Greasy hair = a step in the right direction?

[vintagelovely]

Hello everyone!

I've noticed something different with my hair recently, and wondered if I could get some feedback?

So my hair is bleached, and fairly damaged. Ever since I bleached it, it NEVER got greasy. Instead, I would know when it was time to wash it, becaust it would start to feel dry and almost synthetic, like a cheap wig. (just for some context, I wash my hair about once a week)

I like to think I've been treating my hair a lot better recently, and it's now coloured with henna and I'm growing the rest out naturally. Basically, the other day when it was coming up to my hair-wash day, I noticed something. It was actually looking a tad greasy, instead of dry and plastic-y! Now I'm not talking excessively greasy, just how hair tends to look when it's due a wash. Like normal hair! Now my question is, am I right to see this as a good sign? Because I'm slightly excited that this may be progress but I don't want to get ahead of myself.

Thanks dolls!

[lapushka]

It is probably a good sign, yes.

Now henna and bleach used to do the same for me: dry my hair out to the point where it got less oily. So henna or bleach, didn't make a difference to me. YMMV, of course.

[vintagelovely]

Thanks for the response! And yeah I know some people's hair takes henna differently than others. :) For me the only reason I used henna on it really was because my natural hair colour is so dark, that the grow out would have looked a bit odd otherwise. This way it looks a tad more subtle. :P

[emilia1992]

Yes, that sounds good. When I bleached my hair years back, it also didn't really get greasy as much, but was very dry. Now it's much greasier in its natural state, but it's in better condition. I suspect this is what's happening with your hair. :)

[Sofialu]

Mine gets greasier quicker than when I bleached it, by the end of day two it is desperate for washing!

[meteor]

I do think it could be a good sign. :)

Bleached hair is essentially more porous compared to its non-bleached equivalent:
Chemical damage (oxidative bleach) nearly triples the hair surface area in the first minute of bleaching due to the increase in the number of pores, followed by a sudden drop after 10 min of bleaching from smaller pores breaking down into larger ones.(True porosity measurement of hair: a new way to study hair damage mechanisms: http://journal.scconline.org/pdf/cc2008/cc059n04/p00303-p00315.pdf or http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18818850)
Henna on bleached (or otherwise damaged) hair works a little bit like a "filler", or a bit how penetrating ingredients would work, especially some hydrolyzed proteins, but also pigment molecules in hair dyes, etc... Lawsone in henna binds to the hair, makes hair heavier (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-2494.1982.tb00311.x/abstract) and I think in some cases it can somewhat patch-repair broken/chipped cuticle areas, fill the "pores", so to speak, allowing other ingredients (incl. oils) to be more likely to sit on top and make hair look/feel greasy/coated/full of build-up, rather than just soak right in. Hair that is extremely porous is more likely to absorb more of different ingredients, and more of your own sebum, too.

Some stuff that might be interesting to read on this topic:
- The effects of lipid penetration and removal from subsurface microcavities and cracks at the human cuticle sheath: http://journal.scconline.org/pdf/cc2009/cc060n02/p00085-p00095.pdf or http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19450411
- Deep Conditioning : What Ingredients in Hair Conditioner Penetrate Hair? http://www.thenaturalhavenbloom.com/2012/10/deep-conditioning-what-ingredients-in.html
- Managing Elasticity and Porosity in Hair: http://science-yhairblog.blogspot.ca/2014/03/managing-elasticity-and-porosity-in-hair.html

Personally, I noticed that when I highlighted my hair, it never seemed to get oily and everything just soaked in right away, but my virgin hair likes to be cleansed pretty frequently, oils seem to sit on top. I find that hydrolyzed proteins / protein fillers (gelatin masks, Joico K-Pak Reconstruct, Aphogee 2-Step (if one needs heavy duty product), etc) really help temporarily reduce bleached hair's porosity and help it hold onto moisture for longer.