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My 11yod has greasy hair and it doesn't seem to get clean


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She washes it well and doesn't put conditioner on and blows dry her hair and it still looks greasy. Are there any special shampoos or products that help with this? I'm sure it must be hormone related (I got greasy hair with one of my pregnancies) but I don't know what to do about it. She has started getting into taking care of her hair and wants it to look nice.

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Are you absolutely sure she's shampooing her hair well? I'd wash it for her once and see if there is a difference. I've had to do that for a few of my kids unfortunately. Only then did they believe me that shampooing thoroughly made a difference.

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I'd stop using shampoo with SLS (unless of course you already have), get a good organic shampoo and add a baking soda routine and see if that helps. SLS strips your scalp and then it works overtime to replace your natural oils.

 

 

hth,

Georgia

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Does she wash it more than once (wash-rinse-repeat)? Does she really scrub her head all over?

 

My dd took f..o..r..e..v..e..r to learn to wash her hair well. She would get some shampoo on her hand, and wimply smear it around her head a few times and rinse. She'd end up with one clean spot, and the rest a stringy mess. It took her forever to get comfortable really rubbing, and to find all the different parts of her head! It made me crazy, but she seemed to not have a full grasp of the size and shape of her own head! I don't know how else to explain it. She also didn't have an understanding of what clean hair feels like (when the rinse water seems to fill up the hair, rather than slide off of it). I don't know what finally clicked, but she's 12 1/2 and she finally does a pretty decent job of washing her hair.

 

Now, if I could only get her to fluff it up while it's drying, instead of just letting it dry all flat and stuck to her head. :)

 

Oh, she uses Neutrogena T-Gel shampoo (because she has dandruff issues as well as oil issues), and it makes her hair very clean and fresh smelling. I get the kind with conditioner, and it's not too much conditioner.

 

Don't know if any of this applies to you gals, but maybe something here is helpful.

Edited by Suzanne in ABQ
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Mindy,

 

Mine, too! I was just about to post on this. My dd also has a little bit of dandruff (?) showing up along her part line.

 

Curious how often other dds this age are showering/bathing. We have very dry skin, so we are dealing with two things...dry skin and oily hair.

 

Would love to hear what other moms have to say.

 

Thanks, All!

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Mindy,

 

Mine, too! I was just about to post on this. My dd also has a little bit of dandruff (?) showing up along her part line.

 

Curious how often other dds this age are showering/bathing. We have very dry skin, so we are dealing with two things...dry skin and oily hair.

 

Would love to hear what other moms have to say.

 

Thanks, All!

 

I posted below, but I'll reiterate here. My dd has finally gotten good at washing her hair. Neutrogena T-Gel (the kind with conditioner) does a good job on her dandruff and oily hair, and it smells good. Getting her to wash it well was a long ordeal, but she finally has a nice head of hair!

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Less frequent washing may help, too (after a bit of an adjustment period on the part of her scalp). It may take a few weeks or longer, but the less she washes the less her oils will try to replace themselves. She may be washing TOO well (!) and as a result might have exacerbated the oil problem.

 

Baking soda is a great solution. It may take a few episodes of trial and error to perfect the right ratio of baking soda/water paste for her hair, but it's a worthwhile experiment. It takes very little FWIW. A good followup rinse would be apple cider vinegar - it only smells when the hair is wet, and it has always kept my very oily hair soft and shiny in between washes. Again, it only takes a small amount (diluted with water).

 

It seems counterintuitive, but really - oiler hair does better with less frequent washing and/or less harsh shampoos (as mentioned by the PP re: SLS). One good shampoo a week, with one or two baking soda washes in between would do wonders for her hair :)

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Does she wash it more than once (wash-rinse-repeat)? Does she really scrub her head all over?

 

My dd took f..o..r..e..v..e..r to learn to wash her hair well. She would get some shampoo on her hand, and wimply smear it around her head a few times and rinse. She'd end up with one clean spot, and the rest a stringy mess. It took her forever to get comfortable really rubbing, and to find all the different parts of her head!

 

 

 

This made me laugh and feel better. Time after time youngest son would shower and his hair would look no different. Finally, I asked him if he was shampooing. I guess he thought washing his hair was optional. Other times he swore he did wash it and he'd just coat it with conditioner that he thought was shampoo. Yes, son, you do have to read the bottle. Oy. After so many trips back into the shower he gets it now. :lol:

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prewash the roots and scalp only with a mild soap such as Dove or Ivory. Then shampoo twice, as usual.

 

Make sure you are using a clean-rinsing shampoo, not a moisturizing one. We find Shampoo One by Paul Mitchell to be a superb shampoo because it cleans gently, but gets all grease and products out. It seems to work well for oily or dry hair. I won't use anything else, and other shampoos build up and leave hair dull/greasy or dry. Shampoo One leaves hair soft, shiny, and CLEAN.

 

Try the pre-wash with soap, and change shampoos every couple of months. Make sure you don't get a "conditioning" shampoo, but one made for normal hair.

Edited by Tami
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You may want to try a shampoo made for fine/limp hair. These have fewer conditioning ingredients in them and seem to strip the grease out better (at least in my experience). I would also have her use a LOT of shampoo and massage it into her scalp for a good 3 minutes. Maybe even let it sit for a while, have her finish her shower, and rinse it out at the end. Then just use conditioner on the bottom half of her hair.

 

What happens if she doesn't blow dry? Maybe the heat is contributing as well.....

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I have this problem with two of my sons. They wash their hair twice with Suave for Men shampoo. It works. If one of the boys has dandruff, he washes first with Suave, and second with a dandruff shampoo.

 

The Suave for Men shampoo is great. I tried it once and it works better than any shampoo I have ever used for cleaning hair.

 

It smells like Man Shampoo, but the scent doesn't linger in one's hair after it is washed.

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I got rid of my oily hair almost entirely by going "no poo". I use 2T baking soda added to 1 cup of water (double batch for very long hair), working it into my scalp well. After I rinse that out, I do a 2T vinegar to 1 cup water solution (again doubled for long hair) as a conditioner. After a couple of weeks, I was able to drop down to "washing" my hair 2-3 times a week.

 

With shampoo, my hair was so oily I had to do it every day and it was limp and lifeless. The shampoo just makes your scalp work overtime replacing the oils that were stripped. I get lots of complements on my hair now beause it is soft, shiny, and has volume.

 

I'll use shampoo/condition once every two weeks or so for a single wash.

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I got rid of my oily hair almost entirely by going "no poo". I use 2T baking soda added to 1 cup of water (double batch for very long hair), working it into my scalp well. After I rinse that out, I do a 2T vinegar to 1 cup water solution (again doubled for long hair) as a conditioner. After a couple of weeks, I was able to drop down to "washing" my hair 2-3 times a week.

 

Is the 2T baking soda to the 1 cup water the normal amount or the doubled amount?

 

Just trying to figure it all out, lol!

 

Thanks!

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Is the 2T baking soda to the 1 cup water the normal amount or the doubled amount?

 

Just trying to figure it all out, lol!

 

Thanks!

 

Not Joann, but...

 

It's all trial and error. Some people do great with a little BS in a lot of water. I tend to go heavier on the BS and mix about a 1/2 cup with enough water so it's just pourable, almost like heavy cream.

 

I use the apple cider vinegar as Joann described, but rinse it out thoroughly and do a final rinse with cooled chamomile tea. The vinegar can make your hair very heavy if you use too much. (So can honey, which is very conditioning, but I find needs to be confined to the ends of my hair or it dries very heavy - like morning after the prom, full of product, heavy.)

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The only suggestion I can make is that Head and Shoulders mainly works to hydrate the scalp so that the flakes will stop. Quite a few dandruff shampoos have conditioning elements in them.

 

I would switch to a clarifying shampoo (Suave, Herbal Essences, Pantene, etc...) or really most any shampoo that is clear and not opaque in color.

 

I also agree with adjusting to at least an every-other day washing. It is worse at first, but does help after a few weeks adjustment.

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Is the 2T baking soda to the 1 cup water the normal amount or the doubled amount?

 

Just trying to figure it all out, lol!

 

Thanks!

 

That's the normal amount. I use double that (4T baking soda and 2 cups water) for my thick hair that's down to the middle of my back.

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Just wanted to add my voice to the ones suggesting that you verify how thoroughly she's washing. She's just at the right age for wanting to be feminine and clean and, at the same, time being immature enough to be lazy about it.

 

My daughter at that age wanted to do everything Efficiently. So she decided that parting her hair was too much of a hassle and it would stay parted if she just avoided washing that part of her head. She did not tell me about this plan. :)

 

I discovered it after I noticed that her part looked messy and the top of her head looked greasy. I asked her to bring me her comb and as I tried to part her hair I found an accumulation of grease and flakes that was downright disgusting. That's when the truth of her efficient plan came out, and I immediately put the kibosh on it.

 

We still laugh about this incident, because it was so out of character for her in some ways (she was very neat and tidy about her appearance) and yet so in character in others (Efficiency! No Wasted Effort!).:lol:

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Dd 11 has been struggling with this problem for a while, too. She has extremely thick and fine hair (in other words, difficult to really clean the roots and very tangly) and the only thing that has worked moderately well has been Pantene Classic Clean and Pantene Sheer Volume conditioner. After reading this I immediately grabbed her up and we washed her hair with the soda and followed with vinegar. It even combed out nicely, with no gnarly tangles. Thank you so much for this suggestion, especially the idea of "no poo". If it works here, I will be highly impressed and grateful! I will be reporting back on this!!!

 

Thanks, Mindy, for posting the question!

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Dd 11 has been struggling with this problem for a while, too. She has extremely thick and fine hair (in other words, difficult to really clean the roots and very tangly) and the only thing that has worked moderately well has been Pantene Classic Clean and Pantene Sheer Volume conditioner. After reading this I immediately grabbed her up and we washed her hair with the soda and followed with vinegar. It even combed out nicely, with no gnarly tangles. Thank you so much for this suggestion, especially the idea of "no poo". If it works here, I will be highly impressed and grateful! I will be reporting back on this!!!

 

Thanks, Mindy, for posting the question!

 

Just making sure you know that "no poo" takes a couple of weeks to get the full effect. It takes a little time for your scalp to adjust and stop producing so much oil.

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