Successfully Washing Oily Hair

[florenonite]

I usually wash my hair every two to 2.5 days (Sunday afternoon then Wednesday morning), at which point it's visibly greasy. Sometimes, if I don't have anywhere to be, I'll extend that to three days, because I hate sitting around with wet hair for hours. Almost invariably, when I do this my hair is greasy within 24 hours. This is a relatively recent problem, within the last year or two, and it's not as though this laziness is new :P This past weekend I even used dry shampoo on day 3, but it didn't help any.

This is irritating, to say the least. I don't think I'm failing to wash my hair adequately, as I always shampoo twice and I really scrub my scalp with the pads of my fingers. I have an electric shower, so the water pressure sucks, but I don't think that's the whole problem.

I've given up on ever truly stretching my washes, but I'd appreciate any advice for stopping the occasional day of laziness from building up to grease two days later. Washing two days in a row isn't an option; I learned the hard way when I was a swim instructor that if I do that, I'd best be prepared to do so indefinitely.

[meteor]

Sudden increase in oiliness could be caused by lots of things, from seasonal change (more heat and humidity) to hormonal change (especially that time of the month) to changes in your diet.

Have you tried any clay masks/washes? Just make a mud-like paste with mud and water (or your favorite tea made with hair-friendly herbs), apply to scalp, massage and leave for 10-20 minutes before washing off.
Clay is very absorbent and safe, so it should help get extra greasies out gently.

If the greasieness continues, you probably need another shampoo/cleansing method. I use somewhat stronger shampoo and lighter conditioner in summertime (because my hair gets greasy faster) than in wintertime.

If it doesn't work, it's also possible that your hair just needs to be washed more often than you'd want. Nothing wrong with that. Then you could also try CO, WO or scalp-only washes.

[bunnylake]

Maybe you should get your scalp checked out by a doctor since this is a fairly recent issue. I've had an oily scalp all my life, so I'm not sure what might cause yours to become oily out of nowhere when it used to be different.
Have you tried dry shampoo in between wash days? Batiste is a popular brand.
You might need to switch your products. Some people find their scalps are less oily when they use very gentle products, and others need to use stronger products. I finally gave up trying to stretch washes with gentle products. Now I wash daily, sometimes with SLS or SLES shampoo, and my hair is much happier.
Good luck!

[florenonite]

I may not have been clear in my first post. It's not the amount of oiliness in my hair that's new; it's my ability to wash it out. I've always had to wash every other day (besides when I used shampoo bars a couple of years back, but they're not an option as they disagree with the water here). The difference is that a couple years ago if I skipped a wash there were no repercussions, besides having to walk around with greasy hair till I washed it, whereas now I skip a wash and get greasy in half the time after I do wash it. My best guess is this is either to do with the poor flow from the shower head, meaning it's harder for the grease to wash out, or it's because the water here is harder than I'm used to.

Let me give you this past week as an example. I washed on Sunday afternoon and Wednesday morning, which is pretty standard for me (I have class early on Monday and Tuesday). My hair was looking a bit greasy by Tuesday afternoon, and definitely needing wash by bedtime. Again, totally normal. Washed it on Wednesday, and had two days of nice, normal hair. I should have washed again on Friday, but I didn't have any class and was feeling lazy so I just used dry shampoo. I had a lie-in on Saturday and washed around midday. By lunchtime yesterday it was looking like it usually does late on Tuesday.

The clay mask sounds good, meteor. What sort of clay is it/where do you get it?

[Johannah]

When I had the same issue I couple of years ago, I changed my shampoo and the problem was solved. You might try clarifying as well.

[florenonite]

Hmm, I clarified about a fortnight ago, and that's when I started using this shampoo, too. It's been an issue with other shampoos, but perhaps I do need to clarify again (though I don't use cones, so I wouldn't have thought it'd be necessary again already).

[meteor]

I may not have been clear in my first post. It's not the amount of oiliness in my hair that's new; it's my ability to wash it out. I've always had to wash every other day (besides when I used shampoo bars a couple of years back, but they're not an option as they disagree with the water here). The difference is that a couple years ago if I skipped a wash there were no repercussions, besides having to walk around with greasy hair till I washed it, whereas now I skip a wash and get greasy in half the time after I do wash it. My best guess is this is either to do with the poor flow from the shower head, meaning it's harder for the grease to wash out, or it's because the water here is harder than I'm used to.

Let me give you this past week as an example. I washed on Sunday afternoon and Wednesday morning, which is pretty standard for me (I have class early on Monday and Tuesday). My hair was looking a bit greasy by Tuesday afternoon, and definitely needing wash by bedtime. Again, totally normal. Washed it on Wednesday, and had two days of nice, normal hair. I should have washed again on Friday, but I didn't have any class and was feeling lazy so I just used dry shampoo. I had a lie-in on Saturday and washed around midday. By lunchtime yesterday it was looking like it usually does late on Tuesday.

Well, if the weak flow from the shower head is what causes it, unfortunately, the only thing that can help is using a different shower head or rinsing much, much longer or using a different wash method - for example, a mermaid rinse in a bucket or bath tub. It's definitely true that the type of flow you get from shower is important - and the more time passes, the more it will build-up.
For hard water, try using distilled water or squeezing a quarter of a lemon into a large pan of tap water, or adding a spoon of vinegar to your rinse (white for blondes, as ACV can give red tint). If the hard water is really bad, you might need to get a chelating (swimmers') shampoo and use that from time to time. You might need to experiment with new products, but get samples so you don't end up with a huge stash.
I know it's hard: I lived in hard water area for 10 months once and my hair was like straw after.


The clay mask sounds good, meteor. What sort of clay is it/where do you get it?
To be honest, they all work the same way: absorbing oil and water and grime in them. But some are gentler than others. I liked the gentle French green, kaolin, rhassoul and the more absorbent bentonite, but I think the key is not to overpay for some complicated-sounding overpriced mixes, just get your basic clay powder that you can find at an ethnic store or even a grocery store/pharmacy and make your own mix (you could add herbal tea, honey, etc). Clays are very multi-purpose and great as masks on skin, too - great for thorough cleansing, evening the tone, reducing pores.
Here's a quick list of properties of different clays: http://www.gardenofwisdom.com/clayinfo.html

[florenonite]

Thanks for the link :)

Yeah, replacing the shower would be prohibitively expensive. As I understand it, it's not even the showerhead; it's the amount of water the shower itself can heat up at a time. I've done mermaid rinses in the past, if I'm having a bath, but I always feel like it takes ages to get the shampoo out, so I'm not sure it's better than the shower.

My clarifying shampoo does contain citric acid and disodium EDTA, and my regular shampoo has tetrasodium EDTA, all of which I believe are chelating agents. I think it might be a bit counter-productive to rinse them out with hard water afterwards, though; I'm hoping this can be mitigated with a leave-in acid rinse. I doubt I'd get enough power from a jug with distilled water, unfortunately (also, I'm too Scottish to spend money on something that comes out of the tap for free :P). I have tried lemon juice rinses, and they oscillate between being great and making my hair feel gross; I think they're too drying on the length. I did try a white vinegar rinse this morning after shampooing, and left it in. So far my hair feels soft, but it's still drying.

[florenonite]

I've been thinking about this, and it occurred to me that the problem might not really have anything to do with how greasy my hair was going into the shower. I'm most likely to put off washing my hair if I don't have any class or social engagements (obviously). At the same time, if I don't have anywhere to be after washing my hair I'll put it up in a towel while I potter about the house, and it's not uncommon for me to leave the towel on for an hour or so after showering; of course, when I'm showering before going somewhere, I only leave my hair up for ten or fifteen minutes before I have to take it down to get ready.

Now, I know that things like damp bunning, sleeping on damp hair, and other activities that restrict airflow to my hair while drying tend to make my hair greasy. While the first quarter of an hour or so in the towel is removing moisture, after that it is just stopping my hair from getting lots of air to dry. It's possible that this is causing enough of an extension of drying time that my hair, while not initially visibly greasy, is still greasier than it normally is immediately after washing and drying. Does that make sense?