Shampoo Causing Greasy Hair [How To Stop It]

Washing our hair is very repetitive and we rarely think about whether the shampoo is causing us greasy hair.

If you have greasy hair problem, you probably want to know where it comes from.

The truth is yes, shampoo causes greasy hair on many occasions. Mainly when it has a lot of oil-based nutrition in its ingredients. The oils from the shampoo plus the oils your skin produces saturate your scalp and that lead to greasy hair.

Knowing if your shampoo is damaging your hair is very important so you can avoid major scalp problems.

Shampoo causing greasy hair, is it possible?

The reality is yes, using certain shampoos can cause greasy hair.

The shampoo is a product that is created to be put on the roots. It will always touch the scalp.

It is precisely in the scalp that the natural oils that the body generates are produced. When the shampoo contains a lot of oils, it can be greasy.

Shampoos that are nourishing tend to have oils and glycerin in their ingredients. These extra loads of oils are what can overload and saturate the skin.

It depends a lot on the brand and your skin, but many shampoos can have this effect because of their low quality.

The balance between cleansing and moisturizing is very specific and just very few shampoos get it right.

I don’t want to say that just by using shampoo your hair will become greasy. However, if you already have this problem, your shampoo is likely contributing to it.

That is why if your hair is greasy you should be using a good balanced shampoo.

How is shampoo causing greasy hair?

Applying shampoo is one thing we undoubtedly do to wash our hair. That’s why it’s the prime suspect when you think my hair is greasy.

There are different ways it can cause the same result.

That’s why it’s important to know the reasons so you can identify if a shampoo is what is causing that result.

Three main causes are:

The shampoo contains a lot of oils within its ingredients.
Your scalp skin produces more oil than it needed and the shampoo saturates it.
It doesn’t clean enough and causes build-up.

For these three reasons, you can have the same result shampoo causes greasy hair.

#1: Your Shampoo Contains Many Oils Within Its Ingredients

Especially in this modern age, essential oils have made a big splash in the beauty market.

Almost any product be it cream, hand soap, styling products or shampoos have oils in its ingredients.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to say that oils are bad, I’m just saying how they can cause reactions in your scalp.

You should also have to know that skin that tends to be oily will always have more visible reactions than dry skin.

No matter what kind of skin you have, the important thing is to analyze the results you are getting.

For example, if you have thought that your hair feels sticky after washing it is the first sign. It is right after washing that the first signs show that your shampoo is creating that result.

If the shampoo has many oils and is loaded with fatty lubricants, when those lubricants are too much or in a higher ratio than the cleansing power is when it can become a problem.

The good thing oils in shampoos do is provide light moisturizing to the skin and hair after washing and cleansing.

When their concentration exceeds the purpose is when you will start to feel your hair more oily.

The sensations you will recognize when your shampoo has a lot of oils are:

Feeling dirty after shampooing
Itchiness
Having an abnormally shiny appearance
Sticky hair

Many times you can see many hairs sticking together creating a wet-looking compacting in a strand of hair.

Recognizing the signals that your hair is telling you will help you to fix it and put an end to greasy hair.

Solution #1

To solve this problem the most important thing is to stop using the shampoo you are currently using. This will help you to stop adding more oils to your skin.

In this way, you can start to detoxify your skin from so many oils.

Next, use a cleansing shampoo that can remove all the residue that your skin has been creating and also the residue from the previous shampoo.

My professional recommendation is to use a shampoo like Kerastase Bain Divalent Shampoo that meets the characteristics we need. It is a shampoo that removes residues very well and if used consistently can improve even a recurrent oily scalp.

I highly recommend it because I have seen very good results with it over the years with many clients who use it and it has helped them.

It is very difficult to find a shampoo that cleans well and that is why it is becoming more and more common to hear that hair gets dirty faster.

That’s why I share this solution that really works and I hope it can help you too.

#2: Your skin produces enough oil and shampoo saturate it

Another reason why shampoo is causing greasy hair is because of the oil production of your scalp.

This is closely related because shampoo touches the skin on your scalp all the time. It’s actually funny that many of us think a shampoo is for cleaning just the hair.

When I was young and before I formally studied hair and beauty, I mistakenly thought that shampoo was used on the ends as well.

Now that I have years of professional experience, I would like to share with you that the correct thing to do is to put shampoo on the scalp.

The purpose of the shampoo is to clean the skin and with the foam that is generated and the water that falls, clean the rest of the hair.

The scalp is the one that produces the oils that make the first inches of hair stick to the skin, get dirty or have that shiny appearance that looks uncomfortable.

When our scalp produces more oils than we need then we can call it oily skin.

Oily scalp skin is much more susceptible to shampoos containing oils. This is because it is already producing too much oil on its own. If on top of this, the shampoo adds more oils then it will react.

Reactions to this can be:

Itching or your hair.
Feeling your hair dirtier than before you washed it.
Feeling the texture of your hair greasy.

That is why your skin can no longer accept a shampoo that is too nourishing because it is already overnourished with oils.

All of this makes the shampoo causing greasy hair.

Solution #2

The solution to improve your skin is to have a correct washing routine.

The best thing to do is avoid washing your hair too much.

Sometimes when our hair feels greasy or dirty it’s like a compulsion to wash it all the time. However, by doing so we are encouraging the creation of more oils.

This is because the gland that creates those oils in our body is stimulated by the washing and creates more oils than we need.

So the best thing to do is to wash it only 3 times a week. Always let it rest for at least one day between washings.

Don’t wet it during the rest day.

If you want to help regulate your skin I recommend that for two weeks you wash it with the shampoo I suggested above and leave it unwashed for at least 3 days.

In those 3 days do not wet or wash it.

To get rid of the dirty look you can use a dry shampoo like the Schwarzkopf refresh dust will get rid of the dirty look immediately.

In this way, you can help your gland (oil maker) send out fewer and fewer oil-producing signals while the shampoo I recommend cleans out the residue.

The shampoo will help you resist washing it out so you get the full combo of cleansing and a healthy scalp.

#3: Your Shampoo Doesn’t Clean Enough

Shampoo is a product whose purpose is to cleanse the scalp’s skin.

When its formulation is not well-made things can get twisted.

With the discovery of essential oils, their benefits have spread throughout the beauty world. However, they must be used in the right proportions and in the right way.

As you can imagine oils are not cleansers. They do the opposite of cleansing because of their consistency.

That’s why if the shampoo contains oils it has to have other ingredients to help neutralize the lubricating effect.

Please don’t get me wrong oils are not bad, they have many benefits.

What is important to distinguish is their cleansing power within shampoos.

Shampoo should cleanse the residues we produce daily to keep our skin healthy. If it doesn’t do its job well, then it can start to build up that residue there.

This is a problem because hardened layers of residue start to form.

The bad thing with this is that if they harden and are not removed they start to clog the pores of the scalp.

This is not good because the skin needs to breathe and maintain a regulated environment to function well.

When it doesn’t, uncomfortable sensations such as itchiness start to appear. Dandruff or seborrhea can also appear, which is inflammation, redness, and a lot of oil.

That’s why it’s so important that the shampoo you use cleans you well to save you from all these problems.

Solution #3

The best thing you can do to avoid build-up is to regularly deep clean your scalp. Also, make sure that your shampoo does cleanse well.

One way to notice this is that after washing and drying your hair if you scratch your scalp you should not notice any residue on your nails. This is a very useful tip to see if your skin has been cleaned.

You shouldn’t hurt yourself or scratch too hard, just as if you were scratching a normal itch. If your nail comes out clean it is a good sign.

Over the days it is natural for our skin to generate residues. You should keep it in a normal proportion without itching or too much build-up for at least 2 days.
A monthly exfoliation can help a lot to keep your scalp free of build-up.

Exfoliation is deep cleansing.

My professional recommendation for you to safely achieve your goal is to use Kerastase Fusio Scrub. This is a product that is specially formulated in a deep yet gentle way on the skin.

It works very well at cleansing and removing build-up and as a build-up preventative.

Bottom Line

Washing your hair can be a very overrated thing to do and we use to do it with.

Now that you know that shampoo can be creating greasy hair, you can create a new, healthier shampooing routine.

Remember to stop the shampoo you are shampooing with unless you are already using the shampoo I have recommended.

You will notice the difference immediately. With this, you can be sure that it was your shampoo that was creating the greasy hair problem.

Check to see if, after 3 weeks of using the new shampoo, you still have the same problem.

If you don’t have any improvement, then it may be for other reasons. Don’t worry, the way to find solutions starts with knowing the causes.

I wish you the best of luck and hope it has been helpful to you.

See you next time.