Greasy hair help! Teenager.

[Poolhater]

Our second eldest is approaching 13 and for the last maybe 12 months, her hair goes through days of being so very greasy despite being freshly washed.

I (and she) realise this is most likely hormone related (it happens for maybe a week or so and then returns to normal for a few weeks). She can have just washed it and dried it but it looks like she’s washed her hair in that god awful nit shampoo that takes 253 attempts to wash it out. It looks like she hasn’t washed it for weeks and she’s getting very self conscious about it now.

We never had this with her elder sister and I’m really struggling to find a product that eliminates the grease.

Has anyone experienced this with their teen? What did you use? Thank you!

Does she use conditioner? My DDs was a bit like this so she stopped using conditioner and the change was amazing!

Is she actually washing it properly? My Ds hair improved massively when we revised ‘how to wash your hair thoroughly including proper rinsing’.
The Body Shop ginger shampoo is good, and the Faith in Nature one too.

@Minkribs

Does she use conditioner? My DDs was a bit like this so she stopped using conditioner and the change was amazing!

She does, yes, but only from the neck down(she has fine, long hair that gets tangled). Should we cut out all together during the few days it’s greasy?

@Elisheva

Is she actually washing it properly? My Ds hair improved massively when we revised ‘how to wash your hair thoroughly including proper rinsing’. The Body Shop ginger shampoo is good, and the Faith in Nature one too.

I think so, yes. She’s always preferred showers to baths so got very adept early on at washing her hair but will admit, haven’t seen her do it for a few years. She would usually massage shampoo in and leave for a couple of minutes before rinsing. Sometimes, she will do that twice. Thank you for the recommendations. I’m going to look now.

Another vote for body shop ginger shampoo, although if greasy and no dandruff then baby shampoo is even better.

Dry shampoo is also your friend.

Is she rinsing her hair thoroughly?

If tips here don't help then I think its fine to speak to gp.

P.s. also consider changing conditioner..the body shop ginger conditioner might be a good start. Maybe condition from base of neck/shoulders downwards too. Apply conditioner to ends of hair and use a comb to brush through higher up, will give a bit more control than hands.

A clear shampoo will work better than a creamy moisturising one, and I would tell her to condition first, then shampoo twice, then she can put something in the ends to get the tangles out afterwards.

I've read about conditioning first then do shampoo.

Just makes sure she's giving it a good shampoo and thorough rinse. Frequent greasy hair is so annoying

Joico shampoo (clarifying) is amazing.
I have greasy hair and have done all my life
My tip is to wash twice. Then dry shampoo once the hair is clean and blow dried.

Get some Batiste Dry Shampoo.

On days when it is greasy, give it a little spray once it's washed and dried. It will soak up any additional grease. It's a total lifesaver.

Only thing is if her hair is dark you will need to spend some time rubbing it in properly as it sits like a powder otherwise. Blonde/ light haired people can get away with it more easily.

Also, have a look at her diet.

It will undoubtedly be hormone based, however if she is eating a lot of fatty foods and carbs this will have an impact too.

I used to get greasy hair at that sort of age. I blamed it on hormones and denied that it had anything to do with diet, but back in the late 90's/early 00's my school used to serve chips for lunch every day! Looking back I'm sure if I ate better I would have had better skin and hair.

I had this as a teenager also had fine hair. Two drastic measures helped dying it soaked the moisture up secondly cutting it pretty short.

Not so drastic- look for shampoo which doesn't add moisture. I remember head and shoulders did a nice one with lemon in it. And there was a herbal essences one too. This was years ago so might have changed.

Also another vote for using dry shampoo

Tip if you use dry shampoo - Batiste now do coloured ones that work really well. Avoids the powdery look that a pp mentioned. Although if she has brown hair I'd always go for the lighter brown Batiste, as the darker one gives you the opposite problem of brown residue on the hairline.

Batiste is the one beauty product that's made the biggest difference to my day to day. Absolute lifesaver. Other brands haven't been nearly as good.

@Poolhater

I have, at age 40 still got the hair I had at 13.

I have tried every shampoo known to man.

I am currently using Faith In Nature Tea Tree and Lemon and its the best I've used
(Holland and Barrett/Amazon)

Other shampoos that kind of helped :

Elvive Clay

Herbal Essences Strawberry and Mint

Bumble and Bumble Seaweed, which is so expensive it only gets bought once a year as a treat.

Scalp scrubs are also good, Bumble have a foaming spray in a can, CoCo and Eve have an actual scrub.

Batiste have apparently started doing an overnight leave in thing but I haven't seen it in store yet.

Also if using dry shampoo she should put it on before bed as well as in the morning.

Thank you all for the advice and recommendations. She has used regular dry shampoo but I hadn’t realised there was a coloured one too, so thank you!

I’m off go raid Boots and Amazon! If nothing else, the rest of us will have enough shampoo for the next few months! Thanks again, all.

@SnugKnights

Also if using dry shampoo she should put it on before bed as well as in the morning.

I didn’t know this, thank you!

[quote EineReiseDurchDieZeit]@Poolhater

I have, at age 40 still got the hair I had at 13.

I have tried every shampoo known to man.

I am currently using Faith In Nature Tea Tree and Lemon and its the best I've used
(Holland and Barrett/Amazon)

Other shampoos that kind of helped :

Elvive Clay

Herbal Essences Strawberry and Mint

Bumble and Bumble Seaweed, which is so expensive it only gets bought once a year as a treat.

Scalp scrubs are also good, Bumble have a foaming spray in a can, CoCo and Eve have an actual scrub.

Batiste have apparently started doing an overnight leave in thing but I haven't seen it in store yet. [/quote]
The Elvive clay is the one currently being used. Initially it seemed to work but now, not so much. Thanks for the other names.

@onelittlefrog

Also, have a look at her diet.

It will undoubtedly be hormone based, however if she is eating a lot of fatty foods and carbs this will have an impact too.

I used to get greasy hair at that sort of age. I blamed it on hormones and denied that it had anything to do with diet, but back in the late 90's/early 00's my school used to serve chips for lunch every day! Looking back I'm sure if I ate better I would have had better skin and hair.

I hadn’t even thought of this. I’m going to review and see if changes make a difference. Thank you!

If I use certain conditioners then I get the same problem and my hair looks greasy no matter how much I rinse it. All of the OGX brand of conditioners seem to do this to my hair.

I would try washing twice with a clarifying shampoo, followed by a lighter conditioner just on the ends.

The Elvive clay is the one currently being used. Initially it seemed to work but now, not so much. Thanks for the other names

Yeah that was my experience