Dry limp hair

[Sarahfv]

Please help me with a routine! Specific product names would be awesome! I grew my hair out and it’s limp, dull, dry and greasy at the same time. It’s just awful and getting worse. We have hard water high in iron which doesn’t help.

Right now I shampoo and condition daily with Tresseme followed by a blow dry. Without a blow dry my hair looks greasy quicker. For a few months I tried only washing every 4 days and didn’t notice any improvement.

Help!

[Cheniaa]

I have water high in iron too. You should try clarifying and chelating your hair, this is probably why your hair is dull and limp( This seems to be many peoples problem so I would do this first to cross it off the list) and after washing follow up with a diluted acv/ white vinegar rinse to prevent further buildup.

Now, for recommendations. Try oiling your ends! Doesn't have to be a lot. Just a couple drops rubbed between your palms and rubbed onto your hair, focusing on the ends.( Mineral oil has been reported to really help seal in moisture, but there are tons others!) Try that second.

Thirdly, do you deep condition? That could help with the dryness. Maybe try the LOC method too, if your ends really need some tlc.

[lithostoic]

Try washing every other day instead and just use dry shampoo and leave in conditioner spray on non-washing days. Your hair won't be so dry that way and dry shampoo will reduce the appearance of oil.

[ghanima]

Maybe invest in a filter to apply to the shower? otherwise, do a final ACV rinse, ratio to water should be around 1tbs ACV/1l of water;
Just so you rule out the water factor.
For moisture, I just like SMT.
For limp hair, proteins, but some hair react very bad to them, you have to see.
Anyway, I would address the dryness first, before messing with proteins. I would do SMT at every shampoo for a while.

[lapushka]

Please help me with a routine! Specific product names would be awesome! I grew my hair out and it’s limp, dull, dry and greasy at the same time. It’s just awful and getting worse. We have hard water high in iron which doesn’t help.

Right now I shampoo and condition daily with Tresseme followed by a blow dry. Without a blow dry my hair looks greasy quicker. For a few months I tried only washing every 4 days and didn’t notice any improvement.

Help!

There's plenty of routines you can check out here. CWC, WCC, CO, SO/WO.

Also, do you condition your scalp? If so, might want to only do ears down.

You'll have to experiment for yourself, sadly. There's no one size fits all.

Maybe try washing more frequently (there's no shame in that)!


My hair is dry on the lengths, but oily on the scalp, and so I buy a shampoo specifically geared towards oily hair, but the conditioner I get is for dry, damaged hair (as those are the most moisturizing on the market). That solves that issue for me. I also only condition ears down!

[spidermom]

The first thing to try is a clarifying or chelating shampoo. Your description sounds like my hair when it gets buildup from oils, conditioners, styling products,etc.

When I was in a hard water area, I found that 1 tablespoon of vinegar in a juice pitcher of water really helped. I had much longer hair then. After washing and rinsing, I'd drop my length into the pitcher and let it soak for a few minutes, then pour the vinegar water slowly over my scalp and massage. Then I'd rinse and condition.

[Corvana]

I also wonder how high of heat you blow dry on. While it won't do much for your scalp oiliness, it could be adding cumulative damage that's causing your lengths to be dry. Is it on high? Cool? Warm, but still cool enough you can leave it on like... your inner thigh for 20 minutes without it feeling too hot?

Other than that, I third or fourth clarifying and making sure it's not product buildup first! And since you've got hard water for sure, may as well chelate instead (which will also clarify products out of your hair). And of course vinegar rinses may be in order, as mentioned above as well.