Super oily hair?

[Jules diamond]

Hey LHCers!

So, I've got a bit of a problem. As you might have guessed from the (total giveaway) title, I have oily hair. I heard that not washing it as often helps reduce the oil produced, but all it did was give me flakes after trying for a couple of months. Flakes are gone now, but I miss having second day hair. It looks so stringy, even if it's in a bun after drying! Is there any sort of shampoo that you know of or techniques I could use to remedy the problem?

TIA!

[Bast]

I too have the oily hair thing. Personally, the only thing that really truly works for me is washing with a sulfate shampoo every other day, or if I'm feeling lazy, every three days.

You could also try dry shampoos or their at-home equivalents; people have had decent results with things like cocoa, baby powder, etc.

[pepperminttea]

I've also had to resort to sulphates, though I still stretch washes. Much as I hate to say it, but it might partly be your age; my hair definitely gets less oily, less quickly now than it did four years ago. I've still got the acne, but c'est la vie. :)

[teela1978]

I too have the oily hair thing. Personally, the only thing that really truly works for me is washing with a sulfate shampoo every other day, or if I'm feeling lazy, every three days.

You could also try dry shampoos or their at-home equivalents; people have had decent results with things like cocoa, baby powder, etc.
Yup. Sulfates every other day... sometimes daily. I never had much luck with baby or cocoa powder, a real wash always makes my hair much better than any other method.

[UltraBella]

I have an oily scalp and there is a new shampoo from the tresemme naturals line that has low sulfates and it really works for me. I don't like sulfates so I feel better that it is low in sulfates, because I did not have luck with an all natural shampoo, my scalp never felt clean and I couldn't stretch my washings like I do now.

[Fadedbluedreams]

I have oily hair as well. I have recently discovered that on the days I'm not washing my hair, if I do not get it wet in the shower, it stays fresher and less oily. It's like the water does something to increase oil production perhaps. But, now I go two-three days without washing when before I would wash it daily. So I effectively cut my washing by 50% with this method. Also, it stays cleaner if I keep it in a ponytail.

[Chestershire]

a sulphate free shampoo has the same effect on my oily hair as a sulphate containing shampoo. I always use the sulphate free one though, because then I can allow myself to wash my hair a bit more oftern.

[LaurelSpring]

I have found that although the sls initially made it feel better on wash day, that the oil production backlash from it made it worse. I went for a while not using sls and I could go a couple of days without looking too greasy by the second day. When I went back to using sls I was a total grease ball on day two. I went back to using sls sparingly and try to focus on non sls for the most part. Using the cocoa powder helped also.

[phistash]

I have oily hair also. I tried very hard to go water-only, but my hair never transitioned. The longest I can go between washes is three days, and that is if I'm lucky. I've found that doing CWC every other day works best for me. I have wavy hair, but it easily frizzes out, so I always wear my hair up on the day that I wash it, which does two things: it ensures that my hair dries with the curls intact, and it keeps the hair close to the scalp clean. I wear it down on the second day. If I don't have time or am just feeling lazy, I won't wash on the third day, but tmost of the time, it is too greasy, so I wear head wraps a lot. I've never had any luck with cocoa powder, or anything like that.

[Neneka]

Before my hair was very oily but maybe that was because of my age. I don't really know but it stopped when I tried WO (water only). I was into it for six months. Also keeping it up helps. Now it's been maybe 5 days since I washed my hair but it's still not oily at all. I just bought some new natural shampoo. It's a solid piece of shampoo bar with only natural ingredients. Oh, I am eager to try it but my hair has decided that it doesn't need to be washed or even rinsed with water.

[Jules diamond]

Sounds like a lot of you guys stopped using sulphates. Would it be printed on the bottle if it had them or is there another place I should look?

[beez1717]

hmm. My hair is so oily that I have to wash it every day or every other day, and then it still looks like a wad of grease. I don't know what to do! It isn't flaky or anything, it just looks VERY dirty, it smells and it looks awful. Any help?

[teela1978]

I tried stopping sulfates (sodium/ammonium laureth/lauryl sulfate). Some people seem to have scalps that are sensitive to sulfates, and stopping the sulfates for them means that their scalp stops producing so much oil. My scalp does not seem to be sensitive to sulfates. Switching to non-sulfate shampoos gives me itchy bumps on my scalp, and my hair is just as greasy. Same with CO and other 'gentler' washing methods. My scalp just needs a good sulfate wash.