Seem to have developed the driest scalp in the world - help

[CarGirl]

I have suddenly developed really severe dandruff, scalp is very dry.

I've tried washing my hair more often and not washing it very often at all. Hair is not greasy, don't use products, no life style change.

Any ideas what I can do?

Will be watching this thread with interest to try to pick up some tips. Am going through the same thing. It doesn't appear to be dandruff though just really dry and flaky skin. It is horrible especially as the kids are going through another nit epidemic. Ours is not a happy hair house at the moment

Nope I don't think I've changed shampoo - agree it's dry and flakey rather than little dots.

I do remember someone telling me about SLS free products can you recommend any?

Also will be watching in case there are good tips! For SLS free I have a shampoo called something like 84% Aloe Vera by a company called JASON. Got it in a health food shop.

I can recommend Aveda Scalp Remedy...

Oooopps hadn't finished posting.
It's not a shampoo, it's a treatment, it's quite pricey but lasts ages!

I do the curly girl method (only washing with conditioner). Ive always had itchy flaky scalp issues - what has really really helped mine is using anti dandruff conditioner and sitting with it on hair once or twice a week for a good ten minutes. Really work it into the scalp. I remembered seeing on one of those embarrassing bodies programmes that someone had dreadful dandruff so they told her this, to leave anti dandruff shampoo/conditioner in, for a few minutes and to really work it in to the scalp as otherwise the active ingredients dont have time to work. Has definitely helped me!

Okay I'll come completely clean!

I used to use selsun which I've googled and doesn't contain SLS! I stopped using it when I ran out as it's mega bucks. I used this to stop my hair getting greasy at the roots because I object to washing it more than every 5 days

So I came up with the idea of stopping washing my hair going through the greasy root stage and seeing what happened. Interestingly hair hasn't gone greasy.

But now the flakey skin thing has happened.

Which conditioners are good for the curly girl method, only my hair just has the odd kink rather than curls

Could some of this been linked to hormones btw?

Can you give me the brief curly girl method because that thread is sooooooooooo long

just another voice against SLS.Also, I have had health-store people tell me that Ammonium Laurel Sulfate isn't as nasty. It absolutely is.

DH has v dry scalp (and eyebrows and side burns - anywhere with hair really) and his skin will come off in sheets when really aggravated. He has been using no shampoo and washing with the original source tea tree & mint conditioner only for the last three years or so and it has done him a world of good. He used all the really fancy anti-dandruff products and they would work for a couple of weeks and then stop. Going shampoo-free has worked better for him than any anti-dandruff product on the market. So there is hope :)

Naked has really good "curly girl" method products. The grapefruit conditioner smells fantastic in the morning

Tea tree oil is a good natural remedy for dandruff, but needs to be in concentration greater than 5% to be effective. Most beauty products are 3-4%. DH keeps a spot-treatment concoction of 9 parts vit-e oil + 1 part tea tree that he applies if he sees any bad spots. DH likes the strong mint conditioner because it "feels clean"

Look at me, airing all DH's embarassing dandruff to the internet

Curly Girl Method:

1 - No (or very little) shampoo. If you must shampoo, no sulfates

2 - No products with silicone. There is debate about which silicones are ok, but dimethicone in particular is in everything and it's bad. This is due to #1. Silicones aren't soluble in water so they won't wash out without very strong shampoo.

3 - No/low heat styling.

Some advocate 'plopping' and you can find lots of videos about it on youtube. I don't find I get good results and so I just clip up the hair around my crown and diffuse-dry.

There are some finer points, but that's the gist of it. I find now that my healthy hair is growing out, ALL the products I used to know and love are too heavy for my hair, so the heavy, creamy conditioners I used to pay lots of money for make my hair greasy now

I am really confused, do I use conditioner then or not

If so which conditioners can I use that are readily available in Tesco and the like.

I don't need to dry my hair so that's not an issue it's just finding a conditioner, I think?

okay garnier fructis is on the shopping list for tonight!

no garnier fructis in Tesco