new thread
My hair is very dry. I've tried all sorts of conditioners and hot oil treatments, but has worked. What should I do?
I had that problem and I've found a great solution. It's the first thing that worked:
After trying near to everything, I discovered the best conditioner for my hair is the stuff the Lord gave me - scalp oil. This conditioner is manufactured by your scalp, where it immediately nourishes the hair up top. The task you have is to get it distributed to the far ends of your hair where dryness is a problem.
There are two ways to redistribute it - combing and washing.
Combing (or brushing) will draw the oil down to the lower parts of your hair strands.
Washing will, too. Think rain. That is how nature protected the locks of longhairs before Walgreens. Let room temperature water spray on the top of your head and let it run down your hair strands. Water will do this without any planning on your part - you can't prevent it actually. The secret is to realize it is carrying the oil down, so don't do things that interfere with the process.
Hot water will dissolve your scalp oil. Avoid it.Shampoo will dissolve your scalp oil. Avoid it.Too much water will in time carry away too much oil. So don't simulate a typhoon! As a man often outdoors, I can tell you that most rain is light rain. Heavy rain is infrequent, and you want to provide your hair with the lesser volume of water that nature would most often supply.Vigorous drying will remove the water, and the scalp oil along with it. So pat off the water lightly if at all. Let as much water evaporate from the hair as possible, because that water will leave its oil behind in your hair.
If your scalp is itchy or looks greasy, don't reach for the shampoo. That oil is a valuable resource and you don't want to waste it. You want to move it to where it is needed - to your dry strands. Wash your hair in room temperature water! You'll be surprised at how well water of that temperature will move the oil off the top of your head and down to the dry strands that need it so much.
One last thing - put aside what your mother told you and recognize that your scalp is not your armpit. It isn't going to stink if you spare it the industrial strength soap. As long as you let the air dry your hair within a reasonable time, it will not stink at all, even if washed just in water!
Oh, and don't expect your beautician to embrace this solution. There's just no bucks in it for her. If the word on this gets out, she may have to stock her shelves with Calistoga!
Hello!
But there's some smell on my scalp beginning about two days after
the last wash. And I wouldn't really describe that as a delicious
scent... Is that the same for you? If so, how do you deal with that?
Regards, Felix.
That comes along a lot longer than two days later for me - more like four to seven days. It is a mild version of what burnt hair smells like, and all it is, is an offgassing of scalp oil, which is precisely what happens (but big-time) when hair burns. What it tells me is that my hair is saturated with oil (or dirt, or residue from evaporated oil from previous days) and is no longer absorbing new oil, so the oil remains on the scalp, exposed to the air and evaporating. So it's time for a wash! My hair ceases to feel supple and silky at about this same time, giving the same message.
Your scalp must create more oil than mine, thus the need for more frequent washings. But don't knock the oil! If you have too much you can always wash some of it out. If you have too little, your hair will become brittle and break off, hindering achieving length. :-(
A wash in plain water for me removes all the dirt and old oil residue, plus it moves much of the scalp oil down into the lower parts of my strands. When I do that wash, the odor you mentioned disappears, and my hair becomes supple and silky again! That odor is on the scalp, as you mentioned, by the way. I never smell it if I put hair strands right under my nose.
Felix, here's a post-script to my message. Just how often to longhairs wash their hair? It is less often than shorthaired folks do, because we have more hair to absorb the daily production of oil, and daily washing can make many longhairs' hair too dry.
Victor had a survey on here a few months back, and one of the questions was precisely that - how often do you wash? The answers revealed that a few longhairs wash every day, most wash two to three times a week, and a few wash once a week. A very few wash even less often than that.
This confirms, Felix, that you are just a bit on the oily end and I am on the dry end of the spectrum. What we both are, though, is very normal.
Bill
you might want to use a clarifying shampoo. a buildup can make your hair really dry, esp if you have coarse hair.