What Causes Hair Build Up?
Hair build up is caused by hair products, your natural body oils, skin cells, hard water deposits, and even pollutants building up on your hair or scalp. At any given time, it’s natural for us to have tiny amounts of hair products, oil, pollutants and/or hard water deposits in our hair, as having 100% clean hair is nearly impossible. However, when we get ‘too much’ hair products, scalp oils, pollutants or mineral deposits in our hair it can start to cause problems with how our hair feels, acts or responds to styling. In severe cases it may even cause our scalp to feel irritated or itchy! So, it’s important to find a haircare routine that keeps build-up at a low level.
Does Hair Gel Cause Build Up?
Any products that you use on your hair or scalp can cause build-up, including shampoo! Yes, even shampoo. The more products you use, the more likely you are to get build-up. However, people often think that if they avoid using products like gel, mousse, curl cream, etc then they won’t get build-up, which is not the case. Everyone gets some amount of build-up, it’s just a matter of how much they get and how strong of a shampoo they need to use to clean their hair.
Not all shampoos are made equally, some are stronger than others, or work to remove certain types of buildup better than other products. You may find that some shampoos are not well-suited to remove build-up from certain products. The curly girl method attempted to simplify this by stating that if you avoid silicone products in your haircare products, then you don’t need to use a sulfate-containing shampoo. While this is commonly believed, it is not backed up with research or science (the curly girl method book sites no sources at all!).
Also, these days, there is a wide range of different strengths of shampoos even when looking at sulfate shampoos or non-sulfate shampoos. Meaning, even if you use all silicone-free products and use a sulfate-containing shampoo, you still may get build-up that needs to be removed with a stronger shampoo periodically.
Does The Curly Girl Method Cause Build-Up?
One of the key concepts pushed in the curly girl handbook is that if you follow the curly girl method by avoiding silicones, you can use conditioner as a cleanser (aka conditioner wash or cowash) rather than shampoo, and will never get buildup. The book tries to push the idea that build-up is only caused by silicones and other man-made materials, that then cause us to need sulfate shampoos.
In my opinion and experience, this is not true. Most people who generally follow the curly girl method will still recommend using a very strong clarifying or chelating shampoo at least once a month because they find that they still get build up on the curly girl method.
How To Tell If Your Shampoo Is Effective For Your Products
So…how can you tell if the shampoo you’re using is strong enough to prevent build-up? There isn’t an easy way to know if your shampoo is going to remove all the ingredients in all of your products or not. You could just use a really strong shampoo, but that can be really drying on the hair..so most of us want to use a shampoo that is effective but not TOO effective. It takes time trial and error to figure out what works best for your hair and the products you frequently use.
Also, if you have hard water (most people in the US have hard water, by the way!) you also will have mineral deposits build up in your hair that will need removed by chelating shampoo at least monthly. The best way is to learn to pay close attention to your hair to feel and look for signs of build-up. Once you learn what build-up looks and feels like in your hair, you’ll be able to determine on your own how often to use a clarifying shampoo. When you’re new, you may find that asking your hair stylist when you’re in getting your haircut can help as well, as most hair stylists know what buildup looks like and will be able to let you know how mild or severe yours is at that time.
Signs Of Build-Up On Wavy Hair
- Hair that feels unclean or oily even right after it was just washed
- Excess frizz, especially near the roots or around the edges (aka halo frizz)
- Hair that feels tacky, waxy or slightly sticky even when you have no products in your hair
- Any products you use seem to sit on top of your hair rather than absorbing in
- Your hair is acting weighed down and heavy, not as bouncy as it typically is.
- Your hair has started to look dull instead of having its usual shine.
- Your scalp is itchy or irritated
- Your hair is falling out. This is only in very severe cases, but really severe buildup can clog the hair to the point of the hair becoming dehydrated inside, which can lead to hair breaking or falling out.
Are Some Hair Types More Prone To Build Up Than Others?
Fine hair is more prone to getting buildup simply because there is less surface area. People with oily scalps can get build-up from their own body oils more quickly.
How To Prevent Wavy Hair Build-up?
Hair build-up can’t be prevented, it’s a natural thing that happens to everyone. You can reduce how much build-up you get though by doing the following:
Installing a water softener if you have hard water, as hard water deposits cause mineral build up in your hair.
Go lighter on products with silicones, oils, butters or other emollient products. These ingredients in products are good for styling purposes and can help hold moisture in your hair if it is dry. I am not at all trying to suggest that emollients are bad! Most of us benefit greatly from using some of them. On the other hand, they work by creating a seal over your hair which can result in build-up over time if your shampoo isn’t fully removing those products each wash day. So, using just enough to meet your styling or moisturizing needs is ideal.
Shampoo thoroughly. Using a shampoo brush or making sure you use your fingers to rub/massage every piece of your scalp can help encourage build up to come off your hair between washes.
Shampoo the lengths of your hair. This may not be needed each wash day, but many are of the belief that they should only shampoo their scalp. This can result in build-up getting severe on the strands of your hair. Intentionally shampooing the lengths of your hair can reduce build-up on the hair strand.
How Often Should You Clarify Wavyt Hair To Prevent Build Up?
How often you need to use a clarifying or cheleating shampoo is going to vary depending on your individual hair, your regular hair routine, and how strong your regular shampoo is. The stronger your regular shampoo is, the less frequently you’ll need to use a clarifying shampoo. As a general rule of thumb, I suggest clarifying around once a month. For more about clarifying wavy hair, visit my whole blog post on that topic!
What Ingredients in Products Are Prone to Causing Build Up?
Keep in mind that any/all hair products can cause some build-up, as can pollutants in the air, your natural skin oils and your shower water. There is no way to totally prevent build-up. However, there are some products that might make you get severe build up more quickly. Those include:
Products that have a lot of emollients like oils or butters, as these work to seal water and anything else out of the hair, so then any products used after that point can build up on the exterior of the hair. If you use oils or butters and your shampoo isn’t effectively removing them, you may notice a lot of build-up. Sometimes people with wavy hair buy products marketed as curly hair products but ones that are designed for very dry, VERY curly hair. Products for type 3 and type 4 hair will often have a lot of oils and butters in them, which is great for those hair types, but is usually really overwhelming and heavy for wavy hair. They tend to weigh down wavy hair, and cause build up.
Product ingredients with large molecular weight, especially if you have fine hair. If your hair is fine, it may not be able to absorb some products that have larger molecular sizes, so those products will stay on the outside of the hair rather than absorbing inside. Sometimes this is a good thing. I have fine hair that benefits from proteins that are larger, as they help give structure to the exterior of my hair. However, it is something I need to balance well because it can cause build up oir protein overload if I use too many big-molecule proteins.
The science-y hair blog has an awesome article about protein sizes for hair products.
How Does Hard Water Affect Build Up On Waves?
Hard water is considered to be hard water because it has minerals in the water. Of course, we can’t see this but it’s in the water and therefore will get in our hair when we wash our hair with hard water. These minerals can bind to our hair and often will not rinse out with standard shampoos. This is part of why having hard water in your home can be really tough on the look and feel of your hair.
Chelating shampoos are designed to help strip those minerals out of your hair. If you have hard water, using a chelating shampoo at least monthly can remove the build up that will occur. I use Malibu Hard Water Wellness Shampoo.
What Areas of Wavy Hair are Most Prone to Build Up?
The area of your hair that will get the most build-up will depend a lot on your grooming habits. However, there are some areas that people commonly experience the most build-up
The crown of the head. This part of the hair is prone to build-up from hard water because it’s the part of our head that most of us put directly under the showerhead for the longest period of time. For many, it’s also where they first apply their conditioner, which can result in more conditioner landing in that area than the rest of the hair.
Around the edges of the face. My hair stylist told me that this area is prone to build-up from cosmetics and facial care products. Sometimes when doing makeup, we accidentally get a little bit into the edge of our hairline. Plus, many of us neglect to really scrub the far edges of our hairline where they meet our face when we are shampooing, so this can result in that area getting more build-up from that combination of extra products being applied there unintentionally and it not being cleaned as thoroughly. Also, the hair at the edges of the face are often very fine, so they can get overwhelmed by buildup easier than thicker hairs.
The lengths of the hair. This was also mentioned by my hair stylist. She said many are taught to only shampoo their scalp, but then regularly use gel or other products that they apply to the entire lengths of their hair, which can result in the lengths of their hair getting more build-up than the roots.
What are signs your waves need a clarifying wash?
Signs that you need to clarify are the same as signs that you’re getting a lot of buildup, which I Covered higher up in this post. The only one I’d add would be ‘Or if it’s been more than 30 days since you last used a clarifying shampoo.”
Gentle Techniques To Remove Build-up
For most people, clarifying more often won’t cause damage. However, if you’ve already got really damaged and dry hair (mostly a concern for those who have lightened or bleached their hair) then clarifying shampoos can be really harsh. Did you know that bleached hair becomes hydrophilic, while hair is naturally hydrophobic and this chemical change to hair has an impact on how it reacts to shampoo? It’s true! Bleached hair has a stronger reaction to shampoos than natural shampoos, so your hair can get a little damaged with shampooing after you’ve bleached it. I learned about this in a hair chemistry book called the Chemical and Physical Behavior of Human Hair by Clarence R Robbins.
Anyway – if you find yourself really struggling with build-up but really feel you should avoid clarifying more often than you have been…here are some gentle techniques for removing build-up
Use your gentler shampoo twice in a row. This isn’t exclusively a marketing gimmick to get you to use more shampoo, as many think it is. Shampoos are designed to bond with grease first, and then to clean what is left over. So if you use shampoo twice in the sahem shower, it will suds up a lot more the second time around after any of your grease/oils have been removed the first time, and you may find that this second wash assists with removing more of your build up than a single wash as well.
Use a shampoo brush or really work your fingers into your scalp to try to cleanse your hair with physical cleansing rather than having to rely as much on stronger ingredients.
Use a scalp scrub shampoo or oil. There are scalp treatment products that are sometimes called scalp scrub shampoos, ir sometimes called scalp scrub oils. They are made with a gritty texture and are intended to be scrubbed into the scalp to help physically exfoliate the scalp to help remove buildup.
Common Mistakes That Lead To Excess Hair Build-Up
Using hair oils incorrectly. Hair oils are designed to lock moisturing products (like leave in conditioners) into your hair. Or, to lock humidity out of your hair if you live in an extremely humid place, like Florida. Yet..many people see others using hair oils to scrunch out the crunch and start doing the same, without really having a reason for using the oils. For many with wavy hair, it’s fine to skip hair oils entirely, as wavy hair often isn’t all that dry. I live in Michigan where we have some summer days with intense humidity, but I Still find that I don’t need hair oils on those days. Because hair oils are designed to lock products out, they can easily cause buildup. SO if you’re using oil when you don’t need it, this is a common cause of excess build up. If you’d like to learn more about how to use hair oils check out my wavy hair and hair oils article.
Heavy products. A tough thing about having wavy hair is knowing which curly products are suitable to us, and which aren’t. There are plenty of products out there that market themselves for curly hair that are light and ideal for wavy hair…but there are also tons that are really designed for only VERY curly hair and will be very heavy on wavy hair. Products very tightly curly hair are highly moisturizing and full of oils and butters, which can cause excess build up on most people with wavy hair.
Hi Emily! Good to hear from you. When my hair is long like yours, it is wavy with end curl. It is very fine and silky. It just doesn’t knot, ever. I have changed to a chin length bob. My hair now is almost straight. The back of my head is still very wavy underneath and from the crown down is straight with a little curl under at the end. I’m 79 years old and my blonde hair has mostly turned white with silvery streaks. It is even finer, oilier and I do use a chelating shampoo twice a month. If I washed it every day, it would be perfect. But this is difficult for my arthritic hands. I use EvolVh Instant volume cleanser & Ultrashine conditioner. I style with Aussie max hold mousse. I comb, hand shape and air dry my hair. Any other suggestions?
Super helpful! One question I’ve been confused on – will a chelating shampoo like the Malibu also remove product buildup, or do you need a separate clarifying shampoo for that?
I believe it might vary by brand/product but the malibu hard water shampoo is just chelating, not clarifying so with that one you’d need to use a clarifying shampoo at times also. I just do one intense wash day a month and I use suave clarifying shampoo and malibu hard water shampoo in the same shower, I just double-cleanse that day. 🙂