The Secret, 3-Step Hack All Oily-Haired Women Must Know
by Marissa Pomerance
If you, like me, experience a pool of oil drenching your scalp a mere 12 hours after washing your hair, welcome to this article.
There’s a lot of advice for achieving balanced, not-flaky, not-oily scalps in the long term. “Wash your hair less,” they say. “Use a clarifying shampoo!” “Don’t even use shampoo AT ALL.” “WASH YOUR HAIR ONCE EVERY 19 DAYS!!”
Of course, I’ve tried all of these things. And somehow, they all made it worse, causing oil to find its way from my scalp down to the ENDS of my hair such that I resembled a grungy 90’s musician on month 7 of his shampoo-less world tour.
But after an embarrassing amount of trial and error, I discovered this once-a-week, 3-step hack for achieving the bouncy, beautiful, clean hair of my dreams. My scalp feels refreshed, not flaky. My strands are soft, not brittle, and it takes more than 36 hours for the oil to come back!
Here’s the secret: it’s the perfect mix of hydrating AND clarifying.
In case you don’t believe me, here are the before and afters to prove it.
BEFORE: 2 days of grease, before doing the above hack. Do you see that? My hair is not wet. That is OIL.
AFTER: Please ignore my horrendous roots, but this is 2-days of no washing, post-treatment!
It’s not completely without oil, but a significant improvement from the above, don’t you think? I’m showing it flipped to the side, too, so you can see that it’s at least wearable in public. Plus, my frizz is (mostly) tamed, and my ends aren’t straw.
BONUS: If your scalp and ends need a bit more TLC after the above hack, try these:
Is this whole process a bit longer than just blasting my hair daily with sulfate-rich shampoo? Yes.
But will you reap the rewards 2 days later when you wake up without oil stains on your pillowcase?
You sure will.
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