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View Full Version : Do you lose more hair when you wash out oil treatments VS regular washing?



Angeni
August 18th, 2017, 08:52 AM
Am I the only one who feels like I lose a lot more hair when I'm washing out an oil treatment than I do when I wash my hair on a normal day?

Like I usually shed a lot of hair when I wash it, but I feel like more comes out when I wash out oil treatments (scalp to ends oiling).

Does anyone else feel like this happens to them too? Is it a bad thing or is it pretty normal?

I only wash my hair twice a week so once is a normal wash and the other is washing out an oil treatment.

lapushka
August 18th, 2017, 10:02 AM
It has been *often* discussed that some people can't tolerate oils (or conditioner) on the scalp and they will shed more (to the point of thinning), so it's not a normal shed at all.

So if you do shed more, I would stop using oil on the scalp, pronto!

Angeni
August 18th, 2017, 10:12 AM
It has been *often* discussed that some people can't tolerate oils (or conditioner) on the scalp and they will shed more (to the point of thinning), so it's not a normal shed at all.

So if you do shed more, I would stop using oil on the scalp, pronto!

Eeek! Okay I will definitely stop using it on my scalp! Thanks so much!


I apologize if it's already been discussed on here, I just couldn't find someone discussing it yet and I did an oil treatment this morning and it bothered me enough that I had to know today haha

lithostoic
August 18th, 2017, 12:08 PM
Not at all. Definitely stop using oil on your scalp!

Jo Ann
August 18th, 2017, 02:14 PM
The General Rule of Thumb is to oil from the ears down. If you're shedding a LOT, just start oiling from the ears down, rather than from the scalp down :)

Angeni
August 18th, 2017, 02:55 PM
The General Rule of Thumb is to oil from the ears down. If you're shedding a LOT, just start oiling from the ears down, rather than from the scalp down :)

Yeah, that's what I'm going to do from now on :) especially since avocado oil makes my hair so soft.
I was just testing out full scalp to ends oiling with avocado oil and some rosemary eo for growth for the last couple washes and I was a little alarmed by the amount of shower shed. It didn't shed more when my hair dried but in the shower it was definitely noticeable lol
Luckily since I don't wash my hair much I only did a total of two oil treatments like that xD

Jo Ann
August 18th, 2017, 02:59 PM
Many of us have learned from experience, Angeni, and we're happy to share that experience with you! :)

lapushka
August 18th, 2017, 03:52 PM
Eeek! Okay I will definitely stop using it on my scalp! Thanks so much!


I apologize if it's already been discussed on here, I just couldn't find someone discussing it yet and I did an oil treatment this morning and it bothered me enough that I had to know today haha

Totally understandable; sometimes info is a bit harder to find. :)

dryxi
August 18th, 2017, 06:40 PM
I may be the odd one out here. I oil my hair and scalp once a week. (I have a very dry scalp.) It seems like I shed a lot, but because I have an inch or so of virgin roots, I'm able to check the nature of my shed more easily than some. So far, I've only seen hairs with no root line (no normal brown next to the orange), or very short root line. When I compare the short root line hairs to the ones still on my head, I can see that these hairs stopped growing a few weeks ago. I haven't seen any hairs with a root line matching what's on the rest of my scalp. YMMV.

Angeni
August 18th, 2017, 07:28 PM
I may be the odd one out here. I oil my hair and scalp once a week. (I have a very dry scalp.) It seems like I shed a lot, but because I have an inch or so of virgin roots, I'm able to check the nature of my shed more easily than some. So far, I've only seen hairs with no root line (no normal brown next to the orange), or very short root line. When I compare the short root line hairs to the ones still on my head, I can see that these hairs stopped growing a few weeks ago. I haven't seen any hairs with a root line matching what's on the rest of my scalp. YMMV.

That's interesting...
Unfortunately, my hair is almost completely virgin aside from a few bleached ends so I have no way of telling.
But to be on the safe side I think I'm just gonna not oil my scalp haha.


I was pondering the idea of doing very diluted ACV rinses with some rosemary eo on my non-washing days in place of it, but I don't know how it'll affect my hair. :confused:

dryxi
August 18th, 2017, 07:35 PM
Yeah, might be best to play it safe, especially if your scalp is not overly dry. Oiling your scalp might also make your roots feel greasier than you like.

Lynn of Many
August 18th, 2017, 09:10 PM
I've noticed losing a bit more hair loss when rinsing out oil treatments but I always thought it was from the scalp massage. I lose tons when I wash anyway because I typically don't brush much after bunning my hair for the periods between washing. Im glad I saw this thread or I may not have known oil could be bad for my scalp. Thanks op!

spidermom
August 18th, 2017, 10:13 PM
I always wait until the hair at my scalp is already oily with natural sebum, then I oil the length. I've never noticed increased shedding from this. I have noticed increased shedding from grief, stress, and when summer turns to fall.

leayellena
August 19th, 2017, 04:13 AM
Yeah, might be best to play it safe, especially if your scalp is not overly dry. Oiling your scalp might also make your roots feel greasier than you like.

er... I am confused. I was thinking to buy a leave-in oil but my scalp turns greasy and my ends turn dry. maybe using sparingly on scalp but quite much on the length may hellp? just asking...

dryxi
August 19th, 2017, 09:00 AM
er... I am confused. I was thinking to buy a leave-in oil but my scalp turns greasy and my ends turn dry. maybe using sparingly on scalp but quite much on the length may hellp? just asking...

Could also be that it's not the right oil for your hair. My hair hates coconut oil, and the ends feel very dry and brittle, but loves avocado oil, and the ends feel amazing. You might check what's in your leave-in. Maybe buy/borrow a little bit of several kinds of oil and test it out first before committing to anything.

Angeni
August 19th, 2017, 09:10 AM
I've noticed losing a bit more hair loss when rinsing out oil treatments but I always thought it was from the scalp massage. I lose tons when I wash anyway because I typically don't brush much after bunning my hair for the periods between washing. Im glad I saw this thread or I may not have known oil could be bad for my scalp. Thanks op!

Np! haha Thats what I was wondering too. I was like "Is the hair loss from the oil or from me rubbing and massaging my scalp?". Which is why I came here :)

Angeni
August 19th, 2017, 09:11 AM
Could also be that it's not the right oil for your hair. My hair hates coconut oil, and the ends feel very dry and brittle, but loves avocado oil, and the ends feel amazing. You might check what's in your leave-in. Maybe buy/borrow a little bit of several kinds of oil and test it out first before committing to anything.

My hair is EXACTLY the same way. No joke!

Coconut oil destroys my hair and makes it all crunchy, but avocado oil makes my hair baby soft and my hair soaks it up nicely so it doesn't make it greasy. haha So avocado oil is the only thing I use!

Dendra
August 19th, 2017, 11:32 AM
When I left coconut oil on my scalp for two days I had an *insane* amount of shedding.

I have a dry scalp so the feeling of oils is lovely, as is the massage, so the key for me is probably to only leave the oil on for up to an hour before washing, if I ever oil my scalp again. At the moment I just do the lengths.

lapushka
August 19th, 2017, 03:15 PM
The only way to really tell *for sure* is to just one time only oil the lengths and compare your shedding. Try again with oil on the scalp, and compare again. I would just not do it if the amount you shed is too much for you to handle.

It is a "thing". I am not just making that up. There are members here who have tried CO-washing for instance (conditioner on the scalp) and have had severely thinned out hair due to doing this for a year/few years. Then the penny dropped. But then it was too late, and the hair was already thinner.

It's just FYI. Do with the info what you will. :D :flower:

SnowDancer
August 19th, 2017, 04:35 PM
Yeah, I've learned that I can't even put conditioner on my scalp. It causes more shedding for me.

meteor
August 19th, 2017, 04:55 PM
1) There are definitely scalps that don't do well with oiling.
I think in particular seborrhoeic dermatitis is famous for it. Sebum and natural oils (the ones that aren't anti-fungal), specifically rich in oleic acid (think olive oil, avocado oil, etc), could be feeding Malassezia fungus which triggers SD in that case.
If that's the case, other symptoms like itch, irritation, redness, flakes are likely to be there, as well.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18004291
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16382685
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3255962/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23106637
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21919896


2) There is also this thing that quite a few people who oil their scalps do report increased shedding during and right after their first oil massages but only when they begin oiling, not after a while of regular oiling. This happened to me and I've seen other people reporting it, as well. I don't know what the mechanism behind this is. Some claim that it's only the hairs that were supposed to shed anyway that slip out more easily and then shedding subsides dramatically. If this is the case, then shedding should drop pretty quickly but the scalp should be feeling great right away. Overall, there shouldn't be a reduction in ponytail circumference. Again, I don't know how this works and haven't seen any studies into this. It could be just the mechanical effect - mud masks, henna dye on roots, scalp massages, CO-washes can also have that effect, after all.

The problem is it's hard to see which case this is without a bit of experimenting. Personally, I ultimately stopped oiling scalp because it's too much work anyway.

Angeni
August 19th, 2017, 08:16 PM
lapushka
Re: Do you lose more hair when you wash out oil treatments VS regular washing?

The only way to really tell *for sure* is to just one time only oil the lengths and compare your shedding. Try again with oil on the scalp, and compare again. I would just not do it if the amount you shed is too much for you to handle.

It is a "thing". I am not just making that up. There are members here who have tried CO-washing for instance (conditioner on the scalp) and have had severely thinned out hair due to doing this for a year/few years. Then the penny dropped. But then it was too late, and the hair was already thinner.

It's just FYI. Do with the info what you will.

I think I'll just oil the ends from now on haha. JUST to be safe, as my hair is already naturally thin and ive already worked really hard to gain the thickness that I have in the past year.

I was thinking of doing a super diluted vinegar rinse with rosemary eo in place of it so we shall see how that goes :) Thanks for the info though, I really appreciate it!




SnowDancer
Re: Do you lose more hair when you wash out oil treatments VS regular washing?

Yeah, I've learned that I can't even put conditioner on my scalp. It causes more shedding for me.

Unfortunately I would have no idea if conditioner affected my hair or not by putting it on the scalp since I stopped using conditioner on the scalp years ago once I realized it made my scalp get greasier faster. But it couldve! I know my hair has gotten significantly thicker within the last year or so.



meteor
Re: Do you lose more hair when you wash out oil treatments VS regular washing?

1) There are definitely scalps that don't do well with oiling.
I think in particular seborrhoeic dermatitis is famous for it. Sebum and natural oils (the ones that aren't anti-fungal), specifically rich in oleic acid (think olive oil, avocado oil, etc), could be feeding Malassezia fungus which triggers SD in that case.
If that's the case, other symptoms like itch, irritation, redness, flakes are likely to be there, as well.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18004291
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16382685
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3255962/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23106637
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21919896


2) There is also this thing that quite a few people who oil their scalps do report increased shedding during and right after their first oil massages but only when they begin oiling, not after a while of regular oiling. This happened to me and I've seen other people reporting it, as well. I don't know what the mechanism behind this is. Some claim that it's only the hairs that were supposed to shed anyway that slip out more easily and then shedding subsides dramatically. If this is the case, then shedding should drop pretty quickly but the scalp should be feeling great right away. Overall, there shouldn't be a reduction in ponytail circumference. Again, I don't know how this works and haven't seen any studies into this. It could be just the mechanical effect - mud masks, henna dye on roots, scalp massages, CO-washes can also have that effect, after all.

The problem is it's hard to see which case this is without a bit of experimenting. Personally, I ultimately stopped oiling scalp because it's too much work anyway.

Wow, interesting to know! I don't think its SD though so I think my scalp just doesn't like it, I also had no increased shedding after scalp oiling. All the shedding happened in the shower, but once my hair was dry and I brushed it through no hair came out on the brush.

Besides I shed a lot anyways so I think the ends will be enough :)

mira-chan
August 20th, 2017, 07:23 PM
It has been *often* discussed that some people can't tolerate oils (or conditioner) on the scalp and they will shed more (to the point of thinning), so it's not a normal shed at all.

So if you do shed more, I would stop using oil on the scalp, pronto!

Seconding this. I put oil on my scalp regularly and I do not shed more after using oil than without. I'll shed more if I haven't been combing out my loose hairs over the past couple days (just redoing braid or bun without combing), or if I was ill, under high stress or my higher shedding season (mid fall). Oil doesn't affect any of those either way. I've gone through all of those with and without oil on scalp.

So if the only thing you changed is putting oil on your scalp, and got more shedding, stop. Your skin is saying "No thanks!" to that.

ETA: As to scalp massages, higher shedding the first time is from hair in the loosely held Exogen/ end of Telogen phase will come out with the manual manipulation of the scalp and hair during massage. This will happen even if you massage without oil. Oil is just likely to help break up dried skin flakes and crud that's holding those hairs in place. They would have shed over the next week or so anyway. Once those are out, you'll won't be losing that hair, and with regular scalp massage you're bringing more blood to the scalp and follicles, which helps keep the hair root stronger and less likely to let go of hair early. Again, this can be done without oil, just be gentle as oil reduces friction.

I oil regularly as I have dry skin and my scalp feels tight, plus my sebum is more solid than standard and oil helps dissolve it a bit before wash. It's more work so I don't always do it but I see a difference when I do for scalp issues in the positive. It didn't change hair much.