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Mya
January 26th, 2014, 06:05 AM
Hi. :rolleyes:

A few weeks ago I had an allergic reaction to a new shampoo I had tried for three weeks (once per week). And it was very diluted too! Like, one part of shampoo and eleven of water. I believed it had the right ingredients (ALES, as my scalp doesn't tolerate sodium sulphates), but reality told me otherwise. I got the confirmation that L'Oreal really is junk. Lesson learned: I will stick with my favorite shampoo forever, no more experiments.

Towards the end of Christmas holidays, my scalp all of sudden started itching, it hurt like someone was constantly pulling it, it became very oily and a bit dandruffy (I used to NEVER get one single scale of dandruff before the experiment). I went back to my usual shampoo next time I washed my hair, but my scalp isn't back to its optimal condition yet: it gets oily a bit too fast (is used to get barely oily on the 6th day after wash, now it does on the 4th) and, when it does, it also produces some dandruff scales.

But the worst thing of it all is that I lost at least half centimeter of ponytail circumference! :boohoo: :boohoo: :boohoo:

It is now barely between 9 and 9.5 centimeters, and a few weeks ago it was between 9.5 and 10 centimeters, almost iii!

It's particularly frustrating since my hair has been gradually growing back for the last couple of years, recovering from dye damage, and I really hoped to make it into the iii relatively soon. I feel like I had a setback just a step from victory! :sad

Has a reaction like that ever happened to you? Does it grow back? Well, I should know it grows back, but I feel so disappointed. I guess I just want to be reassured and cuddled. :shrug:

schnibbles
January 26th, 2014, 06:35 AM
Sorry this happened to you. :-(
Have you clarified since the L'oreal mishap? That may help in getting your scalp back to where it needs to be.
Sometimes I get atopic dermatitis from fragrances in products. I have to be really careful, so I know how you feel. I've never lost hair over it (at least I don't think so) but I hate that feeling of knowing that there's a ton of stuff out there that I can't use because I know it will only give me problems.
At least you caught it early. I think most people have natural "shed stages" where it wouldn't be uncommon to lose a half of a centimeter.

Brattina88
January 26th, 2014, 06:37 AM
:( me!

I had a true allergic reaction to a shampoo. I had the exact same symptoms as you, and benedryl helped. I've read aloe could help but I read that months later so I never tried it myself. See, I am allergic to tree nuts and I didn't think to read the ingredients all the way down and it had almond oil in it, so I'm thinking that must be it...
My hair did grow back, to the same thickness. It's even thicker now that I've learned proper hair care from the forums. I'm so sorry you had to deal with this! I hope your scalp feels better soon! ((((Hugs)))

Mya
January 26th, 2014, 08:11 AM
schnibbles: Thank you. :) I never really "clarify". I mean, I have never used a clarifying shampoo for two reasons. First, there are only two shampoos on the market that won't irritate my scalp, and none of them is labeled as clarifying. Second, I have never needed to clarify. I can put any amount of junk on my hair, even cover it with hair wax, then I go with a squirt of my diluted shampoo and, voila, it gets as clean as paradise, as if it was clarified. Never in my life I have experienced buildup. I guess I have anti-buildup hair. :) In other words, clarifying shampoos are just too strong for both my scalp and hair. The more delicate and more diluted my shampoo is, the better my scalp does.

Brattina88: Reading your reply made me feel better. :) I didn't know aloe vera could help, but now I will try it. Thanks for suggesting!

I really don't know what caused my allergic reaction. I'm quite careful reading ingredients because I know my scalp is picky, and since there was ALES (that is in both shampoos my scalp likes) and no other sulphates (which my scalp hates) I beleved it could be okay. One thing for sure is I can't trust L'Oreal. I used a L'Oreal shampoo on my pre-LHC days and it gave me terrible dandruff and oil overproduction. I believed that it was normal, until I found LHC and changed shampoo and routine. My hair and scalp changed for the better almost overnight. Also, I started to gain a lot of thickness back.

veryhairyfairy
January 26th, 2014, 10:02 AM
Goodness, just days ago I figured out that my shampoo has an ingredient that I'm allergic to, I'm sorry this has happened to you as well! I've been having an unheard of (for me) rash of acne on my back, chest, and hairline for months, as well as dandruff (I've also never had so much as a flake before recently), and increased shedding. I finally traced it to a new shampoo that I've been using for the last six months... it's just finally reached the critical stage where I can't NOT notice my bad skin! It makes me frustrated that I was attributing the acne on my back to stress for so long when I could have stopped it!

I'm totally at fault in my case, though, because I figured that a naturally derived sulfate far down on the ingredient list would be fine. Now I know, and I'm going out to buy my tried and true favorite shampoo today!
I'm glad you figured out the problem, things will only improve now that you know! :)