new thread
Just a quick q... My hair is thick and I read on some sites that thick hair builds up some natural oils, which are necessary for hair health, and so that when you condition it you only need to put it on the ends. Is this true for most of you? I'm not sure if this is what they mean, but today in the shower after I shampooed it I rinsed it out, then let my wet hair lay down on my head. Then I just rubbed the conditioner in my hands and kind of smoothed it on the outside of all my hair, WITHOUT massaging it down to the roots, in a way making a "hat" of conditioner on my head. It seemed to work pretty well...
All hair builds up natural oil on the scalp hair from the sebacious glands (acid mantle). Not just a certain hair type. Conditioner, in general, should not be applied to scalp hair as this can critically upset one's pH balance on the scalp skin thus affecting how little/much hair oil builds on the scalp including aggravating scalp skin conditions. Conditioner should only be applied to hair length and ends, from approximately ear lobes on down. Instead, for "conditioning" the scalp hair, you want to allow those natural oils to build on the scalp which is why it's recommend to not shampoo the hair each and every day--rather skip a day or two. However, certain age groups can't do this nor can some men who work in certain lines of business such as construction. You might like a vinegar rinse, though. Mix a little bit of apple cider vinegar in a fair amount of water, something like 1/4 cup cider vinegar diluted in 16 oz of water. This has the added bonus of helping your hair to shine and offsets the need to wash hair daily, for men in particular thus helping to preserve the integrity of the acid mantle.
heidi w. (from TLHS)
should i use a conditioner every day?
If you wash every day, yes. But try to learn to wash less frequently and allow the natural oils to build up. Your hair will appreciate it. The most likely reason you are probably experiencing incredible oil production is because the scalp's sebacious glands respond to oil being stripped off by producing more. If you strip off the oil every day, then during the day, the oil production goes into overdrive to compensate for the stripping. Instead, over the coarse of a few months, you can "train" your sebacious gland output to be more even (and output less on a given day) by first skipping one day, getting used to that for a few weeks, then skip two days, etc. Once you find the point of complete and utter yukkiness, then pull back and wash perhaps every third day. Most can wash and wait up to 3 days with this kind of "training." Then yes, condition each time you wash your hair. And then learn to oil your hair as your leave in conditioner. I have a post on TLHS about how to oil hair length.
You see, many think daily washing is necessary. It is not. We tend to think this because the standard of cleanliness in the U.S. is hyper-vigilant, and the slightest bit of oil on the scalp hair is perceived by many who don't understand it as 'dirty.' This is an eggregious misunderstanding because these naturally produced oils are the very thing that keep hair healthy and shiny and the scalp skin from being dry. My oiling post on TLHS explains the benefits of oiling hair length, but the same benefits hold true of naturally produced oil. The odor associated with "dirty" hair is that the oil has built up to a certain point, then bacteria finally gets in there (this is a natural occurance too and begins to break down the oil, and that is when that funky odor arises. However, that doesn't occur daily. Average, I'd say, is Day 3 or 4.Remember, when washing hair, what really needs washing is the scalp skin--not the hair length.heidi w. (from TLHS)