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[Harmony]

I have always had quite greasy hair and skin. My hair has improved a bit over the last year, so I could go for 3 days between washes instead of 2, which was great. To my great dismay, in less than a week it has become greasier than it's ever been, and is now greasy less than 24 hours after washing it. I detest the feeling of having greasy hair, so am now having to wash it every day, with a silicone free shampoo for greasy hair. I have ME and find hair washing tiring, so it's the last thing I need! I have longish, thick hair so it's not a 5 minute job to wash and condition it.

I've racked my brains about what could have caused it, but I haven't done anything different, and am using the same products as I usually do. I became menopausal about 4 years ago, and fortunately don't really have any physical symptoms now, other than increased fatigue. I'm not on HRT, so can't put it down to that. Someone suggested that it could be down to my hormones changing, but if it was that, I'd have thought I'd have noticed other changes. Just wondering if anyone else has had this happen. I thought hair was supposed to become drier in menopause, I really wish mine had!

[Postmeno3]

I can't shed any light other than to say perhaps your M.E. is masking menopausal symptoms? There are many similarities. Also, what about dry shampoo? I have M.E. and understand how much energy hair-washing uses!

[Harmony]

I can't shed any light other than to say perhaps your M.E. is masking menopausal symptoms? There are many similarities. Also, what about dry shampoo? I have M.E. and understand how much energy hair-washing uses!

Thanks for your reply, Postmeno. I've just replied to your PM, I'm so sorry but I only saw your messages on Wednesday evening, when I was too tired to reply. Hope you didn't think I was ignoring you! I got ME about 20 years before menopause, and was diagnosed by a specialist, so it's definitely ME. I actually self diagnosed from a book, the GP was useless, but it was eventually confirmed by an ME specialist/neurologist. Menopause has certainly exacerbated the fatigue and brain fog though, which are my worst symptoms.

I've tried dry shampoo, but unless I didn't use enough, found it didn't really do much. I was too tired to wash it last night. I'm currently in bed, feeling really tired, trying to psych myself up to wash it. I can't bear the feeling of greasy hair. 🙁 It's nice to know that you understand, for most people washing their hair isn't exactly a big deal!

[Postmeno3]

Yes, it's that number of "spoons" thing, isn't it?! Hair washing and drying uses a fair few of them! What I meant was, as a result of your saying you had no physical symptoms of menopause, that we can end up putting everything down to the M.E. because that's something we've grown to sort of understand. So, you may also be having menopausal symptoms which are less easy to understand, but can still be menopausal as well as having M.E.? Anyway, probably quite important I don't derail away from your hair issues! I'll PM you about M.E. instead.

[Harmony]

Yes, hair washing and drying does use a lot of spoons, Postmeno. I leave my hair till it's nearly dry and give it a quick blast with the hairdrier to finish it off. As it's long and quite wavy it doesn't need styling, which I'm very glad about! I bought a bottle of a Wella professional clarifying shampoo online, hoping that it would get it squeaky clean, but when I tried it yesterday it didn't seem to be any stronger than shampoo for normal hair. It's a really nice shampoo though, it has a lovely soft scent and lathers well to a rich foam. You can tell the difference compared to supermarket shampoo.

Other than the increased fatigue and brain fog, the only other significant thing that I've found since menopause is that I'm very depressed most of the time, and find everything harder to cope with, but life became a lot more difficult at that time anyway, due to life events.