Oily scalp and dry ends: what causes combination hair?
Combination hair is one of the most common – and the most frustrating – hair concerns.
That’s because the usual fixes for oily hair only make dry ends worse, while the usual fixes for dry ends tend to make oily roots worse. Your scalp's natural oil production is working overtime – but that oil isn't making it down the hair shaft to hydrate your dry ends.
To understand why combination hair needs a more targeted routine, it helps to look at the two concerns separately: what’s happening at the scalp, and what’s happening through the lengths and ends. Below, we break down the key causes of oily roots and dry ends, before explaining how to care for both without making either concern worse.
Oily scalp
Your scalp produces sebum – a natural oil – via sebaceous glands attached to each hair follicle. In theory, sebum is a good thing: it's designed to coat and protect the hair shaft, keeping it moisturised from root to tip. Problems can arise, however, when sebum production outpaces its journey down the hair – leaving you with a greasy scalp.
An oily scalp is largely genetic, but several everyday factors can exacerbate it. These include scalp buildup – when sweat, pollution, dead skin cells, and product residue accumulate at the root – as well as harsh sulfate shampoos that can rob the scalp of moisture. Over-washing and under-washing can also throw your scalp's oil balance off.
Dry ends
Because ends are the oldest, most exposed part of your hair – and the furthest from the scalp's oil supply – they're naturally more vulnerable to dryness, brittleness, and breakage than any other part of your hair.
Further damage compounds the problem, leaving your ends with even less hydration to hold onto. This damage can be caused by a range of everyday factors, such as:
- Heat styling: straighteners, curling irons, and blow dryers.
- Chemical treatments: colour, bleach, foils, perms, and relaxers.
- Environmental stress: sun exposure, harsh weather, chlorine, or salt water.
- Skipping regular trims: which lets split ends travel further up the hair shaft.
How to manage oily roots and dry ends: a step-by-step guide
When you have combination hair, it’s important that you manage oily roots and dry ends as two separate concerns. That doesn't mean a complicated routine: it just involves a more targeted approach towards where – and how – you're focusing your products.
Below is a six-step guide to help you balance both ends of the spectrum, so your roots stay fresh for longer and your lengths get the hydration they're missing out on.
1. Establish the right washing schedule for your needs
If you have oily roots and dry ends, washing your hair more often feels logical. But daily cleansing can rob your scalp of moisture, triggering even more sebum production as a protective response. Aim to wash your hair every two to three days with a gentle formula instead.
That said, how often you wash your hair will vary depending on factors like climate and activity level. If you live somewhere humid or exercise daily, for example, you may find you need to wash your hair a little more often.
2. Shampoo the scalp and roots to remove buildup
When you have oily roots and dry ends, where you apply your shampoo matters. Focus your shampoo directly on your roots, where oil, sweat, and product buildup tend to accumulate.
Our Acidic Bonding Concentrate pH-Balancing Shampoo cleanses the scalp while protecting your hair's natural pH balance, helping to support a balanced scalp environment. Its sulfate-free formula strengthens hair damaged by heat styling and chemical treatments, while also working to protect your hair’s colour from fading.
Massage the shampoo into your scalp with your fingertips, work it into a lather, then rinse.
3. Apply a lightweight hydrating conditioner from mid-lengths to ends
Once your shampoo is completely rinsed out, reach for our Acidic Bonding Sulfate-Free Conditioner. Apply it to the very ends of your hair first, then work upwards through the mid-lengths, avoiding the scalp. This keeps oil production in check while giving your driest sections the hydration they need.
Infused with an 11% bonding care complex and citric acid, our conditioner creates 82% fewer split ends1, improving the manageability and shine of combination hair.
Leave in for around two to three minutes, then rinse out completely.
4. Repair dry ends with a serum
For extra hydration in your oily scalp and dry ends routine, add a hair serum. Our Acidic Bonding Concentrate 24/7 Night & Day Serum is formulated with citric acid and squalane to hydrate and strengthen the bonds in your strands – particularly helpful if you're growing out damaged hair or simply want to keep frizz and flyaways under control between washes.
This serum is lightweight enough to throw in your bag or keep on your bedside table. Better still, it’s designed to be used both day and night, meaning it’s there it's there wherever – and whenever – your hair needs some extra hydration.
5. Condition ends deeply once a week
A hair mask helps hydrate and moisturise dry ends more intensively than your everyday conditioner, giving them what they need without overloading an already-oily scalp.
Our Acidic Bonding Concentrate 5-Min Hair Mask is a sulfate-free liquid hair mask that melts into your hair's bonds using a 16% conditioning care complex, delivering 72 hours of intensive moisture2 and shine. Use it after your conditioner while your hair is still wet, focusing the product on your lengths and ends. Try to build it into a weekly ritual – a Sunday reset before the week ahead is the perfect excuse for five minutes of self-care.
6. Use dry shampoo between washes (within reason)
Dry shampoo can help stretch out washes and instantly refresh limp, oily roots – making it especially handy for combination hair, where you're trying to manage oil at the scalp without over-washing and drying out your ends further. That said, dry shampoo isn’t a shampoo replacement – and overusing it can contribute to further scalp buildup.
Our Deep Clean Dry Shampoo provides heavy-duty oil absorption for all hair types. It's free from talc, sulfates, and silicones, and formulated with vitamin C and B5 for a refresh that lasts up to the fourth day of hair.
To apply, hold the can about 20cm away and spray directly onto the oiliest parts of your hair at the root. Then, brush through to distribute any excess product through the lengths.
Our Acidic Bonding Concentrate can help balance oily roots and dry ends, but it also works within the hair fibre. Next, learn what hair bonds are and how strengthening weakened bonds can help your hair grow longer and stronger.
1 When used as a system of Acidic Bonding Concentrate Shampoo, Conditioner and Leave-In Treatment vs. non-conditioning shampoo (L’Oréal Product Test: August 6, 2020)
2 Consumer self-assessment, 59 subjects