Why Does My Hair Hurt? The Strange Phenomenon Explained By An Expert

The short answer is that it's not actually your hair; it's the scalp surrounding the hair follicle that's hurting. For a deeper dive, I went to trained trichologist and hairstylist Shab Reslan, who also hosts her own podcast about all things hair and scalp, Hair Like Hers.

"When you have product, dirt, and oil building up around your follicle opening—which is where your hair grows out of—buildup around that starts to slowly suffocate your hair root, and it causes inflammation," she says. "This inflammation will not only affect the quality of your hair growth, but it will physically hurt. So when you're moving your hair around, it's the inflammation that you are feeling."

And it's becoming increasingly common for a few reasons, she says.

The first problem was mine above: The blow-dry and dry shampoo combo. "Women are styling their hair and want to extend the life of the blowout by using dry shampoo, which is further causing harm because it's the hardest thing to wash out," she says. Personally, I'm all for going back to a more natural styling routine, sans hot tools and buildup-causing products. As are most people in the natural beauty space, I find. And even if you are one to reach for a dry shampoo post hot yoga class, natural and clean brands have led the way for better-for-your scalp options that utilize cleansing agents that don't clog your pores (just in case you refuse to give up the product).

First up: You don't need to use a shampoo with sulfates—let's just get that out of the way—but you do need to be mindful of how much you shampoo. If scalp pain is a recurring problem for you, that's a big red flag you need to up your wash schedule. Or, as Reslan says, consider folding in a weekly scalp treatment to help.

Now, onto what steps to take: For a quick fix, do a thorough shampoo; if it's been more than a day or two, you'll likely need a double-cleanse. "It's usually pretty easily rectified," she says.

But if It's been building up for a while, the inflammation might not go away with one wash. "The longer the inflammation is there, the deeper it goes and the harder it is to treat," she says. You might need to consider a scalp scrub for a full reset. And, she goes on to say, if you are the type of person who only shampoos a few times a week (raises hand), then you should consider doing a scrub regularly to keep inflammation down.