Extremely Oily Hair | Oily Smelly Scalp Causes, Remedies and Treatment

Causes of Oily, Smelly Hair and Scalp

Every person, especially women, wants to look good and a big part making our appearance as perfect as possible involves the maintenance of our hair. In this case, anything abnormal such having smelly hair syndrome and oily smelly scalp is an extreme discomfort. Not only does oily smelly scalp bring your hair that undesirable look and odor, it can also be a factor affecting your self-esteem.

Now, you do not want your friends to always criticize you with oily hair, do you? In particular, having oily smelly scalp and smelly hair syndrome is definitely hard to manage and style.

To help you with this problem of having oily hair, here are some useful tips you can make good use of.

Home Treatment and Remedies for Extremely Oily Hair and Scalp

You may be thinking that the cause for your oily hair can be a dry oily smelly scalp. However, this has been proven otherwise since oil glands on a dry scalp tend to produce more oil and the excess oil then transfers to the hair. Hence, treatment focused on dry scalp should be made.

  • By using a mild shampoo such as baby shampoo, you can slowly maintain the dryness of your scalp.
  • You can also deal with oily hair by concentrating the shampoo on the hair away from the scalp to remove the excess oil secreted by the oil glands.
  • Moreover, you should always rinse your hair thoroughly after shampooing or conditioning. Cool or lukewarm water would help wash away the oil.
  • When you use a hot oil treatment for hair, make sure you apply it directly to the hair. Gently massage the oil into your scalp and rinse it off thoroughly.
  • Also, use very little or minimal conditioner to treat your hair since conditioners lock the moisture into your hair.
  • A vinegar rinse can also be effective in treating extremely oily hair. A mixture of one part of vinegar and four parts of water can help remove excess oil from your hair. Just remember to keep the vinegar away from your scalp.
  • Rubbing or scratching your scalp can also worsen your oily hair. This will just increase the production of oil.
  • Brushing or combing your hair too much can also aggravate your greasy hair. Brushing would only pull out the oil out of your scalp and distribute it throughout your whole hair.

The above smelly hair home remedies treatment are just simple ways that you can try at home. Just remember not to abuse your hair with so much chemical treatments.

3 comments


  1. S N

    I have had this problem of smelly and oily hair since March 2010!! The smell is getting worse!!! I thought it was because I was eating too much wheat??? I will try T-Gel shampoo and hopefully it will work!!! Will keep you posted!!

  2. B T

    Similar to “cradle cap” in infants, smelly scalp has virtually nothing to do with hygiene; it is caused almost exclusively by a microbial infection that neither starts nor ends with hygiene. If you have ever had it, you would know that it does not matter how often you wash your scalp, how thoroughly you wash your scalp, the harshness of your shampoo, how oily your scalp is, how thoroughly you rinse your hair, what kind of conditioner you use, whether you scratch or rub your scalp, or how you brush or comb your hair. In short, virtually nothing that the author said would do any good for your condition.

    Since it is almost certainly a microbial infection, the microbe has to be killed. The fastest way to do it is with a sulfur soap or medicated shampoo. I had smelly scalp for weeks and was washing my head thoroughly two or three times per day to try to cure the problem, but the smell would return after only a few hours. I finally figured out what was happening; I first used lime juice to change the ph on my scalp and I saw an immediate improvement, but using lime juice is impractical and I was concerned that continued exposure would damage my hair. The next day I used “T-Gel” shampoo; it cured the problem after one day.

    There are numerous home remedies, such as washing with tomato juice, lemon juice mixed with yogurt, onion juice, and a few others that I have seen on the web but have not tried. As I mentioned, I used straight lime juice and saw an immediate improvement–based on my immediate and significant results, I strongly suspect that I would have had it beat in a few more days if I had not switched to the T-Gel. The only thing the author got right (by sheer luck) was the vinegar rinse, which would basically destroy the microbes.

    This reminds me of people who still think that getting influenza is caused by being outside in cold weather without your jacket on; hypothetically, if the exposure was severe enough and the duration was long enough, it could weaken your immune system to make you more susceptible to the virus causing influenza if you were later exposed to it–but that will never happen to most of us. It’s a wives tale, just like this is. The author really has no business posting this sort of information.

    The point is that this is a medical problem, not a hygiene problem, and if you don’t treat it as a medical problem your head will continue to smell.

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