Routine for short hair with oily scalp

[GrowlingCupcake]

Calling folk with short hair, and oily scalps! What's your routine like?

I used to regularly go without conditioner when I had shorter hair before but that was back when I knew nothing about hair. I'm currently thinking a very light brush of silicone-free conditioner, and washing my hair every 3 days but I'd love more ideas.

[Siv]

Hm. I'm not very oily but enough that I want a fairly harsh shampoo. I notice that I can go longer between washes with SLS vs sulfate-free, for example. I prepoo with coconut oil to protect the lengths from the shampoo. If I prepoo, then wet the hair, then condition lengths and lather the scalp, then rinse, then condition with hair mask. It gets the oil out of my lengths too, which can be a bit tricky otherwise.

[Obsidian]

I have to wash every 1-2 days. I also don't normally use conditioner but when I do, its a light one. I like love beauty & planet conditioners or pantene micellar foaming conditioner.

If I'm not using traditional conditioner, then I use a pea sized amount of a leave in and spread it through dripping wet hair or a light amount of mineral oil based hair oil.

[lapushka]

I used to need to wash 2 to 3 times a week, to keep it somewhat decent. My scalp seems to have normalized over the years, so I can now weekly wash but I just use a good harsh shampoo (also due to SD, seborrheic dermatitis / finicky scalp) and that helps me out hugely.

I only used conditioner as of APL, about that length, and only the bottom bits. Still only put shampoo about shoulder down and that works as well.

[foreveryours]

I don't have short hair, anymore, but the very very first thing I learned about my hair when it was about shoulder length (ca 2015) was that the oily stripe which appeared at the part a day or two after washing with shampoo "for oily hair" (because I knew it was oily it was so obvious) DID NOT MEAN I have "oily hair".

My scalp was over producing oils because my hair was so dry. Dry, yet water was anathema to it. Spraying water on it to help it clump (makes braiding easier to learn) resulted in extensive tangling (makes braiding harder to learn). That's when I tried OIL.

Sounds like trying to put out fire with gasoline but you may just need a bit of oil to suppress your oily scalp and make your hair more manageable. For me, nothing works better than coconut oil.

Of course, YMMV.

[Laurab]

When my hair was short I washed every other day, used random conditioner, and that was basically it.
I wouldn't worry about stretching washes at this point. When hair is shorter most of it is still pretty "young" and getting greasy means it's reguarly conditioned by your hairs natural oils.
There's lots of benefits to short hair, including fewer tangles and a shorter drying time.
Apart from that, normal haircare rules apply. Use whatever conditioner you like (I tend to use silicone, but it's personal preference), avoid heat, and change something if your routine isn't working for you.

[lapushka]

When my hair was short I washed every other day, used random conditioner, and that was basically it.
I wouldn't worry about stretching washes at this point. When hair is shorter most of it is still pretty "young" and getting greasy means it's reguarly conditioned by your hairs natural oils.
There's lots of benefits to short hair, including fewer tangles and a shorter drying time.
Apart from that, normal haircare rules apply. Use whatever conditioner you like (I tend to use silicone, but it's personal preference), avoid heat, and change something if your routine isn't working for you.

So true! ^^ Yep. Shouldn't worry until it gets about APL and then you might condition shoulder to APL, and for sure as of BSL I started needing quite the heavy conditioners.

I do make a difference between treating my hair & treating my scalp. I always start off with my scalp, and tend to that, so its SD is kept at bay and it's nice and clean, yes the harsh shampoo dries my hair out, but I *fix* that by throwing 2 conditionings or 2 maskings at it after shampoo (it's WCC and in my signature BTW). Shampoo = for cleaning it does not need to moisturize or detangle the hair, that's the job of a conditioner. At least that rings true if you don't have too textured of a hairtype. As of 3c other rules apply and you do probably need a good moisturizing shampoo, even CO-wash, still not every 3c/4a gal has dry scalp! :shrug:

[Kathie]

Im using shampoo bars without conditioner. But I do use oil. When towel dried I use two drops of avo oil from ears down. If its still feeling dry I apply coconut oil to it dry, again just from the ears down.

Sure short hair is young and doesn't need as much babying as long hair. But I still treat it with a lot of care... those ends have to last for at least 5 years or so.