My actual scalp is coming off....

[Myusernameismud]

Title more for attention, but it does really feel that way.

Back story: had a bit of dry scalp which looked gross and flakey, so used head and shoulders. It did nothing, and made my scalp itchy when it hadn't been itchy before. Switched to vosene which seemed to make a small difference until yesterday when I washed my hair. I dried it and when I ran my hands through it, felt lumps on my scalp. Got DH to have a look and my scalp is flaking in a big way. Flakes are around 1cm across, quite thick and it looks horrendous.

I'm prone to a bit of eczema occasionally, I have asthma and a few allergies, so generally an allergic type. But I've never experienced this before. We've not long moved house, and the water here is much harder than where we lived before. It's affecting my skin a bit, but this seems to be a sudden change.

It sounds like a first world problem I know, but it looks horrible and I'm dreading going to work tomorrow and covering everything in scalp dust
I've got a GP appt next week anyway, so might mention it to her but I feel such a tit saying 'oh by the way, my scalp is minging, can you fix it?'

Anyone have any decent remedies I can try in the mean time?

Body Shop ginger shampoo and conditioner good for this - also rubbing in coconut oil and leaving overnight

A good pre-shampoo scalp scrub with flaky sea salt (literally the stuff you season food with) helped me get rid of the initial bad flaking. As long as your scalp isn't sore or bleeding it's the perfect thing.

I've found H&S is normally fine until you use something else. Then whatever it has stuck to your head (flakes) gets unstuck and you shed it all.

I now use a shampoo that claims to clean like micellar water does. Once a week I might use a regular shampoo if I feel I need it. Salt scrub if flakiness looks like it's coming back, v rarely. I live in an extremely hard water area too, although investigating getting a softener.

I like the sound of the ginger shampoo but it's got salicylic acid in it, so if that's what I'm reacting to it won't help. I'll give it a whirl in the meantime, and a salt scrub.

My daughter had symptoms like yours and found [[https://www.boots.com/aveeno-skin-relief-soothing-shampoo-10210014
this]] shampoo to be very soothing

@hunibuni what shampoo do you use?

Oh treacle that's great! Aveeno is what I use on my horrible dry flaky skin but I didnt know they did a shampoo. Thanks for that

@CrazyCrunk I like the Noughty range in Superdrug.

Another vote for polytar - oddly enough both my sister and my dog had to use it at the same time about 20 years ago - can’t recall what on earth was wrong with the poor dog but sister had horrendous exczema - it worked miracles on both !

Friend also used to coat his head in olive oil and 50/50 when his eczema flared badly - I think when he was admitted to dermatology a couple of times they did that and it helped a lot . Being a guy though he had very short hair so it was a bit easier for him , I imagine .

If i don't use this my scalp gets very dry x

To be honest, if your scalp is flaking like this if you go straight for very moisturising products all you will be doing is gluing the dead skin to your head, where it will continue to flake off in varying amounts. The dermatologist I saw recommended a salicylic acid scalp treatment but I found the sea salt flakes (I use the Cornish ones in the plastic tub) did the job perfectly.

So basically, use the exfoliating product first and once/twice if absolutely necessary, then move onto the soothing/moisturising. Most of the products recommended on this thread fall into one or other of those categories. If I were you I would pick one of each, not two that will have the same effect.

Personally I've found my scalp is a lot happier now I'm using low-foam, no sulphates shampoos. Currently using the Charles Worthington Everyday Micellar one and really like it. L'Oreal also do one I've heard good reports of.

thanks for posting this OP. I have this, my scalp is sore sort of at the top/back of my head and I can feel lumps and sore bits. I wonder if it's where the very hard water we have here is hitting my head In the shower? Will try nizoral shampoo.

Sounds like my Aunties scalp, she had a terrible time, finallly ended up with Nutrogena T-gel shampoo, worked wonders.

I've just bought some T Gel as that's what the pharmacist recommended. Haven't tried it yet, but will report back!
I used a regular shampoo yesterday and the top of my scalp was fine but the hairline behind my ears was awful. I don't know how much the moisturising shampoo is just keeping the flakes from drying and falling off so I'm not using it every day. I'll try T gel twice a week and baby shampoo in between for now.

I second the ginger shampoo from body shop. I've tried Nizoral, tgel, eucerin, etc, they all seem to work(ish) for a while and then I would go back to square one. I've been using the ginger shampoo for almost two years now and it's amazing. Recently I've run out of it and couldn't get another bottle for a few days so used another shampoo for a week - my scalp flared up straight away and it went back to normal just after two washes with the ginger shampoo. Honestly, give it a go.

Long time scalp psoriasis sufferer here (yay). T-gel will sort you for now . You’ll then find it stops working after a few months, then will move onto Alphosyl, same thing will happen with that eventually.

I’m currently finding Phillip Kingsley itchy flaky scalp shampoo is doing the trick. Bloody expensive though.

Baby shampoo is useless for me.

Yes, I had problems with baby shampoo too. My skin flares up with it like crazy. Think it reacts to the sulphate?

Good luck OP.

Another thing that I have found helpful is a filter shower head.

It's like a brita filter, you can get replaceable cartridges for it and it gets rid of some of the hardness.

I'm head to toe in eczema and the difference it's made is drastic.

I have this one and it's the dogs bollocks
www.amazon.co.uk/YISSVIC-Showerhead-15-Stage-Replaceable-Cartridges/dp/B07DWPHZBD/ref=zg_bs_1938749031_1?psc=1&_encoding=UTF8&tag=mumsnetforum-21&refRID=SN7P2WZ10AJBEABFND0P

Saw the Gp today for an asthma flare (was hoping I'd be OK until my pre-booked appt next week but never mind)
I mentioned the crispy head issues
and said 'I know it's a minor issue' and she said 'oh it's never a minor issue if it's affecting your confidence. We can fix that easily' She took a look at my scalp and said she could see scales! So she's given me some betnovate which smells so strong! She said avoid anything with salicylic acid for now, and use a gentle shampoo every other day.
She has also finally referred me to the allergy clinic after my previous GP refused to do so for 6 years!

Oh billywig that looks amazing! I never knew such a thing existed, just assumed I'd have to bite the bullet and take out a loan for a water softener! Thanks for that

billywig that looks brilliant! How long do the cartridges last before needing to be changed?

DP had massive problems with his scalp, and it turned out he's sensitive to a preservative some shampoos have - Methyl..... zolinone.

Once we realised, we started buying shampoo, shower gel, liquid soap etc. without it, and it's like night and day! Turns out DC was probably affected too, because we checked all his creams (he got a sore face really easily in winter), and when we switched out the ones with this preservative his face dramatically improved too.

It's worth a look on the ingredients.

They last about three months with two of us getting showered daily and ds(5) two/three times a week .

They are a total game changer

That sounds exactly like my scalp psoriasis. Nothing really helps it sadly. Avoiding scented stuff stops it getting worse though.

Hi OP. I had something similar and was also given betnovate scalp application. The doctor said it was infected eczema. It cleared up in less than a week!