Dry Scalp Is Not A Super Power

YamiNoSenshi

I have super duper dry scalp & dandruff. It comes with the super ability to scratch my head all day and flake like the blizzard of 96. There's not much more detail than that I can give. I've tried to use that Tea Tree shampoo stuff, and it didn't do much. Other than that I stick to store brand since its cheap. I also give myself a buzz cut every so often instead of going to a barber.

Any suggestions on how to make my head stop itching and snowing? I'd like to try readily available stuff before I go to a dermatologist or something like that. Manly men don't go to doctors (but I will if nothing else works.)

Enc

As obvious, unhelpful as it may sound: Head and Shoulders or your grocery's equivalent works quite well for the cleansing agent. I too have terrible, dry flaky scalp skin, and its pretty gross and uncomfortable to deal with without some thought.

In general, you need to stop washing with any non-dandruff control shampoo. It will dry out your skin more. I've been told that showering less will allow your hair to secret the natural oils and such that will keep your skin from becoming a flaky wasteland, but I'm not someone who can do that sort of thing. It feels so unclean.

What has worked for me is washing my hair once a day with a dandruff control shampoo, and then using a mild dry-skin friendly conditioner to rehydrate my skin and hair. If I shower multiple times a day, I usually don't wash my hair more than once, though I will condition each time. Seems to work, as I'm no longer covered in skin flakes.

Your mileage may vary, of course. If it persists, I'd go to a hair-care specialist at a permanent salon before you see a dermatologist. It's entirely likely that they will have a better quality product for less than the medicated one, though probably not by much.

Quid

Everyone seems to have their own solution to this. My personal fix came from Lush with their Rehab shampoo and Retread conditioner which are meant to be used together. They do a good job on cutting the dandruff way fown for me with the only draw back being they're kind of pricey. Though if you hair's fairly short the price shouldn't have too much of an impact.

If there's a Lush near by you you can go in and ask for free samples.

Killgrimage

Oooh, dandruff sucks. I got it a while back and I'm a girl, so it extra special sucks because I can't just shave off all the hair on my head.

It turned out that I had a kind of eczema on my head that was being put on by stress. This was mostly job related and my dandruff now is slim to nil, though always a little worse in the dryer months.

I tried several shampoos (even the perscription ones) and they didn't do one damn thing for me. And it was winter and I wanted to wear my black shirts again. Eventually, the one thing that really worked for me but was a pain in the ass to do was rub Aveeno lotion on my head. I don't exactly remember which kind it was but it was green (instead of their normal blue logo) and had oatmeal in it. I did this at night before I went to bed every night (had the bf do it. Actually was a quite nice scalp massage).

Anyway, if the shampoos don't work, give this a shot.

Fireflash

I too, can't find anything that truly works. I've tried quite a few strong anti-dandruff shampoo's, even some that smelled a little weird, and none truly seem to work. Sometimes I'll even be super flaky a measly few hours after washing my hair. (I do rinse thoroughly so im pretty sure it's not shampoo residue. My scalp will also sometimes become very itchy.

Red Rover

Head & Shoulders didn't do it for me... I tried Selsun Blue and it worked like a charm. If you can't find it in the shampoo section try looking in the medicinal section of your local pharmacy.

starmanbrand

I use Redken's antidandruff stuff. Just make sure that when you're washing your hair, you're actually cleaning your scalp. I know some people who shampoo their hair but mushing the shampoo into the hair itself, but what you should be doing it massaging your scalp really vigorously, and then of course following the bottle's intructions on how long it should sit and if you should wash again.

I only get dandruff in the colder months, but using this redken shampoo I only have to use it once every three or four days to keep the results going.

Lord Lycan

Try avoiding any product with Sodium Lauryl (laureth) Sulphate in it. I find my scalp is extremely sensitive to this and since I've switched to an allergy friendly shampoo, the dandruff has been minimal.

JebusUD

try different anti dandruff shampoos and comb your hair every morning to get the dandruff out so people don't see it.

Sir Carcass

Head & Shoulders works for me. When I start to use something else, it never fails, a few days later here comes the dandruff. But switch back and it goes away.

StormCrow420

I also struggle with Dry Scalp and it sucks. It's a trade off. You can either have greasy hair with no dandruff by washing your hair less, or clean hair with flakes if you wash every day. I try rotating my dandruff shampoo, I switch between brands. Keeps down the major outbreaks but I still flake a little.

But thankfully I'm going bald so I won't have this problem forever.

TheScruple

Head and Shoulders stopped working for me a while back, so I switched to T-Gel Persistent Itch Relief. Makes my head smell like tar, but a good rinsing & conditioning takes care of it. One thing to be sure of is that you're actually massaging the shampoo into your scalp. No matter what brand you use, rubbing shampoo on the surface of your hair won't do anything for you.

Now that I've typed this, my head started itching. Dammit.

Namel3ss

Make sure to look for the active ingredient, I believe there are 4 different active ingredients in use over the various dandruff shampoos out there. The two most common are Zinc pyrithione, which is in Head and Shoulders and Selenium sulfide, which is found in the Selsun Blue. Neither of these worked for me so I tried the T-Gel, which uses Coal Tar, a known carcinogen and smells awful, it also didn't work for me.

There was one that worked like a charm, I use it once or twice a week and I have no more dandruff (used to have it bad), and it is Nizoral.

http://www.walgreens.com/store/store/product/product_details.jsp?id=prod9408&CATID=310519&skuid=sku309408&V=G&ec=frgl_743174&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=sku309408

Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud

The Coal Tar based ones work great for me.
Other solutions include reducing your stress and making sure you are getting proper nutrients.
Some scalp issues are caused by malnutrition.

TheGreat2nd

Neutrogena T-Gel works like a charm.

geckahn

Theres a difference between dandruff and dry scalp. And you'll want to use different products based on what you have.

Feldorn

i found that the big cause for me was pantein products. they make my scalp very pissed off.

with H&S, the active ingredient is an anit-fungal, the thought is that there is a fungus that exists on your scalp that feeds on dead skin, they cause dandruff by getting deeper into your scalp causing skin to flake off.

the ingredient in Selson, is actually supposed to dissolve the dead skin (i don't like the sound of that)

neither of those did squat for me.

i finally went to the naturals section and got a good tea tree shampoo + moisturizing conditioner which helped a ton. now i'm using natural products from Trader Joe's. my dandruff isn't completely better, but its very light now. i should try the lotion thing... it puts the lotion on its skin...

SilverCat

TheGreat2nd wrote: »

Neutrogena T-Gel works like a charm.

Seconded. This worked for me when I used to get a dry itchy scalp when i was younger. Smells quite bad but you get used to it (heck i started to like the smell after several uses)

Jobastion

I use Suave's Men's dandruff shampoo and conditioner, its another zinc based product. Some of the other zinc one's worked for me, but I'm a cheepo, so a buck fiddy for working dandruff shampoo was a win in my book.
Also, WebMD has a fairly decent article about dandruff, with the other possible treatment ingredients and the brand's they're sold under.

RenegadeSilence

My skin is pretty sensitive, and therefore I have a variety of mild problems relating to it. I've noticed exercise helps immensely compared to shampoos. My skin will clear and dandruff lessen when I live a more active lifestyle. The shampoos actually tended to fuck with my skin more.
Probably not the case for you but it won't hurt to try.

dwwatermelon

I completely agree, dry scalp is most definitely NOT a super power. It is pretty goddamn unbearable sometimes

Something I've found works really well for me:

I wash first with Head and Shoulders: Refresh, and then I do another wash with Selsun Blue with Menthol. I usually don't itch for two days afterward, and it feels tingly too! Other varieties will probably work just as well, I just made sure the two types were using different active ingredients so I'd get the double action.

Also, keeping your hair short helps.

Duck'n'Cover

SilverCat wrote: »

TheGreat2nd wrote: »

Neutrogena T-Gel works like a charm.

Seconded. This worked for me when I used to get a dry itchy scalp when i was younger. Smells quite bad but you get used to it (heck i started to like the smell after several uses)

Limed for agreement.


Also, there is an old wives tale that you should squeeze fresh lemon juice onto your scalp and leave it for 5mins before washing your hair. It's supposed to work wonders on bad dandruff.

rockmonkey

I've used Head & Shoulders regular, H&S intensive care, and Selsun Blue. Regular H&S didn't work, the strong stuff and Selsun Blue did for awhile then it got bad again.

I'm now using Axe's dandruff shampoo and it's actually working really well.

Who knows. I have a feeling mine is really bad when I'm stressed. I also have had pretty dry skin since birth.

Septus

TheGreat2nd wrote: »

Neutrogena T-Gel works like a charm.

I tried this for quite a while and saw no discernable difference

TheGreat2nd

When washing your hair, scrub hard into your scalp, then leave it there for like 5-10 minutes.
Wash your hair first, then rinse/soap whatever, and 5-10 minutes later, wash it off.
Might help, just a suggestion.

geckahn

I use joico daily care treatment shampoo. It works awesome, but it's for dry scalp, not dandruff. Of course, I thought both of those were the same until I got corrected by my very smart hair stylist.

Panda4You

Killgrimage wrote: »

Oooh, dandruff sucks. I got it a while back and I'm a girl, so it extra special sucks because I can't just shave off all the hair on my head.

It turned out that I had a kind of eczema on my head that was being put on by stress. This was mostly job related and my dandruff now is slim to nil, though always a little worse in the dryer months.

My scalp flake like a motherfucker so I asked a doctor once, and he mentioned some eczema as well. I've had this since forever and fortunately noticed, since I'm comfortable with the hairstyle, that keeping your hair pretty close to clean shaven off eases the effects and symptoms considerably.

seasleepy

DucknCover wrote: »

Also, there is an old wives tale that you should squeeze fresh lemon juice onto your scalp and leave it for 5mins before washing your hair. It's supposed to work wonders on bad dandruff.

I've done this, except with a diluted vinegar solution. Same general principle, I suppose. It's stinky, but it actually really seems to help a lot for me, when most shampoos don't.

Reric

I used to use the tea tree stuff, ended up not working well. I switched over to just basic head and shoulders, but the big difference was in changing how frequently I actually shampooed the hair. I now will use the shampoo every 3 days or so, it helps a lot. I still wet my hair every day, but as far as a deep cleansing it only gets treated twice a week.