Should You Be Oil Cleansing Your Scalp? We Investigate Whether the Trend Is Worth Your Time

This hair care trend has been all over social media, but how does it hold up in practise? Ahead, we break down the science behind it and try it for ourselves so you don’t have to.

Consider this: Cleansing oil… but for your scalp. Hmm. It’s not exactly a new TikTok trend, but it is one that has recently popped back up into the algorithm en masse. The story goes like this—Korean women have allegedly been using facial cleansing oil on their scalp in pursuit of less oily hair. Whether or not the trend has taken off in real life, it sure has made its rounds online.

The logic makes sense—at least in theory. In the same way that oil cleansing your face can help to break down impurities, makeup, grime, and sunscreen, oil cleansing your head could potentially remove product buildup, sweat, and grime that collects on your hair and scalp. If you’ve ever found that your shampoo doesn’t lather well, or that you need a second pass for your hair to actually feel fresh, then oil cleansing your scalp could actually work to get you a deeper clean.

All you have to do is section your hair into one-inch parts, work a little oil cleanser into each section and massage the product into your scalp thoroughly. Then, as you would when cleansing your face, simply use some water to emulsify the oil before shampooing and conditioning as you usually would. It sounds similar to hair oiling, the ancient Ayurvedic practice that entails massaging natural oils into the scalp and hair to boost moisture, shine, and hair health, but it is not. Rather, instead of leaving the oil on for a couple of hours and double shampooing, this hack is a cleansing step in itself. The magic is in the emulsification step, where the dirt and grime from your scalp is washed away before shampooing.

@priscillakwon

this ACTUALLY works and I highly recommend if your scalp gets oily fast!

♬ original sound – priscilla kwon

The result? According to TikTok, you should expect light, airy, and voluminous roots that stay grease-free for longer. Of course, TikTok creators love to lie for the drama, so to keep things fair, we’ve tried the trend out for ourselves. Here’s how our experiment went:

“TL;DR: I’m all for this trend. For context, I have very damaged hair from two years of regular platinum blonde root bleaches, and I’ve also got an oily scalp. Essentially, what this means is cleansing and conditioning my hair thoroughly without stripping it too much or weighing it down is a very, very precarious ordeal, and striking the right balance takes a lot of effort. Suffice to say that my hair care routine is extensive, to say the least!

“I start my hair wash routine with a round of clarifying shampoo, which strips my scalp and strands of product buildup and grime. Then, I follow up with a second round of shampoo to make sure everything properly cleansed before I continue with a hair treatment and mask to properly condition my lengths. All this is to say that my hair wash day is a tedious process, and I was hoping that this oil cleansing hack would be able to help me circumvent some steps.

“So, before stepping into the shower, I used the Shu Uemura Ultime8∞ Sublime Beauty Cleansing Oil (RM485) directly on my roots. I worked in about four pumps all over my head, making sure to massage it in thoroughly, coating every corner of my scalp. Then, I stepped in the shower and, like I would on my face, I emulsified the cleansing oil and rinsed it thoroughly from my hair. From there, I skipped straight to my second shampoo and followed up with the rest of my usual routine.

“The results were honestly a pleasant surprise. Cleansing oil was a lot less drying on my scalp than my clarifying shampoo, and even though I was very heavy-handed with it, it didn’t stop my usual shampoo from lathering up beautifully. Overall, my scalp feels really clean without feeling stripped, and my hair feels really lovely and soft. On top of that, despite using the oil to cleanse my scalp, my roots don’t feel weighed down at all—in fact, they feel really light and voluminous! Personally, I’ll probably try to use a less expensive bottle of cleansing oil next time, but if you’ve been looking for a way to get a deeper cleanse on your scalp without compromising the condition of your hair, it’s worth giving this method a go!” — Redzhanna Jazmin, Beauty Editor

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