Hacks for Oily Hair: How to Reduce Greasy Hair?-Less Is More

• Your hair is oily after day 2 and looks like you haven’t washed in a week?
• You double shampoo as you have very oily scalp but your hair is so dry at the ends?
• You tried so many shampoo for greasy hair and spent lots of money with no improvement?
• You used tons of dry shampoo for oily hair every day to get rid of oily hair?

Overly greasy scalp can lead to uncomfortable itching and seborrheic dermatitis. It can even provide a feast for the fungus that causes dandruff. People who has oily hair is more likely has oily skin and acnes issues, oily hair spread oil to face and back which may cause acnes more seriously. And it’s panic to keep your hair fresh and beautiful all the time if you have oily hair type.

However over washing makes your hair becomes oily much faster and may damage your hair, cause pH imbalance and irritate your scalp. You strip off your oil from hair when you wash your hair with shampoo, it sends the scalp the signal to produce more sebum. If you’re washing your hair too often, your scalp gets the message that it needs to be in oil production overdrive. This can result in oily buildup on your scalp. Meanwhile you will getting more split ends and breakage than usual especially with shampoos contains harmful chemical ingredients like parabens, sulfates, silicone etc.

Overusing dry shampoos will ruin your hair too. Dry shampoo is a starch or alcohol-based product used to absorb oil and odor from the hair but will also build up on our scalp or on our hair, that can clog our follicles, and the more our follicles are clogged, that can lead to folliculitis, which is an inflammation around hair follicles. And then you may see some scalp issues and shedding because of that.

Even so there are many options for treating oily hair. Here’re some brilliant hacks for oily hair-how to cut the grease instead of just washing with shampoo and use dry shampoo.

Wash Gently

You may find the more you wash or put effort on your hair the more oily your hair becomes. Opposite to this vicious circle, treat your scalp gently can reduce stimulate oil glands and let your scalp start a virtuous cycle:

• Wash your hair with shampoo only you need to. Don’t wash hair with shampoo too often, the frequency varies depends on how fast your hair is oiled. Nonetheless the frequency of shampoo washing should be limited to 2-3 times a week.
• Find a mild de-greasing product which thoroughly cleanses the scalp but doesn’t de-grease too severely. Use only luke-warm water and don’t use too hot a setting when blow-drying. Warmth stimulates the scalp causing a rise in sebum production.
• Wash your hair carefully and only briefly. Don’t massage or rub very hard, rubbing the scalp excessively whilst washing also tends to have a negative effect.

Cut Shampoo-Wash with Water

Generally, if there is a tendency to oily hair, dermatologists will recommend not washing hair at all for a few days, so the scalp can recover. We can do scalp training with similar method—tricking your scalp to produce less oil. You may heard NO POO method that can produces a balanced amount of oil and have voluminous hair. It will bring you long term benefit however people with oily hair should use it smartly. You need very long time to build your hair balance with NO POO method, it might be a few month progress need to be done gradually. However for people who has greasy hair may can’t stand not washing hair even one day. There’s no way to go out with flat oily hair. Also dirt and oily will cause scalp issues too.

Oily hair still need to be washed with shampoo. The trick is wash your hair everyday but cut your shampoo gradually, the rest of the day wash your hair with water only. Water can still clean your hair and wash away a bit of oil but very gently, not as hard as shampoo. Blow dry is also a good way to get rid of greasy roots and let your hair last fresh longer. So you can still have clean hair on the day without shampoo.

The frequency of using shampoo varies and can be generally extended step by step. For example, if you wash your hair with shampoo every day, as a start, one day you wash your hair with shampoo and the next day you just wash with water. When your scalp gets used to it you can extend like wash your hair with shampoo one day and the next two days just wash with water.

This way may takes long time (a few months/years) but you’ll get long term benefit. And the frequency to wash with shampoo or water is flexible depends on your personal condition. You still need to wash with shampoo with oily hair, but this method could help to decrease the oily speed in a natural way.

Less Hair Products, Less Harsh

A surprisingly broad range of hair care products build up and makes your hair easier to get oily: dry shampoo, gels, waxes, curl spray and many other hair products. Try to use less these products and only use products you need to reduce harsh to your scalp and hair. Treat you hair in a nature way that won’t cause build up like use silk pillowcase to have more smooth & hydrate hair, use heatless silk hair curler to create your hair style instead of curl spray.

Conditioner or Not?

Conditioner can make your hair look greasy and cause oils to pile up faster. Does oily hair need conditioner? It really depends. If you have short hair or your hair is not frizzy or dry after wash, you can avoid it. If you really believe you need conditioners for your oily hair especially you have very long hair or dry ends, avoid using conditioners to roots, and only apply to ends. Be sure to thoroughly rinse. Choose lightweight conditioners and control the amount carefully. Try leave-in conditioner which is much easier to control the amount and avoid roots.

Avoid Stimulation

Brushing and touching your hair can stimulate oil glands. Lock twirling, head scratching, running fingers through your hair, massaging your scalp — the more you play with your hair or touch scalp, the worse it will look. You can draw scalp oils down into the strands and add extra oils from your hands. Whether you’re washing, brushing, styling, or scratching your head, it’s important to be extra gentle. Irritating your scalp can actually overstimulate it and cause your oil glands to produce even more oil.

You Need Two Hair Brushes for Oily Hair

You need to have at least two hair brushes with different functions. Only use a wide-toothed comb to comb and use a bristle brush to remove dirt and polish.

As mentioned above, brushing can stimulate oil glands, use a wide-toothed comb could reduce stimulation. The spacing between the comb's teeth will mean it'll distribute less oil, helping to reduce the appearance of greasy hair. Hair should not be brushed too often to prevent more oil be stimulated.

A natural bristle brushes can help keep hairs from getting unbearably oily, but only apply to length or ends, never touch scalp and avoid brush from root to end.

Make sure your hair brush is clean, regularly clean any oil, skin cells, styling residue, or dirt build-up on the hair brushes is very important. Dirty hair brush may stimulate more oily hair and case scalp irritation.

Treat From the Inside Out

It’s genetic disposition that some people produce sebum faster than other. However people who are often stressed and don’t get enough sleep tend to have more greasy hair. Diet may also play a part in excess sebum production, dairy and a high-glycemic diet may affect androgen hormones that influence how much sebum the skin produces. Hormonal change (eg.pregnancy) can also be another reason for elevated sebum production on the scalp. Your greasy hair could be improved from the inside out-healthy diet, good sleep, relax, exercises and other wellbeing lifestyle.

Consult your Doctor if you feel you suffer serious oily hair problem even you have a heathy lifestyle. Check with your Doctor if it is caused by any other healthy issues.