much good for our hair as possible. That’s why we buy expensive shampoos, conditioners and hair treatments with delicious oils and other moisturising ingredients, but if you tend to have oily hair, you’re often doing yourself a disservice and actually making the problem worse than it needs to be.
If your hair gets greasy easily, that doesn’t mean you can’t buy a nice, good shampoo for your hair. But it does mean that you should stay away from shampoos, conditioners and hair treatments that contain a lot of oils, be it argan, hemp, coconut or macadamia oil and also hair products with silicone.
Hair wax is also not a good hair styling solution if you tend to have greasy strands. Instead, you might want to use a salt water spray or a hair mousse.
Do you live a healthy lifestyle – or do you expose yourself to stress, unhealthy food, too much alcohol?
Your lifestyle and general well-being actually also influence how much your hair greases up. If you suffer from oily hair, try to think back to periods in your life when you had too much on your mind. Chances are, during that time, you experienced even greater problems with your scalp.
Studies actually show that sebum production intensifies when the body is exposed to stress or poor diet and lifestyle. If you want to try to control your sebum production, try living clean and tranquil – eating well, sleeping well and treating yourself well.
What type of hair do you have naturally?
What many people don’t realise is that your hair type can actually also have an impact on whether you’re more likely to suffer from frizzy, oily hair.
Studies have shown that increased sebum production = oily hair occurs most frequently in people with fine, straight hair. Experts are not sure why this is the case, but can only state that it is a fact.
What distinguishes a shampoo for oily locks from a regular shampoo?
A regular shampoo will often contain conditioning oils for the hair and a lot of moisture. That’s what normal to dry hair needs most. But it’s definitely not the right shampoo for you if you have oily hair.
You should choose a shampoo for oily hair, because it’s formulated so you don’t add extra moisture or oil to your hair. Your hair has plenty of that.
The right shampoo has cleansing ingredients to dissolve and remove excess sebum. The shampoo will also care for your scalp, which may be affected by increased sebum production.
The deep cleansing shampoo promotes scalp health and brings you closer to an everyday life without an oily scalp. It’s the remedy if you want to avoid oily hair. Your hair and scalp will thank you!
The road to a healthy scalp and a natural balance starts with the right skincare products, and in this case a good shampoo that can make hairs that look greasy!
How to best treat greasy hair
Fortunately, there are things you can do to make your hair less greasy. Here are 5 tips that work!
- Skip a hair wash – Excessive hair washing promotes the production of sebum, which makes your hair appear greasy more quickly after washing. What most people do is wash their hair even more frequently, but that just makes it worse. Instead, you should skip a hair wash and wash your hair no more than two to three times a week.
- Use the right shampoo for the job and wash your hair twice – When it’s time to wash your hair, make sure you use shampoo and conditioner made for oily hair. Wash your hair twice and let the shampoo sit for a few minutes the first time. It loosens the accumulated sebum and second soaking washes your hair completely clean.
- Avoid washing hair in too hot water and finish with cold water – Your hair doesn’t benefit from hot water, especially if you tend to get greasy strands throughout the day. You can minimise sebum production by washing your hair in cool water and finishing with as cold water as you can stand. It’s sure to wake you up, too.
- Use dry shampoo on the days you don’t wash your hair – As I said, you should leave as much time as possible between washing your hair. This can be difficult if you’re in the habit of washing your hair every morning. However, you can use a dry shampoo on your hair on the 2nd and 3rd day. When you apply dry shampoo to your scalp, it soaks up the sebum/oil in your hair and gives your hair back its fullness and clean look.
- Use the right hair styling products – If you have greasy strands, you need to be really careful about the products you use on your hair. Heavy styling products like waxes and gels are rarely a good idea, as they will cause your hair to clump even more. Likewise, hair oils are also not very suitable unless you can settle for putting it in the ends of long hair.