Help with curly hair, dandruff?

[Oskimosa]

Hubby's been growing out his hair. He's got a lovely head of dark 3a/m/ii hair, but as it gets longer and shows his curls, it's been incredibly dry on the ends. No wonder, he uses regular Suave shampoo and nothing else. Maybe some gel or a pea-sized bit of leave-in to control frizzies.

I talked to him about the CG method a few days ago, since a member posted a link great blog article about it recently (can't remember who) and he liked the sound of it since he hates how dry the ends are. He started it that night, and now he's got some serious dandruff. He already had a bit, but now its getting crazy. Is it dry scalp from all the sulfates? He's CO'ing with a Suave Naturals condish, there's no odor to his scalp, but it itches like crazy for him. The ends are also still dry, although somewhat better than before. Previously his scalp was very oily too, and he had to wash daily.

I have NO idea how to care for curly hair; before him, I've never personally known someone who has it. I've tried reading up on it, but... I'm at a loss for troubleshooting like this. Any suggestions for him? TIA!! :)

[TheEndlessOcean]

Well, I've been COing with Suave Naturals for a long time. I don't have dandruff and my scalp only itches on days after I use shampoo on my scalp. My guess is that his scalp just needs to adjust to the new regimen and when it does he'll be fine. I don't know how long it'd take from experience, since I haven't regularly used shampoo in years, but it probably shouldn't be more than a few weeks.

As for the ends still being dry, I find that my hair just needs tons and tons of moisture to be happy. Generally I'll load my hair up with conditioner in the shower, detangle and scrub my scalp, rinse it out, then put a bit more conditioner on my canopy (which tends to be drier) and rinse that out halfway. Then when I get out of the shower I put in leave-in conditioner, then some jojoba oil over that. It took some experimenting to arrive at the right proportions, but it works well for me. Oh, and it's important not to comb or otherwise touch it too much while it's drying, or it turns into fluff, for me anyway.

Hope that helps a little bit, good luck :)

[Dreams_in_Pink]

itching and dandruff sounds like a sulfate problem. dandruff alone can be caused by many things, but if it's followed by itching that means his scalp was irritated. Does that conditioner have sulfates?

I don't have curly hair, but oiling the ends might make it feel nicer maybe?

[Roseate]

Is he making sure to massage his scalp all over while COing, and then to rinse the scalp very well? If I slack off on either the scrubbing or the rinsing, my scalp is not happy at all with CO. It takes much more work to get the scalp clean with CO, if he's used to just a quick lather-and-rinse it will be a big change.

And CO alone wasn't enough to solve my dry ends, either; I need to follow up with a thicker conditioner, and then a leave-in (much more than a pea, even at short lengths), and possibly a touch of oil/butter on the ends, too. The more the merrier. Also, adding the leave-in while my hair is still soaking wet helps retain more moisture for me.

[Oskimosa]

TheEndlessOcean, thanks for the advice! I guess it's to early to expect his scalp to adjust. I was thinking the COing would immediately soothe it. I will try to help him hang in there for now. Maybe let him try out some of my hair oils?

Dreams_in_Pink You're probably right. About the sulfates, I didn't see any in the ingredients list. And another suggestion for oiling the ends, I'm getting convinced here..

Roseate, I will have to tell him this! Do you use a special "leave-in" conditioner, or just anything? As for oiling soaking wet, I've never done that myself! I always figured if I blot dry after applying the oil, I'd be rubbing off all the oil (and redistributing it to my skin) But.. I guess curlies don't towel their hair so there's no worry about that? It doesn't run off when you squeeze out the water?

[Roseate]

Roseate, I will have to tell him this! Do you use a special "leave-in" conditioner, or just anything? As for oiling soaking wet, I've never done that myself! I always figured if I blot dry after applying the oil, I'd be rubbing off all the oil (and redistributing it to my skin) But.. I guess curlies don't towel their hair so there's no worry about that? It doesn't run off when you squeeze out the water?

I personally use Karen's Body Beautiful Hair Nectar (http://www.karensbodybeautiful.com/product_p/1008.htm), which I love. But I know other LHC folks that just use some of their regular conditioner with good results, so he could try that first and see how it goes.

As far as applying soaking wet, I do lose some product as I squeeze out the water, but it gets distributed so much better and gives me better results, so I just go with it. After I get out of the shower, I hang my dripping wet head back in the shower, and scrunch my leave-ins into my hair, so that I'm adding conditioner as I squeeze water out with my hands. Then I do the 'plopping' thing for a while, that soaks up more water without rubbing off the conditioner. Old t-shirts are great for that.

[Crazy Diamond]

The itching and dandruff may not be a sulfate problem at all. I too have a very sensitive scalp which is why CG won't work for me. Conditioner makes my scalp (and face) itchy and swollen, dandruff gets worse. It's always been like this with every conditioner I ever tried. I simply need to be very careful when applying conditioner, so I won't get anything on my skin. I wash my scalp with deluted shampoo with mild tensides.