What Causes Oily Hair?
What causes oily hair?
There are multiple things that causes oily hair. Unhealthy eating, medications, and improper hair care can all result in oily hair. For me, genetics is my main factor in overly oily hair. I’ve been able to remedy the oiliness and build up a little bit by implementing these things into my routine:
Oily hair solutions
- Brush your hair with a bore bristle brush (like this one) from root to tip. One thing that causes oily hair is not exfoliating your scalp. This brush exfoliates dead skin cells off your scalp and dispurses oil throughout your hair instead of it just condensing into one area. Do it before bed and then apply the dry shampoo. You’ll wake up to refreshed hair!
- Going longer in between washing or, “hair training”. The idea behind this is the more you wash your hair and remove oil, the more your scalp will reproduce oil. If you go longer and longer in between washes your oil glands stop over producing. This can take months, so don’t give up! Scroll down to learn more about hair training.
- Use a dry shampoo to help you go longer in between washes. My favorite dry shampoo is powder based made from arrowroot powder, kaolin clay, and essential oils.
Oily hair products
Best Clarifying shampoos for oily hair
This shampoo is made specifically for oily hair. It’s made with natural ingredients that will not irritate the scalp like other potent clarifying shampoos.
This brand is notorious for having great ingredients. Multiple people who used this in the reviews had severely oily hair and suffered from saborea dermatitis. They preferred this over anything else they’ve tried.
- ACV Scalp Scrub can help soothe dry, oily, or combination scalp; Calm irritated areas and leave your skin feeling super soft and smooth; Add to your weekly routine, or use as needed
- Gentle And Effective; Apple Cider Vinegar’s antimicrobial properties help cleanse your scalp, while the exfoliating sea salt scrub removes build-up; No Parabens, Sulfates, Phthalates, Gluten;
Apple Cider Vinegar scalp serum: this serum Features apple cider Vinegar to help rebalance your scalp with natural oils & remove flakes, leaving your hair feeling refreshed & conditioned!
How to wash oily hair properly
Yes, there is an actual “right way” to wash your hair. After your hair is totally wet, apply the shampoo directly to the scalp and rub your entire scalp with decent pressure with your finger tips (not nails). After you have thoroughly massaged your scalp, let the shampoo sit for 1-3 minutes. My hair stylist told me to do this and it really does make a difference! Rinse and repeat.
The best dry shampoo for oily hair
The best dry shampoos for oily hair are powder based dry shampoos. The spray ones are prone to add a filmy residue and make the problem worse. Let alone majority of spray dry shampoos are very toxic. The best dry shampoo I’ve used is this DIY one, but if you don’t have the time/desire to make your own, these ones are close seconds.
How to apply powder dry shampoo
There are two different ways you can do this:
- Sprinkle the powder directly on your roots and massage in. This can work ok, but I find sometimes you can get too much concentrated in one spot and you can clog your pores this way.
- Pour the powder directly onto your hands, rub your hands together and massage into your roots. Repeat until you get the desired amount of oil absorbency. I find I get the best overall coverage and dispersed evenly this way.
How to hair train for oily hair
Another thing that causes oily hair is washing your hair too much. If you have oily hair then you are a prime candidate for hair training. For those of us who have really oily hair (like me) hair training is really hard.
Here are the basics:
Step one: Start with going one extra day than you normally do. ( if you wash every day, wash every other day for 1-2 weeks) Brush your hair every night before bed with a bore bristle brush from root to tip. (this is important!) After brushing add your dry shampoo (if you feel like you need it, the goal is not to use a ton eventually)
Step two: Now add a day. ( now you’re going every two days for 1-2 weeks )
step three: Keep going until you get to where you want to be! This is supposed to over time tell your sebaceous glands they don’t need to be producing so much oil. Many people said they saw a difference within two weeks, it took me a good 2-3 months before I truly saw a difference. You will want to give up but you really have to stick it out to see results.
Hair training hacks
Along with pushing out your washes, using a good dry shampoo for inbetween makes a big difference. ( this one for blondes, and this one for dark hair ) Another must have is a bore bristle brush. Brush your hair every night from root to tip to exfoliate your scalp and move the oil from building up on your scalp to the ends of your hair where it’s needed. This will help moisturize the rest of your hair and disperse the oil where it’s actually needed.
