Oily Hair help

[Just2MoreSeasons]

Dd 13 is very stressed out at the amount of time her long very very thick hair takes to wash and dry.

She has an oily scalp and I can barely get the under layers wet despite hold the shower head over it for ages. It's difficult to get the lather out and also takes forever to dry it.

She says all the girls in school have long hair and refuses to get it cut even to shoulder length which is the obvious answer.

I've tried different shampoos which only help a little.

What else can we do? We are having tears and upset about this 3 times a week for the last year and she still refuses to cut it shorter.

Any help gratefully received.

How often does she wash it? Hard to do once in the habit of washing regularly but can she cut back in how often she washes it to see if that makes a difference?

Thank you. She washes it 3 times per week. You can definitely see her hair around her parting getting greasy when a wash is due so I don't think she'd tolerate leaving it any longer as she's so anxious about anyone at school noticing it.

When she started in year 7 she was teased about her oily/acne covered skin until I got involved with the pastoral team who thankfully stopped it immediately. So I can see why she thinks people will notice her in a negative way again.

Use a clarifying shampoo (Toni & guys mens one is amazing) on the roots only and then a light conditioner on the ends.

Dry thoroughly but try not to move hair around too much and as soon as it's dry use a good quality dry shampoo on her scalp/roots as then as soon as it starts producing oil the dry shampoo will soak it up.

It's hormones, it'll clear up soon.

Thankyou so much - just ordered the Tony and guys shampoo

Will try the dry shampoo too as soon as it's dry. Never thought of that - We've only been using it in between washes, but it was probably already too late!

Constantly washing is a bit of a vicious cyles. Shampooing strips the hair of its natural oils so the scalp produces more to compensate. Ideally she needs to increase the days in between washing which I know is hard when hair looks greasy. Could she maybe wear her hair up or braid it on day 3/4? French plaits and dutch braids are also quite popular with that age group at the moment. YouTube is great for tutorials. That way she can gradually increase the days in between washing as scalp will begin to reduce the amount of oil it produces.

I'd also recommend a non-sulphate shampoo as it's less harsh and a silicone scalp brush. Make sure she's only putting conditioner on the ends.

I feel her frustrations. I used to wash and blow dry my hair every 2 days and it was such a task! I now only wash once or twice a week.

Thanks. I thought the scalp brush was more for dandruff (which she doesn't have) but I can see how it might help oil build up too.
And different styles is definitely something to work on,

DD had this and the only way to solve it was a haircut.
First she tried layers but that didn't really helped a lot.
She now has it up to the shoulder, is so much happier with the way she can manage her hair. Several of her friends had suddenly shorter hair around the same time, so she didn't really was the odd one out.

She is now 15 and I see a significant change in her skin from the first oily teen acne/greasy hair at 12/13 to now. I think she may let her hair grow again when she is out of puberty and has a more stable hormone level.