Help with heavy oilings...I can't get it out!

[cocolover]

My hair has turned into a winter puffball, frizzy, straw-like, just gross. When I first joined LHC, I tried doing heavy oilings, but couldn't get them out for days. I thought I would try again, since my hair needs something and SMTs seem to make no difference on my hair. Well, I can't get the oil out again! I've tried baking soda, shampoo and just CO washes. The only option not available to me is to use half a bottle of conditioner. I don't use any chemical products, so my conditioner is $8 for an 11oz bottle, I can't use half of that to get out an oiling or they would get too expensive to do. Any suggestions? I currently have my hair up for the day, as it is grossly oily. What am I doing wrong? Last night I used a combo of olive oil, coconut oil and shea butter, but I've tried just coconut oil, and just jojoba oil before and had the same problem. Am I putting too much on? I saturated my hair with the stuff and left it on overnight. Thanks for any suggestions.

[LutraLutra]

I think you're just using way too much oil. I think 'heavy' oiling is a subjective term, so don't panic and try using only a tiny ammount of oi next time - just enough to make your hair feel very slightly oily, rather than giving it a good soaking. :)

[Darkhorse1]

You need to do a clarifying shampoo..MANY Times! This happened to me and it was horrid. I poured WAYYY Too much olive oil on my ends and yikes!

When clarifying, make sure you feel a bit of a squeak on the ends when rinsing. If you don't, there's still oil on it.

Good news? Your hair is going to be silky soft and shiny!! :)

I used Herbal Essence Degunkify shampoo. It's awesome! :D

[MandaMom2Three]

Hmmmm, I always SATURATE my hair with olive or coconut oil, until it can't hold anymore. I just CO once the next morning. There's usually a little oil left in and I bun my hair for the day. That evening I take it down, if I used coconut oil it's usually all absorbed, if olive I'll need to CO once more but such soft hair :D

[Honey39]

Hmmm, I dunno - the only thing that really gets oil out for me is CO-washing; works like a charm, but I do use about half a bottle of cheapo conditioner, and it works like magic at lifting it!

I don't think heavy oiling is that good if you are using really harsh methods to get it out! Maybe try light oiling when your hair is damp??

[jojo]

I use coneless conditioner to get deep over night oilings out. I put a good handful on and really scrub it into my scalp, then massage into the rest of my hair, leave on for 10 minutes and rinse, then repeat with twice as much conditioner on but this time I leave for 30 minutes and rinse really, really well. My hair is lovely after and no greasies at all.

[HairColoredHair]

I wonder if it wasn't the shea butter... I find that stuff half-to-impossible to get out of my hair.

Shampoo once, twice, thrice, it'll come out eventually. It's just oil, not lacquer! (Thank goodness!)

[LilyMunster]

Vinegar diluted with very warm water will work wonders. I use 2 large bowls, swish and squish. Then pour it over the whole head catching it in the other bowl. Repeat until you feel a difference. I use 2 T vinegar to a couple liters of water.

[janeytilllie]

when i first started using coconut oil i too put loads on, and in the morning i had a huge greasy mess!!!

the trick is too use little as possible, i read somewhere its best to put to little on rather than too much. very true :D

i only use 1/2 a teaspoon of coconut oil on my lengths only. Maybe olive oil and coconut oil are too heavy for you? and shea butter too? have you tried almond /grapseed? they are suppose to be lighter.

Hope this helps

[maskedrose]

I'm with everyone else on CO - it always gets heavy oilings out easily. Granted, you say that you don't use any chemicals on your hair at all, so if you aren't willing to dump a quarter of a bottle of VO5 on your head, maybe you shouldn't do heavy oilings. There really isn't any point in doing them if you then strip your hair with harsh shampoos. Maybe try other kinds of deep treatments that aren't oil based if your hair continues to be dry.

[PHOENIX MOON]

Hey, I had that problem when I was trying WO/SO (water only, then later Sebum only). I found that brushing the hair near the scalp many times removes/limits the oil from your roots and promotes hair growth.
Then continue with this in bands down your hair.

I have about three brushes or more that I use for various thorough brushings. Do NOT use bristle brushes for your hair at this stage.
I use a big paddle detangler, then a smaller oval paddle, then a circle styler for the roots. I then vary what I use depending on what my hair requires.

I also do the tea towel technique. This is easy but some people feel it damages your hair. It didnt for me, but it did make it feel shiny. Brush your hair to detangle. Put an absorbant tea towel or kitchen/paper towel. Make sure these are soft! Then hold one end in each hand and gently move over your hair in a zig zag way in the direction the hair grows (from forehead to nape of neck). This can be repeated many times. I tended to use it at my roots. When I did it last I had such dry hair that I put too much oil on to compensate and my hair didnt like it. The tea towel technique worked on dry but heavily oiled hair. I then briefly put my hair in a 'tie bun' (just my hair tied into a knot, it looks quite fancy but it easy!) to destatic-ify it before styling it. Worked brilliantly.

If you are regularly doing 'heavy oilings' on your hair then alternate washing your hair brushes. Periodically I either use some shampoo in a bowl of warmish water or washing up liquid in a bowl of warmish water and soak my brushes for about 5-10mins (longer if I have a periodic lapse of concentration and forget they are there:bigtongue:! )

I hope some bits in here help. Everyones hair is different and may behave in a different way. These tips are what I use/have used and they work for me: -I'm a thick haired curly!

[Anje]

I'm yet another person who's going to recommend COing the stuff out. Don't use your normal conditioner -- get a bottle of the cheapest stuff you can find (VO5, Suave, or perhaps dollar store who-knows-what). I'm going to offer a variation on the theme, though, to see if it helps: put the conditioner on your oily hair without wetting your hair first. Work it in well, then let it sit for a while (maybe 30-60 minutes), then step into the shower, put a handful of water on it, work it to a "lather", and then rinse it out. You may want to follow by shampooing and conditioning, if the conditioner weighs your hair down.

I only rarely do heavy oilings, and with olive oil, but they come right out for me without such drastic measures.

If the heavy oilings take such harsh measures to remove, I doubt they're worth your while to do. You might do better with other treatments. Since SMTs don't work, have you tried a caramel treatment? How about soaking your hair in yogurt, which helped someone else just recently whose hair wouldn't hold moisture.

[LilyMunster]

Wrapping with an Aquis type towel after rinsing out the oil will help alot as well.

[Darkhorse1]

May I ask how conditioner removes oil? I've never heard of that before, so I"m very curious. I hope it helps the OP. :)

[ktani]

I am not sure how conditioner removes oil techically but conditioners do tend to contain a fair amount of emusifiers. I have read some very good reports about CO'ing out oils, even evoo, which can be very difficult to remove.

[Islandgrrl]

Maybe the oil you are using is too heavy for your hair. Olive oil is notoriously difficult to get out and I've found that shea butter (for me anyway) is even worse.

When I do heavy oilings, I use coconut oil. I get enough into my hair that it looks kind of greasy, braid it up and forget about it overnight. Really with just pure virgin coconut oil, I can usually WO the next morning and have awesome hair. If WO doesn't do it, CO does. As everyone else recommends, use the cheapest no-cone stuff you can find.

Good luck!

[danacc]

May I ask how conditioner removes oil? I've never heard of that before, so I"m very curious. I hope it helps the OP. :)

I don't know the chemistry behind it, but cheap conditioner is effective at removing a heavy oiling from my length. Something about "oil removes oil", I think. It doesn't strip it completely, which is part of the beauty of this technique for me, but it removes most of it so that my hair is no longer piecey when it dries.

[Aisha25]

I do very very heavy oilings untill it looks soaking wet with sesame,olive oil and coconut,almond oils and I wash it out with very diluted shampoo and then I do my hair with honey and conditioner and that honey and conditioner always takes the extra oil out and leaves me with very nice hair. Thats how I do it to remove the oils.

[Delila]

I have best success with Anje's technique described above, putting lots of CO type cheapy conditioner on DRY hair, letting it soak in a good long time, then wetting it up to make a lather and rinsing like mad.

Getting my hair wet before I try to remove an oiling is pretty much a recipe for disaster.

My favorite cheapy is the Cure Care conditioner from Sally's. (http://www.sallybeauty.com/Hair-Skin-Conditioner/CURCAR1,default,pd.html?cgid=Hair02-01)

[Alethia]

Shea butter is really hardcore. I wouldn't put it on my hair as a heavy oiling unless my hair had been permed, bleached and flat ironed on the same day - even then, it would be a last resort to try and glue it together! Joking apart, it does suit some people.

I don't do well with oilings. Even light oilings repeated over a couple of days with coconut oil give me crunchy, knotty ends. I agree with others here that one of the best ways to remove it is with CO. The emulsifiers are great. If you can't bring yourself to do this, then 2 free range egg yolks, slightly beaten, then massaged through your hair and left to soak for about 30 minutes prior to rinsing may do the trick. Good luck!

[spidermom]

Not everybody can benefit from oil. Sometimes the structure of the hair has been so disrupted by abuse that there is nothing for the oil to bind to. And some scalps produce enough sebum that hair can't absorb externally applied oil. Either way, oily mess.

My ends and canopy are dry but in good condition and absorb quite a lot of oil. Anything extra washes away with diluted shampoo.

[cocolover]

Thanks for all the good tips, I may have to reconsider heavy oilings for my hair. I'm going to try some of the different suggestions tomorrow morning, hopefully one will work, I'm going to a wedding tomorrow night! I've tried the caramel treatment and that took days to wash out also. Time to research other "deep" treatments :)

[PHOENIX MOON]

Hey all,
Aisha - Why do you do such heavy oilings and then shampoo it out? As a sebum only (except for slight oiling when needed) it seems strange and quite expensive to do.

Can someone tell me/or send me a link what shea butter is and where I can get it from? Is it a bit like coco butter type body lotion?

[neon-dream]

Can someone tell me/or send me a link what shea butter is and where I can get it from? Is it a bit like coco butter type body lotion?


I just found this link for shea butter, I thought I'd look it up too!!
http://www.utopiavalley.com/acatalog/info_195.html

[PHOENIX MOON]

Hey, Thankyou neon dream. That was great and very helpful.

[lora410]

I always shampoo twice with a sulfate free shampoo to get all of the oil out :D

[mellie]

Oiling is just not for me. My scalp and hair is quite oily naturally and I've had no luck with my attempts at oiling. Last weekend I tried again and had to lather my hair up with shampoo 7 times in a row to get the oil out. It was horrible. I almost started to cry!

Something that works very nicely for me instead, for pretty shine and extra special conditioning treatment on occasions, is a honey and tea application. For me this was sooooo much better than oiling. And it comes out easily with just rinsing!

[Curlsgirl]

For me coconut oil is the only one that absorbs quite easily into my hair and rinses out easily. Olive oil is not bad if I don't use as much. I agree that it could be the shea butter or that for some reason your hair might not be absorbing the oil. I would try it with just one oil instead of using a mixture. If you try one thing at a time you might find the culprit.

[Sissy]

I really slather on the oils when I do heavy overnight oilings. I use EVOO, Coconut, Jojba, Shea Butter, or Sweet Almond Oil. I usually just use a regular amount of shampoo and follow up with a conditioner and it comes out.

When posting on a thread about EVOO heavy oilings a girl told me she puts a ton of coconut in her hair and then 2 hours later uses Suave Clarifying Conditioner to wash it out. I think cheap conditioners work better for removing oils.

[Lucky]

I'm so glad I did a search and found this thread! It's a long story, but I ended up getting rather heavy handed with what turned out to be coconut oil - my hair does not like coconut oil! I shampooed 3x in a row with an SLS shampoo, but it didn't do anything. I decided to not continue shampooing and wait until my hair was dry to assess things. My hair was just a greasy mess, it was "piecey." I'm glad I didn't panic and reach for dish soap or something! I had a feeling I would find some good advice here and did I ever!

I just happened to have a bottle of VO5 that I had bought on my last trip to the States and I used that. I didn't wet my hair before soaking it in the VO5, then I waited about 40 min, added some water, massaged and rinsed, shampooed, reconditioned with the VO5 (I soaked my hair in it again) and finished with an ACV rinse.

It worked!!!!! And my hair is super soft to boot!

I'll definitely be sticking with jojoba oil on my fine hair. But at least I know I don't have to strip my hair if I ever get too heavy handed again with an oil. Thanks to everyone for the great tips!

[arylkin]

I'm CO, so I've had a few times after a heavier than normal oiling that I couldn't get it out after a wash. The thing that I found that helps me is doing an SMT (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=128) (although I do more of a 2:1:1 ratio) after a heavy oiling (so it's a two part mega moisture treatment). I don't know why it cuts through the oil so well (it must be the honey), but it works great.

So, after a night with heavily oiled braids I'll mix up an SMT and leave it on my hair for a half hour/forty five minutes and then CO as usual. It gets all the oil out and leaves my hair in wonderful condition.

:)