Apisums asks…I wash my hair every morning. If I skip washing my hair one morning, it’s not only greasy looking, but by the afternoon/ evening my scalp actually begins to hurt. It’s like a headache on the crown of my head that just gets worse and worse until I wash my hair. After reading all of the articles out there about how washing every day can be damaging, I tried for a while to get by with shampooing every other day. On the off days I tried just using conditioner, or just using water and scritching my scalp in the shower, or not wetting it at all and just using dry shampoo. I had varying levels of success with these, but still, by the end of any day that I didn’t use shampoo, my head would be killing me. No one that I’ve ever mentioned this to has ever experienced similar aching. Any clue what this is, and what I can do to avoid it?
The Beauty Brains respond:
Wow, that’s an interesting question! I don’t have any solid answers but I do have two guesses:
1. If you have long hair and you’re pulling your hair back into a pony tail or bun on the days when you don’t shampoo, the pressure caused by the weight of your hair could cause a headache.
2. A greasy scalp is a breeding ground for a specific fungus called Malassezia furfur. The fungus feeds on the oils and releases free fatty acids which can irritate your scalp. I’ve never heard of this irritation manifesting itself in the form of a headache but, like I said, this is just a guess.
Post script: Apisums responded to my original answer in our Forum:
“Thanks for the response! My hair is somewhat long and having it pulled up definitely makes it worse, but the ache is different from the ache i get from heavy buns. It’s more like individual spots on the scalp that become incredibly sore, even if my hair is down. I suppose I simply need to accept that it’s my destiny to be a daily-shampooer.”
Have you experienced the greasy hair headache? Leave a comment if you have any suggestions for Apisums.