If you often skip regular washes, stretch washes with dry shampoo, or saturate your hair with styling products, you may have noticed a flakey or gummy build up on your hair and scalp. This is called as product build-up. The combination of product build-up mixing with your scalp’s natural build-up can create quite a greasy, grimy mess!
Natural Build-Up
We secrete sebum, natural oils, from our sebaceous glands and sweat from the apocrine or sweat glands located in our scalp.Also, as new skin cells form, we shed the old dead skin cells from our scalp.
Since everybody is different, you may have an overactive gland or shed skin cells a bit more slowly than someone else.
Product Build-Up
Product build-up is the gradual accumulation of products on the hair strands.The very shampoos and conditioners designed to clean your hair can leave residue on the scalp that accumulates over time. This usually happens if you use the same brand for a prolonged period of time.
Commercial liquid shampoos and conditioners often contain waxes, synthetic silicones, and silica that coat your hair, to make it “feel” nice, but leave a residue in your hair. Products that have accumulated on your hair prevent moisture, oils and other nutrients from penetrating your hair.
Even when your hair has been freshly washed, it will still look dull, flat, lifeless and dirty with no shine and may even feel as if it is coated with something. If you repeatedly have ‘bad’ hair days after washing, your hair might be suffering from product build-up. This results in dull hair which is unable to recover from any commercial product having those synthetic ingredients as your scalp have become immune to them.
How to get rid of this hair build-up?
When you rid hair of natural build-up and product residue, your hair will feel clean and appear much softer and shinier.
Simple Baking Soda Clarifying Rinse:
Regular household baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is an easy clarifier to use. Baking soda naturally lifts grease and product residue from your hair.
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 – 2 cups warm water
Combine the ingredients in a spray bottle or cup. Wet hair and spray or pour the rinse on your hair and work it through. Rinse thoroughly with warm water, then shampoo with your regular shampoo.
Simple Vinegar Rinse:
Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) removes scaly build-up and residue from hair shafts to cleanse and clarify the hair and scalp without stripping the hair of its natural oils.
Mix 1/2 to 4 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar (ACV) with 8 ounces of water in a plastic squeeze bottle, spray bottle or cup
Experiment to find a dilution that works best for your hair type (dry hair likes less ACV and oily hair likes more).
If the above methods do not work out, maybe the scalp residue is indicator of some other grave issue. Book an appointment today with
