The Right Shampoo for Oily Hair

You’ve got enough to worry about in your busy day without having to worry that your beauty routine isn’t holding up. And nothing says that more than those two dreaded words: greasy hair. But not to worry, hair help is on the way! Here’s what you need to know to banish the bad oils from your hair, keep the good ones and “detox” away all that styling buildup.

How Do I Stop Having Greasy Hair?

Our scalps and hair fibers have many natural oils. In fact, our scalps produce 2-4 grams of oil (or sebum) – roughly equivalent to ½ to 1 tsp of cooking oil – every day. And, though you can’t change the amount of oil your scalp will produce each day, you can take steps to manage it. For instance, brushing with a natural bristle hairbrush, which evenly distributes that oil throughout the length of the hair, can rectify minor buildup of scalp oil and distribute it to the ends. This helps avoid having combination hair: locks that are oily at the roots and dry at the tips. Additionally, you can adjust how often you cleanse your hair.

How Do I Know When it’s Really Clean?

Apply shampoo directly onto the scalp and massage in, as this tends to be the area of hair with the most oil buildup. The surest indicator that your hair is clean is when bubbles or foam occur during shampooing. Dirt and oil cause the bubbles to collapse – often during the initial lathering – so an encore wash may be needed to fully clean your hair. According to the hair doctors with Pantene’s Hair Research Institute, you should rinse your hair only as long as needed to remove the shampoo. Fun fact! Some of the ingredients aren’t activated until you rinse. Who knew?