Need advice for no-washing just scritching hair care

[ReptilianFeline]

My hubby has a psoriasis type of build-up on his scalp. He used to alleviate the build-up and itchyness with a steroid type solution, but the local GP decided that it wasn't good in the long run and said he needed to see a dermatologist. We don't have one locally and my hubby has a very low fixed income and just didn't feel he had the money for that, so he just kind of gave up. He is also prone to migranes and all sorts of things, so he takes it easy if he can.

His hair is nice flowy, fine somewhat wavy, about bra-strap lenght (funny for a guy) and he uses a soft bandana to keep it out of his eyes when going outside unless it's raining or winter. He doesn't cut it, it just stays the same lenght, probalby from how he brushes it... a bit hard with a paddle brush. When he washes it, he never uses a conditioner because he says he doesn't need to. We both switshed to a sulfate free shampoo a few years ago, and for a while he felt a differense on his scalp and he liked the shampoo.

A few weeks ago he told me he hadn't washed it for over a year. I was a bit surprised at that, but it made sense... I hadn't seen his hair towel wet in quite a while. He told me he will scratch at the buildup flakes when the itchyness became too much and peal away and break up the flakes with his fingernails. Then he'll shake the flakes out of his hair and brush it. The flakes were spreading now, more over his scalp than before, but for some reason he no longer had any in his beard. He said he ahd been thinking of washing his hair, but the hair didn't smell or feel dirty so he wasn't sure if he had the energy to do it anyways. I told him not to wash it, that scritching was "a thing" and that I would ask for advice here on what to do.

So... any tips? I think he needs to be more regular and methodical in his scritching, and maybe use a tool?
Would an application of aloe vera gel be helpful? Anything else to do?
I would ask him to use neem oil, but I'm sure the smell will give him one hell of a headache.
I have moved on from sulfate free shampoos, to chickpea flour and herbs, but I don't think it's for him... at least not yet anyways. It's too much work for someone with headaches and low levels of patience.
As I said, the hair seems fine, but the scalp needs help, and if there is a no water, scritching method to use, he is already there, just needs guidance to the best way of doing it.

[embee]

Why don't you check out the NW/SO thread? It's been going a LONG TIME!

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=144

[Kat]

How thick is his hair? I wonder if some version of what I think is called a "shampoo brush" (https://www.google.com.sg/search?q=shampoo+brush&dcr=0&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiMj8LrnsbYAhVKQY8KHfToD0sQ_AUICigB&biw=1920&bih=848) (link to Google Image Search) might help? I used to use one before washing to break up flakes from seborrheic dermatitis. Some of them have pretty short bristles and it might be hard to get them down to the scalp (I had this issue with the cheap one I had), but others look longer.

[Reyn127]

Hi there! In my experience, it's hard to go without shampoo unless you are in some way exfoliating your scalp, which it sounds like he is doing. Has he made a routine about it, or does he just scritch when he feels he needs to? I think that doing it consistently helps keep things under control. Maybe getting a boar bristle brush, or even a good comb for scritching (like a wide tooth wood comb), will help a bit.

Also, this may just be me personally, but a lot of scritching can sometimes make the flakes WORSE for me. Like my scalp gets irritated by all the scratching, and just flakes worse. A lot of the time these days I will do a LOT of preening (rubbing with fingertips, not scritching with nails) to get blood flowing and the flakes looser, and then I'll do a tiny bit of scritching to finish off. This may be totally counterproductive with psoriasis spots, but it may be worth trying out.

And, DO check out the NW/SO thread that embee linked, it's long but it has a bunch of tips.

[lapushka]

He must really be doing a good job of it if you hadn't noticed. If I leave my hair alone for 1week+ it smells; honestly, it does. My mom however can leave her hair alone for a month and it won't smell at all!

I say good on him, and if it works, why mess with it. I would also read through the thread mentioned upthread, plenty of info already there at your fingertips! HTH

Good luck!

[valkyrie90]

He must really be doing a good job of it if you hadn't noticed. If I leave my hair alone for 1week+ it smells; honestly, it does. My mom however can leave her hair alone for a month and it won't smell at all!

I say good on him, and if it works, why mess with it. I would also read through the thread mentioned upthread, plenty of info already there at your fingertips! HTH

Good luck!

Ahh my hair smells too ! I can deal with the oiliness just fine but the smell is another story . And still I plan to go SO for a good two months. Guess I also need luck. Ahh...

[lapushka]

Ahh my hair smells too ! I can deal with the oiliness just fine but the smell is another story . And still I plan to go SO for a good two months. Guess I also need luck. Ahh...

If you cleanse the hair and it still smells, you're going to have to do something else than whatever it is you're doing. It is not supposed to smell at all.

My hair only smells if I go beyond the week, like I had to this time around due to New Years falling on a Sunday, me having to wash on a few Saturdays instead of Sundays. But if I just leave it for a week and then immediately wash, it's fine.

[embee]

Ahh my hair smells too ! I can deal with the oiliness just fine but the smell is another story . And still I plan to go SO for a good two months. Guess I also need luck. Ahh...

My hair smelled strange and felt pretty obnoxious early in NW/SO, a sort of waxy stiff feeling, but I pushed on through, brushing and combing morning and night, wearing my hair up to hide any funny look. Now I find my hair smells like my hair, not funky, and feels soft and smooth.

If I need to cut the static in winter I have an extremely diluted perfume (in an old perfume spray bottle) which I can spritz onto my hair or updo. The scent fades quickly, but cuts the static in winter weather. I think I either washed or rinsed all my hair sometime last spring or summer and was sorry I'd done so.

NW/SO is not for everyone. I could not have done it when young, I was a walking greaseball.

[shaluwm_agape]

Tamanu oil may work. Not sure how he feels about oiling but try thay or activated charcoal!

[Gem]

As mentioned upthread, he may just need to work on his scritching technique. I did SO for a year and a half, and I noticed that my scritching needs changed a lot according to the weather. Humid weather or steam (like from a shower) meant more scritching or else I'd end up with gunk and an irritated scalp.
I miss that routine a lot! It was the healthiest and prettiest my hair has ever been, and all my routine tweaks have been to get back to that level of hair and scalp health. I hope he finds what works!

[valkyrie90]

If you cleanse the hair and it still smells, you're going to have to do something else than whatever it is you're doing. It is not supposed to smell at all.

My hair only smells if I go beyond the week, like I had to this time around due to New Years falling on a Sunday, me having to wash on a few Saturdays instead of Sundays. But if I just leave it for a week and then immediately wash, it's fine.

My freshly-washed hair doesn't smell . It starts to smell funky from day 4 onward but I push on through to day 7 . The smell seems to get less and less horrid as I stretch wash but still .


My hair smelled strange and felt pretty obnoxious early in NW/SO, a sort of waxy stiff feeling, but I pushed on through, brushing and combing morning and night, wearing my hair up to hide any funny look. Now I find my hair smells like my hair, not funky, and feels soft and smooth.

If I need to cut the static in winter I have an extremely diluted perfume (in an old perfume spray bottle) which I can spritz onto my hair or updo. The scent fades quickly, but cuts the static in winter weather. I think I either washed or rinsed all my hair sometime last spring or summer and was sorry I'd done so.

NW/SO is not for everyone. I could not have done it when young, I was a walking greaseball.

How long did it take to your hair to reach the point where it smells like hair and looks nice . I have been doing no poo with herb and only wash my hair once a week so I reallyyy really wanna try SO and hopefully the transition wouldn't be so brutal .

[Kat]

This may be totally counterproductive with psoriasis spots, but it may be worth trying out.
.

Possibly. My mom found with her psoriasis that any damaged skin areas tended to turn into psoriasis. Get a scratch or scrape, get a new spot of psoriasis. Probably because psoriasis is an overgrowth of skin cells anyway, so if the skin is damaged and stimulated to heal, the overgrowth is also stimulated? She figured part of the reason some of her patches of it kept growing were if she pulled the flakes off or scratched it and pulled a tiny bit past the edge of the psoriasis spot...damaging that skin... which became psoriasis... and then next time it happened it would go a bit further... etc. (It's also why she's never had tattoos or piercings, even when she's wanted to.) Not sure if that held true when she had it on her scalp as well. But if that's the case for a person, then it is true that maybe over-scritching and damaging the skin underneath/to the edges might make the psoriasis worse. But, doing it gently as you do might be okay, and if he doesn't seem to have issues with his method, it might be all right too.



If you cleanse the hair and it still smells, you're going to have to do something else than whatever it is you're doing. It is not supposed to smell at all.


I still have issues with mine sometimes. Take last night. I wash three times a week: Tuesday and Thursday after workouts (it's sweat that makes my hair stink so badly; if it weren't for sweat I'd have to not wash for probably 1.5-2 weeks or more to get a smell and it still wouldn't be as bad as the sweat smell) as a CO wash followed by a light lather with a gentle shampoo (the conditioner seems to help take care of some of the oil and sweat, and the shampoo is just to try to finish off anything left over), and then Saturday or Sunday with a sulfate-containing shampoo. Last night I used a clarifying shampoo with sulfates and did a vinegar rinse... I could still smell a bad smell on my hair after my shower (luckily it's not nearly as bad once my hair dries). Nasty. If scrubbing with plenty of a sulfate clarifying shampoo isn't enough, I'm not sure what else is left beyond sulfuric acid! (Even cutting my hair wouldn't help, since it's my head/neck that sweat and those areas that really smell bad, so I could have a buzz cut and technically possibly still get the smell...)

[lapushka]

My freshly-washed hair doesn't smell . It starts to smell funky from day 4 onward but I push on through to day 7 . The smell seems to get less and less horrid as I stretch wash but still .

Oh OK then I misunderstood you, sorry for that! :o :flower: Mine starts to get oily day 5ish, and I wait until day 7 to wash as well, by that time yes it gets that sebum-y smell. But that's like only the last day or so, and then it needs washing anyway. So, I'm not too bothered. You shouldn't be either. I think that's just a normal way to go if you stretch your washes a bit. :)

[embee]

How long did it take to your hair to reach the point where it smells like hair and looks nice . I have been doing no poo with herb and only wash my hair once a week so I reallyyy really wanna try SO and hopefully the transition wouldn't be so brutal .

If I could remember I'd tell you, but it's been a long time and I've forgotten. If I were you I'd try to push through in cold weather, as the greasies are usually less then. Because of static you may need to spritz or run your wet hands over your hair.

I never did scritching or preening, but I did a lot of brushing with a Denman brush - the "bristles" are tough plastic/nylon like rather comb teeth, set in a rubber base so there is some give. it is said that boar bristles are best, but that's not what I had.

Be aware that I do not wear my hair loose, always in a bun of some sort. Also, I am old and my sebum and oiliness level has diminished a lot over the years.

[ReptilianFeline]

Thank you all for your advice, and please continue your discussions! I will look into the thread mentioned. I thought there might be a thread or two about it, but honestly didn't know what it was called, so the link is highly appreciated.
Shampoo brush, I did stumble across that earlier and bought a brush in the pet store that looked kind of like the one I then found during a google search, but that was no longer available. I use it in the shower when I work my homemade shampoo into the scalp a bit better. I will google some more on the subject. :)

[lapushka]

Thank you all for your advice, and please continue your discussions! I will look into the thread mentioned. I thought there might be a thread or two about it, but honestly didn't know what it was called, so the link is highly appreciated.
Shampoo brush, I did stumble across that earlier and bought a brush in the pet store that looked kind of like the one I then found during a google search, but that was no longer available. I use it in the shower when I work my homemade shampoo into the scalp a bit better. I will google some more on the subject. :)

Look at a few YTers that do hair, they often have coupon codes for the Vanity Planet shampoo brush, at 50% off (still costing you 20 dollars). It vibrates though, that one.