i feel bad about my hair care changes

[cdonald2]

I have baby fine hair, and i was cone/sulfate free for a while.

I was able to stretch washes more often this way, but my hair felt like it was lacking something vital, it was very limp and lifeless :(

I started mane and tail growth and my hair loves it, but i am not able to stretch washes as often since my scalp produces more grease due to the sulfates :( How do i remedy this?

I usuallu just wash the top of my hair anyways where it shows the most grease, my middle/ ends havent been washed in a good week or so. I can stretch to every other day but after that my hair is slick and shiny with grease :/

i suppose i feel bad because i hear how rough sulfates are. I worry since my hair is so fine it may damage it more, but my hair seems to love the stuff with the exception of the grease problem.

any suggestions how to keep it from greasing up so much?

[Seeshami]

Mess won't go sulfate and cone free. He'd a drug addict. You can look for products that fall into the line of your old routine with the same benefits but there's no way to make your body or hair react any differently then it is. A clarifying or chelating might help but it won't be forever.

[peachyleshy]

I don't really have any advice... :/ I can only commiserate with you. I don't know how other stretch their washes so long. They just get used to it? As far as I've gotten is every other day and a half. At 48 hours my hair isn't horribly greasy now. But I still have to wash it. I also use sulfates and find for the most part I have to wash twice or m hair isn't clean enough. Maybe after some time you can stretch your washes further while still using the sulfate shampoo. And isn't Mane and Tail rather mild and moisturizing? I don't think it's bad to just wash your roots every other day. But that's just me! Perhaps other LHCers will have better advice for the greasies and stretching washes.
Oh, I also just thought of something else. I wear a hat just about everyday to work. Perhaps wearing head scarves/ head bands/ hats (especially when it's cooler or when you're going out) could help.

[sarahthegemini]

If your hair needs washing more, then wash it more and don't feel bad about it. You do not need to stretch washes in order to have good hair. There is so much emphasis on washing as infrequently as possible but if your hair gets greasy, wash it! I for one will not put up with greasy hair and make myself miserable.

[lapushka]

I have no choice in the matter. I have to use sulfates because of sebborheic dermatitis issues. It at least keeps it in check. If I use less "harsh" cleansers it flares up hugely. Sulfates don't harm you - at all. And even if I'd like to go sulfate-free or do CO, I do tend to like my sulfates. I just moisturize really well afterwards (WCC - see signature).

I think washing every other day, or how ever often you want is fine.

[Rushli]

My length loves poo bars. My scalp loves sulfates, at least so far. (I am still experimenting to see if it is love of sulfates or just hates poo bars.) I can stretch washes to 4 days this way. Just poo bars and I get greasy by day 2 or 3. Just sulfates and I get a tangly mess.

I dislike sulfates for the sheer fact they are chemically not good in general, not because they might we harsh on my hair, but being a SAHM to 3 little boys and a baby that still does not sleep well over night, I need to be able to stretch washes for my sanity. Do what you gotta do!

[animetor7]

Not everyone's hair is suited to a stretched washing schedule. You just have to do what is necessary for your hair and scalp. I know one of our knee-length members, Cinnamon Hair, washes every day, she also follows the CO method, but the point is you can absolutely grow long hair while washing often. That being said you do need to give your hair and scalp time to adjust before you're able to stretch washing. When I joined the LHC I was washing every day with sulfates. Two years later and I'm only washing twice a week with shampoo bars. The best of luck to you, wherever your hair care journey takes you! :)

[jacqueline101]

If it's only your scalp that gets oily you could try to use dry shampoo to blot the grease but if it's over the whole scalp not at the front hair line a wash might be in order. How often are you using this product? You might have to cut back.

[SkyChild]

Dry shampoo?

If you can't stretch washes it's not the end of the world - it doesn't work for everyone.

I used to be the same as you and I'd feel greasy on day 2. With use of dry shampoo I now wash my hair on day 4. This week I stretched to day 6 with use of dry shampoo.
Even with it I felt a bit greasy originally, but now it feels totally normal as it's rebalanced itself.

If you don't want to use spray dry shampoo, try cornflour or cocoa powder instead

[lilin]

Well, here's ultimately the thing: do whatever offers you and your hair the most overall benefit.

I'd be lying if I tried to tell you going sulfate-free has been easy. What's kept me at it is that sulfates cause terrible irritation and acne for me. Sulfates also pull out my waves from boardline curly to almost nothing and full of fly-aways. Without sulfates, cones are too heavy.

But it hasn't been easy. I've had more failed experiments than I could count on both hands.

Two years later, I have only recently found the right wash method for me, and I am still tinkering with the right conditioning method. I spent a lot of time dealing with "good enough," spurred on only by pictures of my poor tortured skin when I was using shampoo.

It's hard when that's what your scalp has been used to probably for all its life, and individualized hair care is obviously not an exact science, and every hair type has different general advice which most of us are never taught -- there's just one monolithic "how to care for hair" meme that's "good enough" for most, but truly good for very few.

It is entirely possible that "how to care for hair," for you, involves sulfates and cones, and there's nothing inherently evil about that. I mean, my "bingo" wash method dries some people's hair to hell. Weirdly, it keeps mine fairly moisturized. Go figure. :confused:

SLS can be harsh for some, like me, and as detergents go, it's one of the most common culprits. But if that doesn't apply to you, it's irrelevant. Peanuts are also a huge allergen, but I'm not allergic, so that doesn't mean peanuts are bad for me.

If you are not experiencing any adverse affects from SLS, here's the purely scientific impact of it: over the course of several years, SLS will cause slightly faster protein shed than alternative anionics or nonionic cleansers, or water alone.

Key words here are "slightly" and "over years." Assuming your body deals well with SLS, the impact on hair is pretty minor, and truthfully, there are many considerably worse things -- even in the "natural" world -- that you could be using. SLS does what it's supposed to do. It cleans hair -- with an incredible enthusiasm.

But there are lots of things you could do to lower that minor impact.

- Dilute your shampoo.

- Switch to a shampoo with SLES, a much gentler relative of SLS.

- Try a shampoo with a nonionic in it, such as lactylates or decyl glucoside. Usually, these are combined with an anionic, but much less of it, and in some cases you can find a shampoo with nonionics alone.

Succinct summary:

http://www.thenaturalhavenbloom.com/2010/06/myth-or-fact-sulfate-shampoo-breaks.html

Actual study:

http://journal.scconline.org/pdf/cc1993/cc044n03/p00163-p00175.pdf

[Carolyn]

If your hair needs washing more, then wash it more and don't feel bad about it. You do not need to stretch washes in order to have good hair. There is so much emphasis on washing as infrequently as possible but if your hair gets greasy, wash it! I for one will not put up with greasy hair and make myself miserable.

This exactly. Stretching washes is not all that it's cracked up to be. Do whatever you need to do to have the hair you want and like and don't feel bad about it.

[cdonald2]

Thankyou everyone :) i feel much better. I was so scared i was hurting my hair, and thankyou so much @lilin for showing me the study :)

[lilin]

Thankyou everyone :) i feel much better. I was so scared i was hurting my hair, and thankyou so much @lilin for showing me the study :)

Glad it helped. :) As you can see, water all by itself causes almost as much protein shed! And even switching to SLES will reduce protein shed below water-alone levels. I wouldn't be surprised if simple dilution of SLS shampoo or pre-oiling brought it into roughly the water-alone range. And of course, no matter what we do, we will lose most of the cuticle on a given hair eventually, simply due to age and length of the hair.

I think the mythology of the evil of SLS has gotten really carried away (some people even claim it causes cancer -- totally bogus). Even if something is a common irritant or allergen, this is only as relevant to you as your personal reaction to it. And natural is not always better -- baking soda is a classic example of quite a harsh natural substance that people believe, for some reason, isn't. Like anything, you'll find the rare person who does really well with it, but most people don't. They just think it's better because it's "natural."

Everything is chemical! Even the natural.

If I am understanding the science here correctly (I am just a fairly literate layperson, not a scientist), what is most important for protecting wet hair (besides gentle handling) is minimizing hair expansion. This is why a gentler sulfate causes less protein shed than water. It's not allowing as much water in, and the chemical itself doesn't cause as much expansion as water.

So pre-oiling, gentler sulfates, nonionics, dilution, or mixing are all options that can alter and reduce hair expansion.

And of course, everything we do to hair causes some amount of damage in some way. So if you were trying to stretch washes while not feeling icky by, say, constantly brushing to try to distribute oils, or rubbing your scalp a bunch with a dry shampoo, is that truly gentler? Eh, probably not, or not by much. You're still doing damage. And also, let's keep in mind the "quality of life" factor. Your contentedness is worth something too, and dealing with hair that feels icky to you isn't enjoyable. Might as well just wash it and not feel icky!

So use what your hair likes, wash as much as you need to, and keep in mind how minor the difference actually is from one washing agent to the next -- even if it's just pure water.

[animetor7]

So use what your hair likes, wash as much as you need to, and keep in mind how minor the difference actually is from one washing agent to the next -- even if it's just pure water.

There is a major difference between cleansers for some people. Especially in terms of how harsh they can be. SLS is a harsh cleanser, it works for some people, but it's harsh. And you have to be careful if you have any sort of skin condition. I know for me it causes my eczema to flare up hugely! I do agree that a lot of people are too afraid of it, and natural cleansers can also be harsh, but cleansers have gotten progressively harsher throughout the years and decades. I also think that a dilution is a good compromise.

[animetor7]

Sorry! Double post!

[lilin]

There is a major difference between cleansers for some people. Especially in terms of how harsh they can be. SLS is a harsh cleanser, it works for some people, but it's harsh. And you have to be careful if you have any sort of skin condition. I know for me it causes my eczema to flare up hugely! I do agree that a lot of people are too afraid of it, and natural cleansers can also be harsh, but cleansers have gotten progressively harsher throughout the years and decades. I also think that a dilution is a good compromise.

Yup, totally. But that difference tends to be individual rather than as an overall trend, and you're much more likely to experience actual harm to skin than hair.

As a broad trend, there is no clearly superior cleanser.

For me personally, SLS is evil, because I AM one of those people who gets irritation from it. And also because I prefer cleaners that don't pull out so much of my waves -- but to be fair, EVERY cleanser has done that to me except soap nuts. So SLS isn't alone in that department.

I like DIY, and I'm not allergy prone, so natural suits me very well. But if I went back to commercial, I'd have no problem using the synthetic nonionic shampoos.

I would say that if you can, avoiding a potential irritant is generally not a bad idea. But if you're finding other options unsuitable, and you don't get irritation, there's no real reason to continue avoiding it.

[arr]

There is no bad hair care routine, there is only what works for you as an individual. If your hair loves SLS and it doesn't irritate your skin and you get good results, then you shouldn't feel bad about it.