When You Over-Oil Your Hair

And you will, if you are new to oiling your hair, or even if you know better and just have a mishap. Just about everyone does at one time or another. I've mentioned before that I use about 6 drops of jojoba oil on my hair each day, but it took some experimenting with amounts and different oils before I found the right every day oil for me, and the optimal amount for me to use.

In the early stages though, I would often apply an oil and it would simply make my hair look oily.  Not about to go and wash my hair right away, I quickly learned that the best thing to do was to brush my hair with a BBB and then bun it or braid it. The oiliness wouldn't be so obvious and sometimes the next day the oil would have absorbed enough that it didn't look quite as oily anymore.

However, sometimes one can over-oil to the point that it's hard to wash out. So many times I've read on LHC that people over-oil and find that their hair still feels greasy after two or three washes.

And yet many of us, including myself, often deep oil before a wash, and have nice, soft hair without apparent greasiness. How do we do it?

Well, the secret is conditioner.

While it sounds counter-intuitive, conditioner actually removes excess oil much more easily and of course much more gently than shampoo.

I don't know the science behind it, but I do know that what we perceive as being the greasier substance (conditioner) removes excess oil very effectively.

I can saturate my hair with coconut oil or EVOO and wash it out with conditioner only.

Here are the most effective ways that I've found to wash after over-oiling or deep oiling. Even if you use shampoo, these tips will be helpful, I think.

1. Coat the length of your hair with an inexpensive conditioner, such as VO5 or Suave Naturals.
2. Leave that conditioner in your hair for 30-60 minutes if possible. I like to bun my conditioned hair and clip it up out of the way until it's shower time.
3. When it's time to wash, make sure that your hair and scalp are thoroughly saturated with water.
4. If you are a shampoo user, add another layer of conditioner to your hair from the nape down and try to concentrate the shampoo on the scalp only.
5. Rinse well.
6. Add your usual final conditioner, and leave it on as long as you usually would.
7. Rinse well.

You should find that your hair is soft and smooth, without any excess oil that will carry over until the next wash.

I hope that's helpful. I know that when I initially had some over-oiling experiences, I used to use shampoo to do most of the oil removal, and it just didn't work. If my hair was not still greasy, I can assure you, it would be extremely limp.

Oh my goodness, we've been blessed with yet another beautiful summery day. I can't remember a weekend that's been quite so lovely. Is there anything more beautiful than a warm, but not hot autumn day when the sun is shining and there's not a cloud in the sky?

I had a wonderful experience today. My best friend from university, whom I count as one of my few true lifelong friends celebrated a birthday a few days ago. She has been living in England for 25 years, and I've only seen her 3 times since that move. 

One was when I went to England to stay with her for two weeks--a wonderful experience--and the other times have been when she has come back here to visit. We hadn't talked for a long time, and we are both terrible at letter writing, although I admit, she is better than I.

In any case, I had lost her phone number, but as providence would have it, I found it just in time to phone her today, just a couple of days late for her birthday.

We haven't spoken on the phone in 10 years, but the minute we heard one another's voices, we shrieked and giggled just as we did 31 years ago when we first met. We spoke at length, catching up on each other's lives, and having a few reminiscences, even recalling the day that we became real friends all those years ago.

It was so much fun, and honestly, I would have thought that we had just spoken to one another yesterday. We just picked up where we last left off. I found out that she has a Facebook account (I had searched there for her in the past to no avail), so we'll be able to keep in touch more frequently and easily in future. 

So today, I am feeling doubly blessed.

'Til tomorrow, my friends. Much love to all, and extra hugs to anyone who is feeling despair today.

xo