How do I effectively clean my scalp without ripping my fine hair to shreds?

[H.e.L]

Hello all, this is my first thread. It only took me years. I'm a lurker of the highest order, hahaha.

I've had several problems with growing long hair over the years. One is my mostly fine hair, which seems to break with every sneeze or mean look. Another was my cavalier disregard for anything resembling gentle handling and weirdly obsessive love of rough brushing. I also had a long struggle with pervasive scalp irritation which accelerated my shedding from ~30-50 per day to ~200 hairs a day.
I've made peace with/fixed all those issues systematically, and I've since defeated my erstwhile lifelong false terminal by changing to Indian herb shampoo, daily protective styles, and aggressively gentle handling.

So...YAY!!

However, my problem is that I now have an itchy scalp again because my new (necessary) gentle ways don't permit me to thoroughly clean my scalp.

I'm caught in a catch-22; give my scalp the brisk cleanings it apparently needs and lose a ton of my baby fine hair from the abuse, or don't clean my scalp well enough and lose a similar amount of hair from the resulting scalp irritation/follicle clogging.

My fellow fineys; how do you go about effectively cleaning your scalp without breaking your delicate hair to bits? Anyone else with advice is warmly welcomed to join in as well.
I'd very much appreciate the help!

-H.e.L

[maria_asa]

I have very fragile hair as well as a cranky scalp and what works for me is scalp washes every or every second day and full washes once a week. All the full washes are done as CWC with the first C being deep conditioning.

My scalp washing method is as follows:

- Gather all the hair in a ponytail (don't secure)
- Add a rolled up sock (like you can use for sock buns) around the base
- Wrap the length around my hand, slide the hand out and secure with a hair safe elastic (this is where you can adjust how tight against the scalp you want it)
- Wrap the whole thing, including the sock, in a plastic bag and secure with another elastic

When washing I usually apply a little bit of conditioner just by the plastic bag before shampooing to cut back on the small amount of damage that I got from securing the hair.

I also try to do a pre-wash oiling of the scalp, with eo infused oil, before every wash. I exercise nearly every day (hence the extra need for daily washing) so generally I oil my hair, put it up for exercising, do the exercise and then shower which gives the oils around 60-90 min to do their thing before being washed out.

[01]

So far egg yolk washes for me but it's drying over long term so I'm still looking. But it cleans my scalp more than shampoo and makes hair so shiny.

[lapushka]

Have you ever had your scalp looked at by a dermatologist. Strongly recommend that. There should be *no* need to aggressively or rough tackle anything to have a sense of normalcy on your head.

Do you have any flaking or redness? Dandruffy things happening? Oily scalp?

[H.e.L]

Thanks everyone for your replies!
Lapushka; I have not been to the dermatologist. But I have been successfully treating my scalp irritation with raw honey scalp masks. This treatment is supposed to be done every other day for a month, and I'm about halfway through that.
I used to have lots of sore spots and semi-constant itchiness all over my scalp, both of which have nearly completely disappeared since starting the honey masks. The only problem that seems to persist is the itching, (though as I said, that has been greatly reduced.)
My scalp is not oily. I only wash twice a week, concentrating on the scalp, with aritha and skikakai-based Indian herb tea. I'd wash less, but my itchiness generally tends to increase if I do that. Not sure if that's true post treatment.
I do have a decent amount of flaking, but only if I rub/manipulate my scalp a lot, and it's white in color. No yellow. Since you asked, I can easily "make it snow" if I lightly scratch then shake my head. (Sorry if TMI.)
To clarify, I don't think the scalp cleaning itself is technically that rough. I just have very delicate hair and my scalp is sensitive/delicate enough that manipulating it so directly causes a decent amount of hair fall.
Any further thoughts?

[lapushka]

Lapushka; I have not been to the dermatologist. But I have been successfully treating my scalp irritation with raw honey scalp masks. This treatment is supposed to be done every other day for a month, and I'm about halfway through that.
I used to have lots of sore spots and semi-constant itchiness all over my scalp, both of which have nearly completely disappeared since starting the honey masks. The only problem that seems to persist is the itching, (though as I said, that has been greatly reduced.)
My scalp is not oily. I only wash twice a week, concentrating on the scalp, with aritha and skikakai-based Indian herb tea. I'd wash less, but my itchiness generally tends to increase if I do that. Not sure if that's true post treatment.
I do have a decent amount of flaking, but only if I rub/manipulate my scalp a lot, and it's white in color. No yellow. Since you asked, I can easily "make it snow" if I lightly scratch then shake my head. (Sorry if TMI.)
To clarify, I don't think the scalp cleaning itself is technically that rough. I just have very delicate hair and my scalp is sensitive/delicate enough that manipulating it that directly causes a decent amount of hair fall.
Any further thoughts?

If you need to wash more than once a week, the scalp is oily. Normal is if you can go a week, and longer than that is dry. That's what my childhood hairdresser told me, anyway.

I'd go consult with a doctor. Scalp health is *very* important if you don't want to lose the hair; and you might even need a medicated shampoo.

I'm all for natural remedies if they actually work, but this is leading you nowhere fast IMMHO. :flower:

[H.e.L]

Lapushka;
Hmm, good to know! I was thinking you were only oily if you had to wash every, or nearly every day.
Ok, if my itchiness isn't completely fixed by the end of the treatment (about a week and a half from now) I'll go ahead and see the dermatologist.
Thank you very much for your help! :) @->

[spidermom]

I get occasional flares of seborrheic dermatitis on my scalp. Keeping my scalp clean and not allowing hours of wet hair (not a problem in the summer) are absolute musts to keep my scalp healthy and happy.

I start by thoroughly combing then brushing my hair in the direction I will wash it, either standing upright with my hair falling naturally or bending forward with my hair falling toward my feet. Then I step into the shower and wet my hair. I almost always add my shampoo to warm water in a squirt bottle, shake well, and apply in stripes directly to the scalp. Then I either make a combing motion over my scalp with my fingers or a shower comb until I've massaged my entire scalp in this way. Rinse, condition, done.

I've had to use medicated shampoo during very occasional bad flares, and I used the same method except that I left the solution on my scalp longer before rinsing.

[H.e.L]

Spidermom;
I like the sound of this technique! Sounds gentle enough for my wimpy hair, haha. (What's your shampoo-to-water ratio? Halfsies? Less? Also, do you blow dry when your scalp is likely to stay wet for a long time? My hair stays damp after showers for hours.)
If it turns out I have to use "real" shampoo or medicated shampoo to fix my issues, I'll be sure to give this a try.
Thank you for the advice!

[lithostoic]

Try using a scalp scrubber instead of your fingers. I imagine you can be really gentle with those and still get all the gunk.

[H.e.L]

lithostoic;
Good thought! You know, I might actually have a rubber one from way back. I'll try that, thanks!

[01]

I have white flakes too but usually they don't fall. Like I said, egg yolk, and no other herbs worked. You can also do sugar or salt peeling before washing. Or cinnamon dry shampoo, works like peeling too and very refreshing.

[spidermom]

Spidermom;
I like the sound of this technique! Sounds gentle enough for my wimpy hair, haha. (What's your shampoo-to-water ratio? Halfsies? Less? Also, do you blow dry when your scalp is likely to stay wet for a long time? My hair stays damp after showers for hours.)
If it turns out I have to use "real" shampoo or medicated shampoo to fix my issues, I'll be sure to give this a try.
Thank you for the advice!

I think my ratio is about twice to 2/3 as much water as shampoo. I really don't pay a lot of attention to how much. Sometimes the first application is too diluted and doesn't produce suds at all, so I repeat, but that doesn't happen very often. The stronger the shampoo, the less you have to use in relationship to the warm water. I do use a blow dryer when the weather is colder and my hair takes hours to dry otherwise. My doc told me that the more time my scalp spends wet, the more likely I am to have a flare of SD.

[H.e.L]

Thank you, everyone, for your replies! I have been using my rubber scalp brush as vigorously as I dare for the last wash or two.

And guess what? My scalp itchiness has gone from frequent flare-ups during the day, every day, to virtually nonexistent! I guess at least part of my problem was that I was too scared of offending my fine-ness (my previous poor brushing habits have made me quite paranoid about breaking my hair.) So I most likely just wasn't cleaning my scalp well enough.

I also credit a good bit of my success to the raw honey scalp masks, which have almost completely eliminated the constant batches of sore spots I used to have peppered across my scalp. (I still have a week left of treatment to finish, so they'll probably be eliminated completely by the time I'm done.) Additionally I have revived my previous habit of daily scalp massaging/bbb'ing from when I tried WO, which of course also helps a lot with scalp maintenance.

One of the reasons I stopped SO/WO was that my scalp irritation made so much brushing lead to a TON of hair fall.
In the last couple days I've been losing a fraction of the hair I used to. I've gone from losing 150-200 hairs (depending on the day and level of hair manipulation) to 20-50, (with a negligible increase in average hair fall on wash days.)

Of course, time will tell if this will be a permanent improvement or temporary fix. But, said improvement has been so dramatic, I will be shocked if my new scalp regimen (thorough scalp cleaning every wash, once weekly raw honey scalp mask to stave off SD, same old Indian herb tea shampoo), doesn't allow me to maintain this new low shed rate and near lack of itchiness.

I am so happy to have this issue resolved! :)!!

Thank you all again for your help!