Hair Oil and Acne: The Indian Tradition Causing Forehead Pimples

Lustrous, long and voluminous hair has long been considered synonymous with beauty in India. You can step inside any Indian house and notice a bottle of hair oil taking an elevated, prominent position on the dresser. Hair oiling is not a mere aesthetic ritual; it’s ingrained in our culture. 

Yet, an exasperating unspoken annoyance for a majority of the youth in India. It is an unexpected development of comedones and painful pimples on the forehead. While we meticulously check our facewashes, moisturizers and diets to find the culprit.

The primary factor contributing to these bothersome pimples actually lies up in your hair!

Why Is Hair Oiling a Sacred Indian Ritual ?

The intense passion that we feel about oiling hair stems from centuries of ritual, religion, and deeply entrenched emotional connections. In India, hair oiling is intrinsically linked to Ayurveda. Traditional Indian culture refers to it as ‘Champi’ or head massage.

Champi

This massage involves rubbing oil into the scalp with specific strokes that are believed to calm an overheated mind by reducing the Pitta in the body. 

In accordance with the principles of Ayurveda, a head massage cools the body’s energies, stimulates the body’s sensitive Marma points (pressure points) that facilitate sound sleep and relaxation and it helps to reduce sleep disturbance and prevent premature graying and hair fall.

It's also very emotionally satisfying. Hair oiling is a generational bonding experience. Back home in India, every child grows up cherishing a memory of sitting on the floor, having the mother, the Dadi or Nani rub warm oil into their head. This is one of the ways mothers express care and protection.

It is from this emotional and cultural bond that traditional oiling becomes heavy. Oiling typically means soaking your scalp with some kind of nourishing oils and wrapping your hair up, leaving it overnight or proudly keeping it for the rest of the week (or months during holidays). After all, all our grandmothers told us, “the more the oil, the healthier the hair.”

How Does Hair Oil Travel to Your Face ?

Your scalp may rejoice under a rich glaze of oil, but your facial skin functions on a totally different biological mechanism. When slathering on something heavy in your hair, a phenomenon kicks in here known as ‘product migration’, inadvertently turning your entire face into the recipient of the oils you apply to your hair scalp.

The danger of the situation doubles when night sets in. When you go to sleep after oiling your head the bulk of the oil leaches into the pillowcase. As you toss and turn around all night, your face ends up rubbing on the oil steeped pillowcase. Thus marinating your forehead in the stagnant pool of trapped dirt, sweat and hair oil. On top of that, the weather makes it worse. 

If you live in a humid environment, your body constantly sweats out a lot in an effort to cool it down. Sweat and all the heavy hair oil mixes up and creates a greasy film of oil all over your forehead, trapping the dust, pollutants and even sebum within it.

What Does The Dermatologist Mean When You Say Acne Around Forehead?

If you went to a dermatologist and explained that you have a rash of tiny pimples concentrated around the area where your hairline is, they would probably say you’re experiencing a condition they call “pomade acne.”

Where is it located?

It is tightly concentrated like a band of bumps that can be seen along the upper forehead (at the hairline or on the forehead below where oil can travel down the face, the sides of the forehead, at the temples and just below, on the sideburn area.

What does it look like?

While hormonal acne can appear as big, painful cysts that go deep on the jaw, pomade acne is commonly seen as an accumulation of a dozen or more small, flesh-colored to red bumps, mostly closed comedones (whiteheads) and small papules. These bumps are often all the same size, and may feel gritty to touch.

How does it feel?

Sometimes it feels a little itchy especially if you are hot and sweating, which often leads to people mistaking it for a heat rash.

But what's most infuriating about pomade acne?

It doesn't heal fast. The oils sit in the bottom of the follicle, so even when you rinse out your oily hair, all of that oil trapped in the follicles pushes new micro-comedones to the surface.

Anatomy of a Clogged Pore 

The skin has its own  natural defensive mechanism. It has a pilosebaceous unit consisting of a hair follicle and a sebaceous gland, attached to it. The sebaceous gland secretes Sebum. This sebum is rich in waxy esters, triglycerides, cholesterol, squalene and other lipids. It comes to the surface and lubricates it to protect the skin barrier. Factors like hormonal fluctuations, improper diet, upset sleep schedule, frequent stressful episodes, genetic predisposition, environmental stressors etc. may trigger the receptors at sebaceous glands to overproduce the sebum. This excess oil production contributes to the clogging of the pores. In addition to it, the poor skin cell turnover, altered viscosity of sebum, trapped dirt, pollutants, makeup residue, sweat, etc. end up resulting in the formation of clogged pores. These clogged pores become the rich source of food for acne causing microbes to proliferate and stimulate a cascade of inflammatory mediators. Consequently, painful tiny bumps of red pimples appear on the skin surface. 

In order to understand why specific natural oils will damage your skin barrier, we must delve into the science of comedogenicity. 

What Is Comedogenicity ?

This is a scientific scale that ranks ingredients as per their potential to get entrapped in the pores of the skin and cause acne from 0 (will not clog skin) to 5 (almost always causes skin to break out). You should be cautious of the ingredients in the composition of the hair cosmetics. They ideally must have low comedogenicity for skin prone to acne.

Certain Common Hair Oils Used In India With Their Ranking Associated With Comedogenicity Scale 

How to Avoid Wrecking Your Skin With Hair Oil Causing Acne?

Hair oil pimples can be prevented. You just have to adjust how you are applying the product so that the oily application doesn’t reach the skin of your forehead (prone to acne). 

• Incorporate warm oil, massage it to the scalp and rinse it out with shampoo about an hour later properly. 
• Protect your hairline beforehand by using a soft hairband.
• Applying a light non comedogenic moisturiser to not to let the migrating oil be exposed to your skin. 
• Keep the oil away by at least 1 inch from the hair at the hairline. 
• Try jojoba oil because it is very close to our natural sebum and has a low comedogenic rate of 0, whereas you could also try argan oil for dry hair because it is quickly absorbed, non sticky and has a comedogenic rate of 0 as well. 
  

If hair growth and hairfall is the issue, it’s best to use a water based scalp serum, as oil to your skin can still be problematic for acne, instead use herbal rinses like neem, rosemary or amla water if you want to use home remedies and have an aggravated acne to get all the medicinal benefits of herbs for your scalp.

In case you are dealing with bumps already on your forehead, you need to use a proper regime with double cleansing by the use of active ingredients in a specially designed formulation to dissolve oil blockages and regulate oils on skin to make your skin feel fresh and non-greasy. Also, pay attention to regular laundry (sheets, pillowcases, headbands, etc.).

How To Fight Hair Oil Acne ?

If your forehead is already a battlefield with oil pimples, then Alite Oil Control Face Wash efficiently combats your pomade acne without ripping off your natural sebum with an oil-cleansing method. It’s not like ordinary paraben based harsh chemical Cleansers. It’s gentle to your skin barrier.

The Alite Anti-Acne Charcoal & Ceramide Face Wash For Oil Control

It has Encapsulated activated charcoal milli-globules act like tiny magnets for impurities. During washing, the beads gently melt. They draw out heavy, migrated hair oils from congested pore and also remove sweat from the skin. Environmental pollutants are pulled out as well.

Sebum Control Enzyme™ regulates sebaceous gland activity at the source. This helps the skin produce less daily grease over time. This formula is power-packed with Ceraskin P which is described as a specialized ceramide complex. Ceramides are the vital lipids that repair and strengthen the barrier. This helps keep the protective moisture intact even after washing as maintaining hydration is crucial to prevent rebound oiliness.

This Formulation Has Powerful 5-In-1 Action:

• Eliminates Surface Dirt 
• Removes Excess Oil 
• Clarifies Skin Pores 
• Leaves Skin Feeling Fresh 
• Supports Smooth Comfort To Skin

Cleansing using this gentle yet powerful oil controlling formula by wetting your skin first, then taking a small amount of it in your palms, rub together to form a rich lather and massage it gently to your face and follow with rinsing your face with clean water and pat dry. This routine can actively help in the prevention as well as the  management of hair oil pimples. 

Summary

The hair oil you use for your haircare ritual can trigger pomade acne or hair oil pimples. Being considerate of their comedogenicity and your own skin profile can help you figure out what suits your hair and skin the best. Cleansing is a crucial part of skin hygiene responsible to efficiently regulate the oils on your skin. Incorporating Alite Anti-Acne Oil Control Face Wash to your skin care regime with wise oiling can be your good friend to combat pomade acne.