If even after washing, the hair quickly appears greasy again, many are at a loss at first. Apart from the cosmetic effect, those affected often suffer from the psychological and social consequences. Because in our society, greasy hair is often wrongly associated with a lack of personal hygiene or cleanliness. Among other things, hormone imbalance, stress, hereditary disposition or incorrect hair care can cause overactivity of the sebaceous glands and thus lead to quickly greasy hair.
The causes of oily hair
Oily and greasy hair after washing has its most common cause in an overactivity of the sebaceous glands of the scalp. These small glands are located in the dermis and are distributed over the whole body, apart from the palm of the hand, the soles of the feet and the back of the feet. They are almost always connected to the hair roots and empty their sebaceous content into the follicles.
Their number is particularly high on the face and scalp. Normally, the sebum released protects our hair from breaking off and keeps it supple. However, due to various factors, its activity can be increased and makes the hair look greasy, stringy and unkempt.
For example, male hormones (androgens) increase their productivity, while female hormones (estrogens) decrease their function. During puberty, the hormone production of our body runs at full speed and thus causes an increased activity of the sebaceous glands. Affected teenagers suffer not only from quickly greasy hair, but also directly after washing, often from impure skin with blackheads and pimples.
The application of rich care and styling products often leads to an unintended intensification of the problem. Sometimes, greasy hair after washing can also be caused by the wrong choice of care products. Thus, oily, silicone-containing or strongly scented shampoos weigh down sensitive hair unnecessarily and make it look stringy, “flat” and unkempt immediately after washing.
More intensive products, such as conditioners or cures, can also act like a second layer around the hair, making it look greasy. Contrary to the widespread opinion that a thorough head massage “squeezes out” the sebaceous glands and thus provides relief, this actually ensures a faster regreasing of the hair after washing. Because manual pressure on our scalp only provides an unnecessary manipulation and stimulation of the sebaceous glands.
Therefore it is sufficient to gently massage the shampoo into the hair and rinse it out thoroughly. The production of sebum varies greatly from person to person and is partly due to the nature of the skin. Thus, our genes determine distribution patterns, productivity and number of sebaceous glands.
Depending on how many sebaceous glands we have, the individual skin type varies. Oily hair and oily skin usually go hand in hand, as sebaceous glands produce excessive sebum on both the face and scalp. The physician then speaks of “seborrhea”. The opposite of this is “sebostasis”, in which sebaceous glands produce too few skin lipids, which can lead to very dry skin. Often the symptoms of seborrhea disappear after puberty and skin and hair return to normal.
