So my fine, thick hair (that’s not contradictory - there’s lots of strands, which are very narrow) has started becoming oily very quickly. Then, when I wash it often with the standard stuff in the bathroom (whatever is on sale) it gets dry and flaky.
So, I thinks, I’ll get me some special oily hair shampoo. Like from my teenage years.
Gone! Is “oily” now considered derogatory? I found not one bottle of the stuff. Is there a more acceptable term I should look for on the shampoo bottles? Is “clarifying” any good? I daresay I could order something from Amazon, but I don’t much like paying for shipping when I can get it at a local store.
So, can I? What store? What brand?
Oh, and does the shampoo formulation really make a difference? Or is it all just the same stuff with different smells, as marketing ploys for gullible ladies?
When my hair was long, the roots would always get greasy and the ends would be dry. Combination hair, if you will. I experimented with hair products and actually got the best results by using a *decent *(but not expensive) shampoo–herbal essences and similar, around the $3-4 range–with a matching conditioner, and *not *conditioning the roots. Conditioning your roots is a big no-no, make sure you only condition up to your ears. I don’t think you need to switch products necessarily, unless you’re using white rain or other super-cheap $1 shampoo. That stuff always just stripped everything out of my hair and made it feel squeaky early, then greasy later as the oil glands on my scalp compensated for the dryness.
My hair is short now, so I don’t even use a conditioner. Just shampoo and product. But for long hair, just watch the conditioner placement for a week and see if your roots go back to normal.
If you’re willing to spend the $$ on salon shampoos, they tend to give really good results. But in a cost/benefit analysis, it wasn’t worth it to me personally to spend $15+ on a 10 oz bottle of Redken.
I’m a guy with relatively short hair that is also fine and thick, like yours. My hair used to get very oily pretty quickly, too. Then I went no-poo and only rinse it very well then scrub with conditioner, followed by another thorough rinsing. Now my hair doesn’t get excessively oily at all, even if it’s been a few days since I washed it.
The IMHO moral of the story: The better a shampoo is at removing oil from your hair, the more oily your hair is going to get as a result. It’s a vicious cycle.
Now, if you have long hair, it may not be possible to go no-poo, but my recommendation would be to look for a milder shampoo, rather than a stronger one.
Shampoo formulation does make a difference, up to a point. Your first paragraph suggests to me that you’re washing your hair too frequently and/or with too harsh a shampoo. Look for shampoo without sodium lauryl sulfate, which is much too harsh for hair (sulfate-free is best, but sodium laureth sulfate is gentler than s-lauryl-s). You can find shampoos without this ingredient at your grocery store (just read the labels), and sulfate-free shampoos can also be found there, Target, etc. Burt’s Bees is probably the most commonly found sulfate-free shampoo, but Trader Joe’s sells their own brand, Target carries a few sulfate-free lines (Yes! To Carrots, Organix, Giovanni, etc.).
Don’t wash your hair every day. Start skipping a day – it might look greasy at first (you can use dry shampoo on inbetween days if you think it looks really unsightly), but your scalp will soon adjust to not being stripped dry and quit producing so much oil in compensation. voltaire also has good advice.
If you’re having a really oily day, Suave Daily Clarifying gets it all out. There’s also something by Beyond the Zone that they sell at Sally Beauty Supply that really deep cleans.
But everyone else is right. I used to be in the same boat as you. It took me a long time to hear the “stop shampooing so damn much!” message, but cutting back on the shampooing really does help. Now I only do a full shampoo maybe twice a week. I still shower every day, but just use little blip of shampoo on my bangs and around my hairline. You’d be surprised at how much dirt rinses out from just the water and conditioner. It feels a little less clean at first, and I was paranoid about it looking greasy, but it really doesn’t.
Added bonus: in addition to being less oily, my hair is way softer now.
This is fascinating. My hair is thick, coarse, curly and DRY. No shampoo (but a goodly amount of conditioner) is also the answer for my problem as well.
I’m starting to wonder who out there shampoo DOES work for. There must be a sliver of ‘normal’ people who love it and everyone else is running around with a bazillion half used hair care products thinking they just haven’t found the right one yet…
Well, me. I wake up with my hair sticking straight up and out and in 49 different directions. I have to wet and wash it every day because it’s too unmanageable to dry-style in the mornings. I use three pumps of Finesse (my hair is short, but thick), rub it in, rinse, put in styling wax, and go. That wouldn’t have worked when my hair was long, but it certainly looks and feels great now.