Trying to wash my hair only once for every 2 days but needs advice for the oily feel!

[Guinevere]

I know that we're not supposed to wash our hair (with shampoo and conditioner) every single time we took a bath. (That's what I do usually..)

But how can you prevent the oily scalp? :disgust:
Is there any way to remove the oily feeling in our scalp after getting sweaty?
How do you deal with that uncomfortable feeling? :doh:

According to my experience, washing it with water only makes my hair even has more oil.

For additional information, I have a combination hair. Oily scalp but dry ends. Any advice greatly appreciated! :puppykisses:

[Jeni]

Many people extend their washes but that doesn't work for everyone. I think there is suppose to be an adjustment period where your hair is just going to be oily and there isn't much you can do about it but wear it up.

Extending washes never worked for me, my hair never stopped getting oily and by the end of day 2 my scalp itched. I wash everyday or every other day (if I'm not going anywhere) and my hair is just fine.

The only thing your suppose to do is whatever makes your hair and scalp happy. If that is not washing everyday great, but if not don't feel bad as long as your scalp is happy the continue with what your doing.

I'll let people who have had success extending washing give you any tips on how to deal.

[SleepySin]

Jeni's right. Almost everyone goes through a period where their bodies are adjusting to re-learning to produce those natural oils on its own. Give it some more time for your body to adjust.

Also, after getting sweaty, water should be able to rinse the sweat off (as sweat is basically salts & water). Now, if there is any bacteria on your scalp, it would feed off the sweat and oils and therefore producing odors. You could try to prevent that with a rinse that includes natural antibacterial/antiseptic herbs such as rosemary or tea tree oil.

As for your hair ends, use a bit of oil! Read through this thread - it'll be very helpful to you: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=23400

[ravenreed]

Getting rid of shampoo and going CO made a huge difference for me. I can now wash every other day. My scalp and hair hate sulfates and I like how my hair isn't stripped after every cleansing. I also think I got rebound oiliness from the shampoo.

[Guinevere]

So basically I have to bear with the oily feeling for now, right? :)
Thanks for your advices Jeni, SleepySin, and ravenreed!! Looking at your links now.

I've heard about using baby powder to remove the oils from the scalp (temporarily). Has anyone ever tried it?

[Fillette]

Welcome to the board!
Have you tried CO? I find that CO removes excess oil from my hair.

ETA - I saturate my hair and scalp with my suave cone-free conditioner. Then I massage my scalp with my finger tips and leave the conditioner on while I wash my body and do everything else. When I am done with the entire shower routine, I rinse the conditioner out. Then I rinse some more. Rinsing very well is crucial for me... This usually does the trick for me.

HTH

[Guinevere]

Have you tried CO? I find that CO removes excess oil from my hair.

Do you have links for the thread that discuss about it, Fillette? I've used the search link but came out empty handed.. ^^;;;

[gibsongirl71]

I have tried baby powder but it always leaves a grayish cast to my dark hair. There are some products on the market that you can spray on your hair and it absorbs oil. I think I was using the Sebastin tinted spray hair powder. The store is always out of the brown shade so I haven't bought it in a while. It worked really well.

I did try my first CO wash today. I will be curious to see how oily my scalp is tomorrow. My hair feels really soft right now. I also have oily scalp and dry ends too. I wash every other day.

[SleepySin]

I've heard about using baby powder to remove the oils from the scalp (temporarily). Has anyone ever tried it?

Eeps! I stay away from baby powder because it's main ingredient is talc. Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia about the safety issues concerning it:

"Several studies have established preliminary links between talc and pulmonary (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulmonary) issues,[4] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talc#cite_note-3) lung cancer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lung_cancer),[5] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talc#cite_note-NTP-4)[6] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talc#cite_note-5) skin cancer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_cancer) and ovarian cancer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovarian_cancer).[7] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talc#cite_note-6) This is a major concern considering talc's widespread commercial and household use. In 1993, a US National Toxicology Program report found that cosmetic grade talc caused tumours in rats (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rats) (animal testing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_testing)) forced to inhale talc for 6 hours a day, five days a week over at least 113 weeks, even though it contained no asbestos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asbestos)-like fibres.[5] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talc#cite_note-NTP-4) Scientists have been aware of the toxicity of talc since the late 1960s, and in 1971 researchers found particles of talc embedded in 75 percent of the ovarian tumors studied.[8] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talc#cite_note-7) However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_and_Drug_Administration) (FDA) considers non-asbestiform talc, that is, talc which does not contain potentially carcinogenic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcinogen) asbestiform (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asbestos) amphibole (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphibole) fibers, to be generally recognized as safe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generally_recognized_as_safe) (GRAS) for use in cosmetics. [9] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talc#cite_note-8)"

[SleepySin]

I've heard of baking soda being used as a dry shampoo but I have not personally tried it myself. I noticed that your photo is dark-haired - you might want to keep in mind that it might leave a slightly lighter "dusting" to your hair if you don't fully brush it out afterwards, as mentioned by gibsongirl71.

This method is also used on cats and dogs as a more natural way of removing excess oils or odor (although odor could be caused by some underlying medical issue..).

[ravenreed]

I believe that they have some baby powders now without talc. However, you can use corn starch for the same thing. My problem is that my hair is very dark and no matter how hard I try, I cannot get it all out! If my hair was lighter, I would be VERY happy with how corn starch helps stretch a washing. I just wouldn't inhale a lot of it... But that is true for any substance other than air!


Eeps! I stay away from baby powder because it's main ingredient is talc. Here's an excerpt from

[Samitra]

It's taken me and my hair a long time to adjust to not wash (shampoo & condition) every day, which I had been doing for seven years. I've tried different dry shampoos but not liked any of them. So while adjusting, I always wore my hair up and away the 2nd day, and I hid the greasy fringe under a head band.
If there was some sort of special occasion and I wanted to freshen up my hair, but not using shampoo, I went in the shower and massaged my scalp with water only, and then used conditioner on the ends. It didn't get as clean as shampoo would've made it, but it sure was better than the greasy feeling.

I don't know if the "water only"-washes in between regular washing days helped my scalp adjust to wash every other day, but it helped me.

[SleepySin]

I believe that they have some baby powders now without talc. However, you can use corn starch for the same thing.

Yes, there have been a few companies around that have been using cornstarch from the get go. There's this bottle my parents kept in our closet for years and years. So it's not a new concept, just the awareness of the dangers with talc have recently re-surfaced.

[Jeni]

I use to use cornstarch to try and help with the greasies, it didnt really help much for me just made my hair feel clumpy and weird. Also even on my then light ash blond hair it left a greyish cast.

[Guinevere]

I have tried baby powder but it always leaves a grayish cast to my dark hair. There are some products on the market that you can spray on your hair and it absorbs oil. I think I was using the Sebastin tinted spray hair powder. The store is always out of the brown shade so I haven't bought it in a while. It worked really well.

I did try my first CO wash today. I will be curious to see how oily my scalp is tomorrow. My hair feels really soft right now. I also have oily scalp and dry ends too. I wash every other day.

Wow! Same here (First CO wash just now.). Please let me know how it turns out, okay? I don't know but I'm not sure my hair will last till this evening (Because I live in a tropical place, so it's HOT in here:cool:!)

[Guinevere]

Oookay, upon reading all your opinions... No baby powder and cornstarch as it will leave greyish tinge on my hair.. (don't want to look 30 years older, do I? Hahaha...)

@Samitra: Guess I'll do the same as you then! Now I just need to find my hat and headbands! =3

[earthdancer]

I believe that they have some baby powders now without talc. However, you can use corn starch for the same thing. My problem is that my hair is very dark and no matter how hard I try, I cannot get it all out! If my hair was lighter, I would be VERY happy with how corn starch helps stretch a washing. I just wouldn't inhale a lot of it... But that is true for any substance other than air!

Baby powders (at least in the U.S.) have not had talc in them for decades! They are corn starch now, as are most bath powders. I hate cornstarch, by the way.

I use dry shampoo; I don't know what's in it, but it is white and leaves my hair with a grayish cast.

[justpuggy]

Switching to a sls free shampoo enabled me to go a day or 2 between washes. Good luck!

[ShaSha]

I have used cornstarch to remove the oiliness. I just massaged a lot of it in my hair, let it be for about 20 minutes and rinsed off quickly with cool water.

I don't use that much now, since I don't get so oily. But I used to have exactly the same situation as you. Oily scalp and dry ends, only I had to shampoo every day. And the cornstarch really helped to extend the time between washing.

It took my hair a few months to get adjusted. Now I usually rinse quickly with cool water every day, because I spend a lot of time outdoors, around horses and I want to remove all the dust and things. :rolleyes:. But I wash with something stonger about twise a week. (Don't shampoo, I use herbal things, eggs and so on.)

[pdy2kn6]

perhaps using a boar bristle brush would be useful, it would distribute you hairs natural oils from the scalp to the ends, providing a cleaner scalp and more moisturised hair ends :)

[Guinevere]

perhaps using a boar bristle brush would be useful, it would distribute you hairs natural oils from the scalp to the ends, providing a cleaner scalp and more moisturised hair ends :)

Sounds interesting! I just bought a boar bristle brush yesterday. I'm gonna try it!

[hennared]

I moved to every other day from every day washing, months ago. I still get greasies in my bangs, though, the no wash day. I mix orris root powder (found in local health food store) with a bit of carob powder (found in same) to darken the powder. I brush *just a little* in at the roots of my front hair, where it gets oily, and it absorbs the oil w/o leaving much obvious powdery residue. The trick is to use just a little!

[spidermom]

Personally, I don't care what anybody tells me I am supposed to do. I wash my hair whenever I think it needs to be washed, even twice in one day if necessary. You can protect your ends by coating them in conditioner before you shampoo your scalp area. I like to dilute my shampoo in some warm water, then shake it up and squirt all over my scalp. I saved an empty shampoo bottle for this purpose.

[Carina]

Personally, I don't care what anybody tells me I am supposed to do. I wash my hair whenever I think it needs to be washed, even twice in one day if necessary. You can protect your ends by coating them in conditioner before you shampoo your scalp area. I like to dilute my shampoo in some warm water, then shake it up and squirt all over my scalp. I saved an empty shampoo bottle for this purpose.

Thanks for a great idea Spidermom.I will try that the next time it's time to wash my hair.:cheese:.

[ungratefulgirl]

I'm also having a hard time with the same problem. For half the week it will work for me to not shampoo often, and my hair won't be too oily. Then all of a sudden, my scalp will start making more oil. I go back and forth, and it's kind of annoying, because I have to vary my routine constantly...but I guess that varying my routine is what my hair wants. Which means my hair is just like me:)

[sklent]

What made the biggest difference for me was putting it up. If I keep my hair up, I notice it takes a much longer time to get oily. Keeping my hair up was the key.

[Guinevere]

Hmmm... another interesting idea! So many ideas so much time! I have to try your advices one-by-one!!

[kiwigeek]

I've read that when using cornstarch on dark hair, you mix it with some eyeliner. No idea how that works, because my hair is blonde and I'm not concerned if it looks whitish for one day. My face is young enough to make up for it, fortunately. ;o)

[kiwigeek]

Oh, and give your hair plenty of time to adjust. I think mine took a few months going from daily to every other day. Now I'm down to every four days, and until I started experimenting with my routine, it was only a little oily on the last day. I tried pushing to once a week, but that didn't work.

[kiwigeek]

Oooh, this thread (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=15970) suggests mixing cornstarch with cocoa powder to make it darker. And this one (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=21242) mentions cornmeal (and other ideas) as an alternative to cornstarch.

[Guinevere]

Wow.. That's definitely a LOT of information! Thanks, kiwigeek!