5 replies to this topic

[collegeboy84]

At the age of 27 I tend to have a VERY oily face yet the hair on my head is thick, black and VERY VERY dry. The rest of my skin is perfectly moisturized without too much oils. Does anybody else experience this? I find it odd that my face is so oily yet my hair is so dry. This is another reason why I think OVER washing your face or using too much BP, which dries the face, in return will cause your skin to become more oily is all a myth. I have probably over shampoo'ed my hair for many years and yet my hair is still dry. You would think if over washing your face will cause oily skin due to a natural balancing act, so would your hair. I stopped shampooing my hair daily about 10 months ago and yet my hair is still so dry. Just curious if anybody has any insight on this phenomena. Thanks.

PS. I hate my extremely oily skin on my face!

[bryan]

The legendary A. M. Kligman, MD, PhD also did a study a few years back which aimed to find out more about how oil (sebum) gets onto scalp hair. He and his colleagues were surprised to find out that there was no inclination at all for sebum to "flow" along the surface of scalp hairs.

So how does oil get onto hair in the first place? By direct, physical contact: when you touch or scratch your head, when you comb or brush your hair, when you sleep on a pillow at night, when you pull a shirt or sweater over your head, etc. That's the only way that oil gets onto hair in the first place.

[bryan]

Here's an actual excerpt from the study above by Kligman et al. This is "Studies on the Effect of Shampoos on Scalp Lipids and Bacteria", A. M. Kligman, K. J. McGinley, and J. J. Leydin, from the book Hair Research, 1981:

4. Refatting of Hair

Apart from the amount of sebum on the hair is the fascinating question of how it gets there. Hardly anyone has thought to look into the matter for the answer seems too obvious from the anatomy of the pilosebaceous unit. What could be more natural than to suppose that the sebum, excreted into the follicular canal, simply spreads up the hair shaft and uniformly coats it. Credit to Eberhardt for the imagination to question the obvious and for the elegantly simple methods employed in its refutation (Eberhardt 1976). When a droplet of sebum is placed on hair none of the lipid moves away; further, sebum will not creep along the surface when a terminal hair is placed in a capillary filled with sebum. We were incredulous and thought that the hair might first have to be moistened. However, we too found that sebum would not spontaneously spread out when droplets were placed on previously immersed hairs held in an atmosphere saturated with water. Further, we strung hairs in close parallel array on a wire frame, thinking that sebum placed at one end would migrate between the hairs by capillarity. Wetted or dry, the sebum showed not the slightest inclination to spread over the hairs as visualized by exposure to osmium tetroxide vapors. It seems an inescapable conclusion that the hairs become greased by mechanical transfer, from the scalp surface to the hairs, and from hair to hair. The hair acquires sebum by direct contact. The dispersal of sebum from the surface would be facilitated by combing and brushing, by wearing a hat, by rubbing the fingers through the hair, etc. Resilient, easily bendable thin hair would have a greater chance of contacting sebum than straight, stiff, widely-spaced hairs. Refatting of the hair is thus complex and will vary greatly from individual to individual.

It is logical to expect that that the segment closest to the scalp would have a greater chance of mechanical pick-up of sebum oozing out of the follicles. We did, in fact, find that in a 9-cm fiber, divided into thirds, the greatest amount of lipid was on the proximal third and the least on the distal. We considered the possibility that there might be a preferential separation of sebum components as the hair became refatted. However, it was found that the composition of lipid on the hairs was exactly the same as on the surface and was the same at various distances from the surface.

[Vanbelle]

bryan, on 22 October 2011 - 09:18 AM, said:

The legendary A. M. Kligman, MD, PhD also did a study a few years back which aimed to find out more about how oil (sebum) gets onto scalp hair. He and his colleagues were surprised to find out that there was no inclination at all for sebum to "flow" along the surface of scalp hairs.

So how does oil get onto hair in the first place? By direct, physical contact: when you touch or scratch your head, when you comb or brush your hair, when you sleep on a pillow at night, when you pull a shirt or sweater over your head, etc. That's the only way that oil gets onto hair in the first place.

Yes, this is true. Except we're excluding the oil on the scalp that gets on the roots of these hairs, right? Or no? Some oil on the scalp is in the roots, and when I comb my fingers through my hair, I spread my own oil from the scalp to the ends. That seems to be the main case from just observation.

Further: my roots get very greasy. Why don't I get hairline acne? That's always been very puzzling to me.

All peculiar. Maybe I'm thinking about it wrong--and I fear challenging the infamous Bryan.

[bryan]

Vanbelle, on 22 October 2011 - 12:56 PM, said:

Yes, this is true. Except we're excluding the oil on the scalp that gets on the roots of these hairs, right? Or no? Some oil on the scalp is in the roots, and when I comb my fingers through my hair, I spread my own oil from the scalp to the ends. That seems to be the main case from just observation.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean. Please explain more of what you mean when you say that we're "excluding the oil on the scalp that gets on the roots of these hairs". I'm puzzled by what you mean.

[Carolhardin]

I understand. I have same issue. I need to apply the hair oil but it cause to increase the acne problem. This is really very measurable situation. Now what i do, I massage my hair with oil before two hours when i have to shampoo it, then it have less effect on the oily skin . And for oily skin use Aloe Vera gel at night time after proper washing your face. Use as much less skin care products as you can do. Drink plenty of water, avoid junk food and oily food and do practice yoga. These all things help me hopefully they are also helpful to you also.