Does sebum penetrate the hair shaft?

[pepperminttea]

This is going to sound silly however I say it, but reading the threads lately about which oils penetrate and which don't (very handy list here, thanks to Silver & Gold (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=10971)), I suddenly thought earlier today - does your own scalp's sebum penetrate the hair shaft?

I did a medium-light oiling with coconut oil yesterday on my length, and combing it out today, all the coconut oil had been absorbed (I was really quite surprised how quickly and how much it'd slurped up!). But my sebum seems more of a natural protector, covering the surface - it never seems to absorb. What'd you reckon?

[Regan]

If I recall correctly, sebum is most similar to jojoba oil and jojoba oil is one of those that sits on top of the hair. I can't say for sure, but I don't think sebum penetrates the hair shaft.

I really wanna say thank you for linking that thread, though. I looked so hard for it the past few days since I bought some sweet almond oil and jojoba oil and I couldn't find it :( so thank you!

ETA: I'm also pretty sure that jojoba oil is a wax, which would also go hand-in-hand with how sebum can sometimes feel thick and waxy.

[Lianna]

Interesting question. I always thought not. I'll be watching this. :)

[Anje]

I've wondered this myself. My first, completely uninformed instinct says no... If it doesn't, it does raise the question of exactly why we want oils that penetrate.

[PolarCathy]

I am fairly certain that it does. I don't know the mechanics. I had been water-only for more than a year. It happened twice during that year that I was very very close to washing my hair. I went to bed with the intention of washing my hair the next day with something -- anything. Next morning I woke up, grease vanished and hair felt smooth and soft. The grease was not on my pillow and both my engineering background and common sense tell me it couldn't possibly have evaporated.

[RitaCeleste]

I'm not sure it does. Mine just seems to coat the hairs. Although Meadowfoam only partially penetrates, its light and I like it. For the money I would have done better to stick to coconut and olive oil though. :( And I'm unable to find any real scientific break downs of Ojon oil and why it is superior to coconut and say other palm oils. All I know after googling is it sold exclusively to the makers Ojon products. They have a total monopoly on it. The tribe is benefiting from this arrangement. Ojon damage reverse costs $11 per oz and it not pure Ojon oil but a concoction. So whether its the proprietary Ojon oil that works so well or other non proprietary ingredients remains to be seen. That's 55 times the cost my Lou Ana pure coconut oil. If there is any real science behind this oil I've failed to find it. And I'm annoyed at myself the time I've wasted trying. Thanks for pulling that oil thread up with all information on tons of oils! I had seen that thread before and its great go back and have real information on different oils. I'm gonna bookmark that.

[spidermom]

Oh yes, it most certainly does, especially right at the spot where the hair emerges from the follicle. The essentially fatty acids provided by sebum are part of the natural structure of your hair, but it gradually erodes away while hair grows and gets further from the scalp. That's why we want penetrating oils, to replace the esssential fatty acids.

I've also had the experience of my hair being unbearably oily one day and much improved the next day.

[Neneka]

Isn't there like two kind of sebum.. The one that doesn't penetrate and it just coats and protects hair and the other kind is oilier and penetrates. :hmm: I don't know for sure. I have just read this somewhere. This really might not be true...

[vanity_acefake]

Ooh this is a good question.
I shall be watching this thread.

[Gem]

Isn't there like two kind of sebum.. The one that doesn't penetrate and it just coats and protects hair and the other kind is oilier and penetrates. :hmm: I don't know for sure. I have just read this somewhere. This really might not be true...

I have read that too, and I believe that's how it works. If it behaves with water like sheep's lanolin, then the oily stage would wash away (even with ice cold water) and the waxy stage would stay without really hot water or detergent. That was my experience with WO - my hair started getting a bit waxy unless I used really hot water. With NW/SO though, I think it keeps the two stages together and I haven't experienced any waxiness yet.
The above is JMO and YMMV, of course.

[PianoPlaye]

Many thanks for the link - the sesame oil I had acquired can now go into a kitchen cupboard with an innocent expression ;) & I'll try to find the backbone to apply the olive oil.
(Not an application technique, more a struggling-to-undo-the bottle-and-apply-to-hair nerve. )

[CrystalStar]

When I let my hair get oily it feels waxy and coated, not at all like when I use coconut oil! I'd hazard a guess at it just coating the shaft. :p

[RitaCeleste]

Yeah but if it is two kinds, the good one would have soaked in and we'd never know it was there. Tricky stuff.

[tinti]

I don't have any ansers (except my kinda sebum (and btw I don't think "my" sebum is different than anybody else's) is not penetrating the shaft much) but I just want to think pepperminttea for asking this question :D

[QueenJoey]

I'm no expert, but I do know that if I go more than 2 days between washes, my hair gets unbelievably oily and it never seems to absorb. This is very interesting, though.

[Deborah]

Whether it absorbs or not, it is the natural substance provided by our own bodies to protect our hair and skin. I don't think anything else could possibly be as good.

[Lianna]

Whether it absorbs or not, it is the natural substance provided by our own bodies to protect our hair and skin. I don't think anything else could possibly be as good.

It protects, but does it reconstruct like protein does? If someone is lacking protein, protein would be better (I know it's temporary). Sebum wouldn't fix the lack of protein problem. It always depends on what the hair needs, some people don't need sebum as much as other stuff. Another example is conditioner, not everybody can do the NW thing and survive of sebum and have good results, so conditioner would be "as good" or even better for them.

[silverjen]

From my personal WO experience, I don't think it absorbs at all. I think it works as a protective coating--and does do a good job of that. I've gone out to bars, gotten my hair saturated with the smell of smoke, and thought for sure I'd have to shampoo. But the smoke smell was gone the next day with just a water rinse. Yay sebum!

I also don't think there are two kinds. From what I have observed the consistency can vary from waxy to oily, depending on hormones and diet. I got crazy oily when I was going off the Pill, but once my hormones settled down my sebum went back to being waxy(ish).

[silverjen]

You know, I kinda love that we can talk about sebum consistency without being all "Eww! Gross!" :D

Edited to add: here's the Wikipedia entry on sebum. Kinda interesting! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebaceous_gland

[pepperminttea]

If it doesn't, it does raise the question of exactly why we want oils that penetrate.

You know, that didn't even occur to me. Thanks! :)


Oh yes, it most certainly does, especially right at the spot where the hair emerges from the follicle. The essentially fatty acids provided by sebum are part of the natural structure of your hair, but it gradually erodes away while hair grows and gets further from the scalp. That's why we want penetrating oils, to replace the essential fatty acids.

I've also had the experience of my hair being unbearably oily one day and much improved the next day.

Oh I see! Now I'm wondering if a combination would be best - a light oiling of a penetrating oil, followed by a light oiling with a non-penetrating oil. Though that might be altogether too much oil. :hmm:

I've yet to have the experience of my hair absorbing its own sebum (maybe my scalp just produces it too quickly to be absorbed?), but my own sebum is quite waxy. I'm wondering if the consistency could be affected by diet; there are certainly things about mine which could no doubt be improved. :p


I'll try to find the backbone to apply the olive oil.
(Not an application technique, more a struggling-to-undo-the bottle-and-apply-to-hair nerve. )

I double dare you. :D


Whether it absorbs or not, it is the natural substance provided by our own bodies to protect our hair and skin. I don't think anything else could possibly be as good.

True, though in fairness my sebum doesn't often get all that far down the hair shaft length-wise, and boar bristle brushes don't get along with my hair, so I use other oils to give my length a bit of help. :)

[PrincessBlondie]

I would also love an answer to this question! :)

Personally, I hate the smell of sebum, and hate being stood behind someone that hasn't washed their hair for a while. Yuk!

[IndigoAsh]

I'm not really sure, but I'm going to guess it's absorbed. At least to a certain degree. I personally love my hair best when it gets a nice coating of sebum down it. Its softest and much easier to handle at that point. I always hate having to wash it, but oh well... sometimes I really dislike having to do things to stay socially acceptable.

[frizzinator]

......

True, though in fairness my sebum doesn't often get all that far down the hair shaft length-wise, and boar bristle brushes don't get along with my hair, so I use other oils to give my length a bit of help. :)


The best way to spread sebum is preening with your fingers. I find that the bbb actually removes sebum from my hair, so I rarely use the bbb, but I will use it if I need to remove something from my scalp or hair, such as flakes, lint or other types of tiny debris.

~

I have practiced the Sebum Only (SO) method for nearly four years. SO means no products and no water. I use nothing on my scalp or hair. I rinsed my hair on one day during those 4 years, so I have a lot of experience with sebum.

~

I do not believe my hair absorbs sebum. Sebum tends to stay close to my scalp unless I preen. I have to preen nearly everyday or else my hair begins to look frizzy.

My hair started getting frizzy about 15 years ago, and my only hair goal has been to eliminate the frizzy hair, and what I am doing seems to calm my frizzy hairs better than WO, CO, oils and everything else I tried.

Preening is like polishing individual hairs with the sebum. Obviously I cannot do it to every single hair everyday, but the cummulative effects of preening is what works.

Because I have to preen nearly everyday, I believe the sebum wears off. If it were absorbed, then at some point it would seem like I would need less preening, but that has not happened during these four years.

When I wear a silk scarf for sleeping, I see a faint oily spot on the scarf where my head presses against the pillow. If I don't wear the scarf to bed, then I see a faint oily spot on my silk pillowcase. I sleep on the same side every night, so you might expect that the hair on the other side of my head would have more sebum, but both sides appear to frizz equally without daily preening.

After I started practicing the SO method, it took nearly six months before my hair became completely covered with sebum. During the first four months the length and especially the ends of my hair were very dry.

Nowdays, if I don't preen for 2 days in a row, the frizzies start popping up again. So I think that if my hair absorbed the sebum, then preening would not be a daily necessity.

~

Regarding the liquid vs. the waxy sebum, the first time I noticed waxy sebum was during the first winter I practiced SO. Initially I thought it was like animal fat, whereby it solidifies when cold. But I later experienced cold winters without having any waxy sebum. So now I doubt my initial theory.

I've experienced very little waxy sebum, so it's difficult to determine what causes it. When I had waxy sebum, it seemed to be waxy for several days, then I did not see any more waxy sebum for a year or more. I tried but have not found a link between my waxy sebum and my diet.

Another reason why I cannot completely dismiss my "cold" theory about waxy sebum, is because it becomes liquid when I preen with it. Preening is a finger intensive activity. When I had waxy sebum, the warmth of my fingers made it spreadable while preening, thus the waxy sebum responded to preening in the same way that liquid sebum responds, except that the waxy sebum provided a lot more sebum for preening than my liquid sebum provides.

~

A few folks in this thread mentioned smelly sebum, and I would like to share what I know from experience. Every product (including natual products) leaves a residue on the scalp, and the bad smell is caused when that residue combines with sebum. Without product residue on the scalp, sebum alone does not have an offensive smell.

[Lianna]

A few folks in this thread mentioned smelly sebum, and I would like to share what I know from experience. Every product (including natual products) leaves a residue on the scalp, and the bad smell is caused when that residue combines with sebum. Without product residue on the scalp, sebum alone does not have an offensive smell.

That's really interesting. When I was WO, it didn't smell either, but when I use products it does. I just find my hair more manageable with S/C so that's what I do now.

[gthlvrmx]

Sebum doest smell??? Wow i didnt know that!! Id love to preen but its tougher with curly hair it gets tangled at some point. least for me.

[CurlyCurves]

Being a curly head, the only time I experience greasy hair is either;

A) When I add any kind of oil or oil based leave in.

B) When my hair is flat ironed. It's a greaseball by the third or fourth day.

This is fascinating to me, though!