Best shampoos for oily hair, tried and tested by a beauty expert

This shampoo – aptly named hair bath – is aromatic and fast to deliver results, for clean hair that doesn’t accumulate as much grease after just one use. It’s a clear, thick gel that can be applied to dry hair by massaging into your scalp, adding water until it lathers then rinsing off, or on wet hair as a traditional shampoo.

It’s designed to regulate sebum production from your sebaceous glands, aka where the oil in your hair follicle is produced, which reduces greasiness and any irritation that comes with it, such as itchiness.

It doesn’t lather as much as a typical shampoo, and it does take a little longer to come out of the bottle as there’s no pump, but overall, this is a great shampoo that improved our greasy-prone hair very quickly. Scented with sage and star anise, it’s an uplifting fragrant blend that we loved using.

This is a great everyday shampoo that covers all the basics; it’s affordable, comes in a generously sized 340ml bottle and gets rid of excessive grease. The bottle is pretty too, and feels more luxurious than the price tag would suggest. Our beauty writer has been using this for months, multiple times a week, and it has lasted a lot longer than most shampoos.

Grapefruit extract is the star ingredient for tackling product build-up and oiliness while injecting shine back into dull, limp strands thanks to the addition of vitamin E and coconut oil.

Our only gripe is we wish the pump distributed a bit more product with each push, but we can look past it for how affordable and hard-working the actual formula is.

While this is one of the more luxury shampoos we tested, it’s designed for use once a week, rather than for every hair wash, so we found it outlasted most of our shower hair products. Our beauty tester has repeatedly gone back to it since it launched.

It’s dark grey in colour, so be careful when applying it or it can get all over your bathroom, but it lathers nicely and easily spreads through your strands. If regularly using dry shampoo, texturising sprays, hairsprays and mousse leaves your locks feeling ladened, you’ll be pleased by this charcoal powder, which not only reduces oil production but helps leave your hair silky soft.

Oily hair and scalps can also be prone to dandruff and itchiness, and this shampoo ticks every box to combat it all. It’s an almost neon shade of orange, lathers well, and easily rinses out after a few minutes, with a very mild, fresh scent that doesn’t linger.

The formula is made with one per cent selenium disulphide (commonly found in haircare to treat dandruff and seborrheic dermatitis) and one per cent salicylic acid, which you’ll recognise from skincare products designed to treat oiliness and acne. With regular use, our tester’s scalp felt more soothed, less itchy and with fewer wash days required.

Oily scalps and those prone to dandruff will benefit from this shampoo from Italian hair care brand Davines. It’s B Corp certified, based out of Parma, and is focused on sustainable farming methods to source its ingredients. The brand favours using natural ingredients made using renewable electric energy and minimal packaging that has a low impact on the environment. This shampoo targets oil build-up and dandruff flakes to improve your overall scalp health and reintroduce bounce to flat strands. A detox for your hair if you will. It’s a fluid gel texture and while the bottle feels smaller than standard shampoos, it contains 250ml which is industry standard. It doesn’t lather as much, but that doesn’t mean it’s not effectively cleansing your strands and scalp and leaves hair with a healthy shine and reduced flakiness after a week. Just be careful not to apply too much and to see more of a lather.

Typebea is the haircare brand co-created by beauty entrepreneur Anna Lahey (who is also the founder of Vida Glow supplements) and singer Rita Ora. So far, the lineup features four products; this shampoo, a conditioner, a peptide serum and a glossy hair mask, with a focus on hair growth. While it would be easy to roll your eyes at yet another celebrity beauty brand, we were left impressed by this shampoo, which is rich in salicylic acid to gently exfoliate your scalp to remove product build-up from hairsprays and dry shampoos alike, along with argan oil and provitamin B5 to hydrate. However, it is a sulphate-free formula, so while we enjoyed using it, loved the clean, fresh scent, and found it worked well at keeping our strands feeling soft but not greasy after a couple of days, keep in mind it may not be a preventative measure long-term.

Hello Klean was first founded in 2019 to specifically tackle hair problems created by washing with hard water. London and Oxford for example have some of the hardest water in the UK, which can lead to dullness, discolouration, increased breakage and even hair loss. This gel formula – which has a fun tangerine orange colour – combats it all while also minimising product build-up which can make hair greasier and more prone to excess oil production. It’s packed with alpha hydroxy acids and amino acids to balance your scalp skin, as well as biotin to make hair more resistant to breakage. We found it worked particularly well on our bleached and highlighted hair, keeping it soft after every wash but helping increase the time between washes too.

This is unbeaten when it comes to price. For £6, you get a huge 680ml of product, the largest shampoo bottle we tried, making it excellent value for money. The replenish and cleanse shampoo specifically caters to greasy hair to gently cleanse while balancing your scalp in your everyday shower routine. It’s formulated with a vitamin complex of B3, B5, B7, C and E, amino acids and ceramides. There’s no fuss, frills, overcomplicated packaging or luxury price tag involved, simply lather into hair and rinse out after a few minutes for clean, smooth strands and less oily build-up.