Greasy or oily hair is messy and difficult to style. Hair strands are usually clubbed together giving a feeling of flat hair. It is usually a hereditary condition.
It doesn't mean that if your parent has it you will certainly get it, but what it means is that if you have it then it is most likely due to hereditary reasons.
Overproduction of sebum is the main cause of the oiliness in the scalp and hair. In addition to hereditary factors, the hormonal changes during puberty and menopause periods can also cause temporary oily hair.
You can easily get rid of greasy hair if you use the following home remedies. Very soon your oily hair will become normal.
Getting Rid of Greasy Hair by Preventing Oiliness
Before you begin to use any products to make your oily hair look and feel normal, you need to make some lifestyle changes. This will stop the excess production of sebum which is the main cause of your greasy hair.
1. Eat Healthy Fat Free Food
Diet makes a big difference in your general well-being as well as for hair health. A healthy diet in your daily routine will prevent you from many diseases. The purpose of diet control in case of greasy hair is to retard the excess oil production.
Stop eating junk food completely. Eat fruits and vegetables generously in your daily meal plan. Fatty foods, processed foods and meats should be avoided completely. Sugary and starchy preparations made from white floor should be minimized.
Include Omega 3 rich foods such as salmon and walnut to maintain healthy hair. Add spinach and carrots and lots of fruits.
This will improve your metabolism, which will then be able to regulate sebum production effectively and your hair should begin to look normal within a month of diet control.
2. Avoid Stress and Remain Cheerful
Stress releases chemicals in the brain that cause hormonal imbalance. Most of the sebum or oil production in the scalp that makes hair oily is due to hormonal imbalance. That is why during puberty there is excess production of oil in the glands causing greasy hair and or acne on the face etc.
Getting stressed is a mental game. You need to focus more on exercise, yoga and meditation. Getting involved in sporting activity of your choice and developing and pursuing hobbies, such as singing, dancing, photography or any other activity that keeps you occupied and cheerful.
Physical activity releases brain chemicals that makes you calm and feel good. This reduces stress and depression that may overpower some people.
3. Avoid Heat – Keep Your Scalp Cool
Hot conditions act as a catalyst to produce oil in the scalp to make them greasy. Don’t expose yourself to excessive heat. Hot weather can be devastating, so stay indoors during the hot sun hours.
Don’t take warm water bath. If you have a habit of taking hot showers, then gradually switch to room temperatures. It doesn’t take more than a week to get adjusted to normal temperature bath. It can even take less time, if you act with strong will power.
4. Stop Using Strong Chemical Hair Products
Stay away from commercially available harsh shampoos and conditioners. It is instinctive to use harsh shampoos to remove the oiliness from your hair. But it is counterproductive. Body’s internal mechanism when realizes that hair are dry, it goes into overdrive to produce extra oil. In your case where greasy hair is already a problem, any extra production of oil will be a disaster.
Just use mild organic natural shampoos for your hair care. The extra cost is well worth to get rid of oily hair.
Avoid the conditioner completely. In fact a little bit of excess oil that your scalp is producing does a good job of conditioning your hair.
5. Don’t Wash Your Hair Daily
Washing hair stimulates the oil glands to produce more oil to moisturize the washed hair. If you have a habit of taking shower more than once a day and you wash your hair daily then you will require a lot of courage to reduce your hair washing frequency to 3 days a week.
In the initial week you may not feel comfortable and feel messy at the top. But you will get adjusted to the new habit soon as you start seeing less greasy hair.
In addition to this if you stop touching or combing hair frequently then you will further benefit by lower production of sebum.
Having given all the above precautionary measure for greasy hair, there are some counter arguments which makes some of the above precautions redundant.
There is not much evidence to prove that eating oily food causes oily hair. Another theory which doesn't have significant evidence is that daily shampooing the hair will push the scalp to produce more sebum to compensate for the dryness created by shampooing of hair.
However, even if some of the above recommendation is not very effective on reducing oily hair or there is no significant evidence, it is still well worth to stop eating fatty foods and stop using harsh shampoos for general well-being.