Hair goes greasy in hot weather because your scalp is sweating, and sweat carries the oil your scalp already makes down onto the hair. Nothing has changed about your hair. What has changed is that it is now wet with something that dries sticky. Fix it in this order: wash more gently and more often, drop any product with shine in it, and take some weight out of the cut.
We hear about this every July, usually from men who have started washing their hair twice a day and cannot work out why it is getting worse.
Why it happens
Your scalp produces oil all year. In summer you add sweat, dust off the pavement and, if you are on the tube, whatever is circulating in a tunnel at 30 degrees. That mixture sits at the roots, spreads along the hair as you touch it, and by mid afternoon the front of your head looks flat and shiny.
Two habits make it worse. The first is scrubbing hard with a strong shampoo, which irritates the scalp and pushes it to produce more oil, so the problem returns faster each time. The second is touching your hair. Every time you push a fringe back you are moving oil from your forehead into it.
What to change about washing
Wash more often, more gently. Daily is fine in summer if the shampoo is mild. Look for something without sulphates high in the ingredients, and use about a ten pence piece of it. If your scalp feels tight and squeaky afterwards, the shampoo is too strong.
Use your fingertips, not your nails. Thirty seconds of massaging at the roots does more than two minutes of scratching, and it does not leave the scalp inflamed.
Rinse properly. Most greasy-looking hair we see at the basin is not oily, it is unrinsed conditioner. Rinse until the water runs clear, then a few seconds longer.
Cool water at the end. Not an ice bath, just cooler than the wash. It closes things down and leaves less shine at the roots.
Once a week, do a clarifying wash. Any shampoo labelled clarifying or purifying, or a small amount of a basic one lathered twice. It strips out the build-up that a daily mild shampoo leaves behind.
If you swim, rinse before you get in and again after. Chlorine dries the hair out while leaving the scalp irritated, which is the worst combination for this.
What to change about product
Read the label for the word shine and put it back on the shelf. Pomades, most waxes and anything with a wet finish are designed to look glossy, and on a sweaty head they look like exactly what they are.
What works in heat:
- Matte clay. Holds, no shine, and you can rework it with damp fingers at 4pm
- Sea salt spray on damp hair, dried with your fingers. Adds grip and texture rather than weight
- Nothing at all, if the cut is short enough. This is the cheapest option and often the best
Use less than you think, and work it from the back of your head forwards rather than dumping it on the front. The front of your hair is where oil already collects, so it needs the least.
Dry shampoo works as a rescue for an evening out. It is not a wash, it is powder that soaks up oil, and using it three days in a row leaves a grey film at the roots.
What to change about the cut
This is the part we can actually do something about.
Take the weight out. Long hair on top gives oil more surface to travel along and it lies flat once it is damp. Losing an inch off the top usually does more for the look of greasy hair than any product.
Lose the fringe, or blunt it. A fringe sits against the one part of you that sweats most. If you want to keep it, ask for it cut blunt and pushed forward as a crop rather than swept to one side, so it is not being touched all day.
Go shorter at the sides. A skin fade or a taper keeps the sides looking clean regardless of what the top is doing, and it gets air to the scalp. It also means that on a day when your hair has given up, two thirds of your head still looks sharp.
Come back sooner. Three weeks rather than five in summer. Hair grows a little faster in warm weather and grease shows on longer hair first.
A wash and cut here is £18 and takes 40 minutes, and it is worth having the wash rather than turning up with product in your hair, because we can see what your scalp is actually doing. If it looks like more than oil, flaking, spots along the hairline, or itching that keeps you awake, we will tell you to see a GP or a dermatologist rather than sell you a treatment. That is not our trade.
When it is not just grease
Two things get mistaken for greasy hair. One is seborrhoeic dermatitis, which looks like oily yellow flakes at the hairline rather than dry white ones. The other is product build-up, which feels waxy rather than slippery and does not shift with an ordinary wash. The first needs a pharmacist or a doctor. The second needs one clarifying wash and then better habits.
If you are not sure which you have got, come in and ask. Book any haircut and we will have a proper look at your scalp and your hair before we start, and tell you honestly what we can and cannot help with.
