Teenager daughter clean hair smells bad

[Iamnotarobot123]

Daughter is 13 and for the last year, I’ve noticed that her hair smells. She is clean, and double shampoos, but it still smells. It’s a mixture of wet dog smell, and stale smelling. If she dries it, it seems to make the smell more pungent. She doesn’t smell it. It’s probably linked to hormones, she showers every day but probably washes her hair ever 1-2 days. She assures me she properly shampoos it.

I don’t know what else to do to help her. She’s tried head and shoulders. Is there anything else she could be doing. She’s just showered and the smell is very strong when I know it’s squeaky clean!

She is not washing the scalp thoroughly enough. Wash it for her a few times so she gets the idea - wash, rinse, wash thoroughly, rinse thoroughly. Use Head & Shoulders or T Gel or Selsun, leave it on the roots for a minute before rinsing, and really rub the scalp. That will get rid of the smell.

Are her sheets changed regularly?

I think I had this recently, I put it down to peri menopause. A weird almost cheesy smell (sorry - that's gross). I think (hope) only I could smell it. I switched to vosene and it's completely gone now.

I find Paul smith shampoo really good and strong smelling as I am menopausal and sweating a lot more and was worried about smelling sweaty.

Clarifying shampoo, or the extra strong head and shoulders one

We go with Herbal Essence Daily Detox and then DD will sit with a load of hair mask on and that smells lovely.

Aussie also smells great and leaves hair silky but I think it has silicates as my shower was flogging up when using it

I've never gotten on with Head and Shoulders or Pantene

Use Elvive, the red one for colour treated heated. Smells gorgeous. Can you wash it for her?
Wet hair thoroughly, add a generous amount of shampoo and wash the front and side section of hair. Rinse. Add another dollop of shampoo to the back of the hair just above the neck. Rinse thoroughly.
Then add some Elvive conditioner to the ends first, then gently smooth the rest of hair.
Rinse loads until squeaky clean.
Wrap in a towels.
I found Head and Shoulders has an unpleasant smell and your scalp gets addicted to it.

Have you checked her pillows? Not just the pillow cases but the pillows?
I’d change for new just in case.

I've had this! I had it about 6 years ago. I'd wash my hair but then my scalp and hair would smell. I'd get wafts of it when I turned my head quickly. It was driving me mad! I did loads of googling and it turns out certain ingredients common in shampoos and conditioner can cause this (sorry I can't remember what they are!). Anyway, I started by trying lush hair products and that got rid of the problem and then I've systematically tried different shampoos since. I now use the Superdrug Trichology shampoo and conditioner and I have no more issues.

I was chatting with my hairdresser the other week about our teenage daughters and she said that when they have a teenage girl in the salon they can always smell the hair, despite it being washed thoroughly. She said it’s hormones and very normal for teenage hair to smell

hairdresser here, I find that teenagers washing their hair in the shower don’t rinse properly, if it’s a fixed shower head, and they have long thick hair. The water hits the top and forms an almost impenetrable layer, really need to get your fingers in and move/ lift hair up for the water to get though. Using a hand held shower close to the scalp is best.
A rubber pronged scalp massager designed for scrubbing scalp as mentioned by a pp is also a good idea, I’ve seen them in tkmaxx recently.

I would reccommend t gel coal tar therapeutic shampoo.

a scalp exfoliating scrub to be applied with a scalp massager

She needs a good clarifying shampoo for wash one then a normal one for wash two. I use Paul Mitchell Shampoo Two.

Tea tree oil shampoo.

We got a wooden/silicone scalp massager for applying shampoo on my DD’s hair and it really helps. She wasn’t getting into the roots enough with just shampoo and her hands.

My daughter had this. Came from a fungal infection behind her ears. Treated with anti fungal ointment from doc. Smell returned - but I think it had already spread and led to dry scaly patches on her scalp. I don’t think she was scrubbing scalp properly as mentioned upthread, and leaving conditioner residue behind her ears then not drying properly let fungal infection take hold.

Nirzoral really lathered into scalp (by me) and left on for 10mins improved immediately and cleared it in a few weeks. After that added few drops of good quality tea tree oil to whatever shampoo bottle and it hasn’t returned. Thank god, smell drove m crazy.

Hi would you mind posting a picture of one. If it’s not to cheeky to ask? Just so I can go hunting for the right thing.

iv had a look on tkmaxx site and couldn’t find anything.

they don’t cause breakage though do they.

@Ginkypig this kind of thing

amzn.eu/d/gmzVFIh

I also like bumble and bumble Sunday shampoo which is a strong clarifying one