Oily hair struggles

Hey everyone,
I’m looking for some advice because I am honestly at my wit's end here.
The issue is my hair. I have to wash it every two days—and look, I know for some people that's totally normal, but is there any way I can stretch this out to every three or four days? 😕
Basically, my hair gets oily at the roots almost immediately and just loses all its volume—it has zero life left in it, if you know what I mean.
I’ve cycled through different shampoos and tried pretty much everything under the sun, but nothing actually works. It’s still limp, dull, lifeless...
What should I do?

I’m not even sure there’s much point in trying to help here. Honestly, I’d probably have to shadow her every single day just to make any kind of headway...

Does that drive you absolutely nuts?

Mine is the exact same way. A total disaster.
I wash it about every other day—though honestly, I probably should be doing it daily, but I refuse to give in out of pure spite.😬
In my opinion, there isn't much anyone can really do to fix it.

Maybe try applying some foam right after you wash. You can also mix different essential oils into your conditioner. From what I know, adding just a few drops of rosemary oil to your conditioner works wonders for hair loss. Another thing—you could always experiment with baby shampoos. Honestly, even stress can make your hair get oily way faster. 🙂

What a joke, blaming stress for everything.😬

Mountain air and total brain fog!!! 🙂

I’ve been washing my hair every single morning before heading into the office for years now—honestly, nothing seems to work

Look, there aren't any miracle shampoos or some kind of magic potion out there... I guess it really just boils down to choosing whether you want to show up to work with greasy hair or not

First off—it’s a lost cause.

I wash my hair every other morning before heading into work. It took me years to realize that I just feel significantly worse when my hair hits that borderline greasy stage—and I don't bother washing it until I wake up early and deal with it. I kept trying to stretch it to three days, but it just wouldn't work. Living in a big city like New York makes it much worse than being out in the fresh air. In NYC, the grease lasts two days; in the countryside, you might get three. I simply prefer it clean—I can't stand that half-oily, sticky feeling on my scalp.

Second—some shampoos are just better than others. Out of everything on the market, I tend to go with: a) Paul Mitchell for about $12 (which lasts way longer than the other brands—about a month and a half)
b) A scented botanical Paul Mitchell for about $24 (this one lasts two and a half months if I wash every other day)
c) Something from a pharmacy like Uriage (haven't used it in a while, but it was solid)
d) An Estée Lauder drugstore find (haven't touched it lately either, but it was great)

An important side note:
All those shampoos sold at places ranging from CVS to Walmart to Dione... the ones with instructions printed in various languages like Russian, Canadian, or Czech? They aren't the same quality as the exact same products bought in Austria for the Austrian market. Even if it seems impossible that a massive corporation like L'Oréal would do that—it's true. There was a huge outcry regarding laundry detergents where manufacturers were caught cheating customers, but nobody talks about how this applies to almost everything else. These giant companies often put fewer active ingredients into products destined for certain markets compared to what they send to Austria or France.

That’s why I never buy anything that has a label specifically indicating it was formulated for our local market.

Which is why none of the shampoo you find in a standard grocery store is actually any good. 🙂

Melissa Sullivan27 Asks:
So, why isn't there a single decent shampoo? From the store. Not good. 🙂

So, basically none—well, most shampoos you’ll find sitting on the shelves at Walmart, Dione, or CVS... and in some smaller grocery stores? Not a single one.🙂

You really shouldn't wash your hair all the time—once or twice a week is probably plenty.
That’s what those specialists told me when I had my hair checked out a few years back.
I mean, obviously, walking around with greasy hair is gross, but I guess the more you wash it, the more your scalp just pumps out oil to compensate.
We girls have it easier, though—we can just tie it back in a ponytail and call it a day.🙂

I’d honestly rather shave my head than deal with washing it once a week.

Kimberly Davis52 said:I’d honestly rather shave my head than deal with washing my hair just once a week.

Hold on, are we talking about that being too frequent or way too infrequent? 🤔

For the girls out there who don't feel like wearing their hair up or just can't quite pull off an updo (maybe because it isn't long enough yet), I have a little tip. You might want to try dusting some baby powder onto your roots before you head off to work, class, or a night out, then just comb it through. It helps hide that greasy look for a bit... though, I guess it might only last you a day or two. By the third day, even that probably won't do much. 😬

Michelle Kelly76 said:Wait, are we talking too often or not enough? 🤔

Not enough. 😁
Hair picks up every single scent—smoke, cooking smells... don't even get me started on the smog in Los Angeles. My hair used to smell so bad after washing it there that I didn't even want to put my head on the pillow for two days straight. If it didn't get greasy, I'd wash it way more often.
To slow down the grease, I swear by putting a little sunflower oil with a few drops of patchouli on my hair, letting it sit for half an hour, then washing it out. I went from washing every 2-3 days to once every 4-5—though lately, it hasn't been working quite as well. 😢
But for a few months, it was 🙂

Wait, is this sunflower oil thing some kind of joke or what...?🤔
(If my memory serves me right—and I might be totally tripping here—didn't you post a thread a few months back about "how to get all this grease out of my hair after overdoing it with oils" or something along those lines?) 😬

Yeah. After that whole thread, my hair started getting greasy way too fast. One time after I washed it 😁
I actually used less oil, just so I could manage to get it all out in one wash 🙂

I wash my hair twice a week—no more, because I don't want it stripping away all my natural oils. When things start looking a little greasy, I’ll just wash and blow dry it, then hit it with a nice scented spray so that sebum smell doesn't take over. If I were washing it every single day, I'd probably lose half my hair from the constant heat styling.

So, about a month ago, I was killing time waiting for something at the CVS and decided to just sit in on this free scalp analysis because, honestly, I was bored out of my mind.

First off, turns out I’ve been dealing with chronic dandruff—though you wouldn't even see a speck of it on the surface—it's all deep in the roots. And apparently, I have to wash my hair every other day because it gets so lifeless and greasy. Like, not just "normal oily," but seriously, it’s freaking ridiculous.

Anyway, the lady there gave me two products. They were some fancy Italian brand, and honestly, my brain is mush right now so I can't remember the names, but I'll update you guys tonight.

One is a cleansing foam, and the other is a tea tree-based lotion you apply after washing.

The price tag is insane, though. The foam was around $30, and the lotion was $150. But man, it is worth every single cent. I went back for a follow-up three days ago, and the results are amazing—like, actually phenomenal. If I stick to this for another month, I think I can finally stop. My scalp and hair feel incredible right now.

So yeah, if this helps anyone, awesome.

I get what you mean about the grease, honestly. I recently picked up this leave-in foam from Avon that you just apply to wet hair without rinsing it out, and I think it’s actually helped my situation quite a bit.