Dry ends and Itchy Scalp

[natural80]

I have been battling an itchy scalp for years. I have tried tea tree, peppermint, neem, and sulfur. The sulfur helps, but it smells. Plus, it dries my hair out. Right now, I shampoo my hair with a sulfate 'poo when I get the itchies and use a protein (silicone) or V05 or Suave to condition. I have tried co-washing, but my hair felt dry. I was thinking that I should try the conditioner wash method or use a low-poo with no sulfates like Elasta QP conditioning creme shampoo. My ends are dried out from shampooing so much. I might have to cut them. Does anyone have any advice?

[natural80]

bumping post

[rowie]

Have you tried henna? I just hennaed my hair and I feel like my scalp is in better shape as well as my hair. If you do try henna make sure it's body art quality free of pesticides and chemicals. Good luck! Google henna and see the benefits it has on hair and scalp.

[Kelikea]

I battled an itchy, flaky, scabby scalp for years!!! I've found that almost all shampoo bothers me, sulfate and sulfate-free. I got it under control by using BS wash/ACV rinse for 1 month, then switching to CO when my ends got dry. Also, once every other week, I rub castor oil on my scalp, leave on for an hour-several hours, CWC to get it out. I like VO5 vanilla mint tea conditioner and the deep moisture mane and tail. I use aloe and oils(almond, sunflower, castor) in between COs to moisturize my ends and then use an organic shampoo maybe once a month if I get too oily/greasy. Hope this helps! You can PM me if you like.

[MinderMutsig]

If CO isn't working for you and shampoo dries out your ends I'd give CWC a try. You put conditioner on the length and then shampoo the scalp only. (you could use diluted shampoo)
Rinse. Put some more conditioner in from the ears down and let that sit for a while. Rinse again.
Done.

It might be worth visiting a doctor about your scalp. Maybe there is something more going on.


For me itchies were caused by a dry scalp. CO and regular oiling as a pre-wash scalp treatment took care of it.

[danacc]

See a doctor about your itching scalp, especially if there is scaling, flakes, or redness, too. It sounds severe.

CWC (condition-wash-condition) works well for me. I use diluted shampoo for the scalp wash. For the dryness, try oiling a little bit when your hair is damp. Pre-wash oil treatments work for me, too, but it took a lot of experimenting to figure out how to get soft-but-not-oily.

[lookingglass]

I had an itchy flakey scalp for years, too. Henna, going cone free, and using a creamy leave in, aloe, and coconut oil have given me a healthy scalp and happy, long shiny hair.

[natural80]

Thanks ladies! :) I have never tried henna. I have been interested in trying it, but I just push it to the side. I decided to cut my dry ends. :( I didn't want to, but it had to be done. I'm going to take the advice you ladies have given to me. I'm going to try CWC. I'm going cone less after I do my last clarify. I was considering purchasing baking soda instead of a Suave to clarify. I could put some baking soda into my regular 'poo. I tried Vatika oil in the past and I didn't like that much. I don't know about regular coconut oil. I always used evoo. Since I have kinky and curly hair, I have to moisturize and seal. I heard that coconut oil can be used as both.

As for the itchiness, I have no flakes or redness. I have one or two bumps from scratching my head.

[WinterButterfly]

How lonh have you had this going on? You might check for headlice. They can cause lots of itchyness and they don't usually have flakes involved. If lice is the case, I heard you could kill them with a 3 hour olive oil soak, the use vinegar to get eggs unstuck. Then comb it out like mad. Bug spray everything and wash everything. Repeate every 4 to 5 days for 21 days. Hope you don't have lice though. They are hard to get rid of.

[Safira]

I would try aloe vera in to your scalp. It moisturizes and calm down.
For ends I would try oiling. Mist your ends with water, then oil. It helps a lot!

[natural80]

I doubt if I have lice. I have always had an itchy scalp. It used to be real bad when I was younger. I had flakes too. When I use to get my hair relaxed, the itchiness would go away. Now, since I'm natural, it's coming back without the flakes.

This is what I did today. I clarified with Suave daily clarifier (2x) and then conditioned with Suave strawberry for 10 minutes. I used a glycerin mixed product without 'cones or sulfates and used shea butter oil that I got from the BSS.

[pepperminttea]

I'd definitely see your doctor, just in case. This sounds a lot like my scalp; I've had scalp psoriasis since around age 11 (or at least, that's when it was diagnosed). It's well worth getting it checked out.

[natural80]

I know I was shampooing with sulfates almost every day. I have been doing this for the past year.

[WinterButterfly]

My husband and I have been working hard to controll his psoriasis. Today we did a soal of olive oil for an hour and then a vinegar honey rinse followed by a sulphate free shampoo followed by a good runnung conditioner. He has less than half the flakeyness that he had before.
You could be allergic to some of the ingredients. If you are allergic to an herb and it is in your shampoo, it would be likely that your scalp would react. I might suggest simple two to four ingredient home remedies for hair cleansing. See how you react to each ingredient. Remember to comb your hair to distribute oils. This will help with dryness. I find that my hair doesn't like oils and conditioners. But my scalp feels so dry right after wash day. But a little but of conditioner or oil rubbed on my scalp helps. (I get really bad dry skin if I don't use lotions and the like)
I also noticed that the texture of my dyed hair feels better than my natural hair. I don't have as much scalp irritation. Maybe something like henna would help. Maybe a dye that is close to your natural color that can add to the outside to make it feel different. (Semi perminent dye). Though I would like to add that I find naturally curly hair to be absolutely beautiful. (Yes, even the fro. Mine doesn't like to hold much more than a braidwave... I have curl envy. Do not take away your curl!)

[Yosha]

If you don't know what's causing the dryness and itchiness you could check with your doctor. Mine was caused by the SL(E)S in the shampoos I used and I suspect my skin needs some more acidic stuff to be balanced (when your skin is not balanced you can be prone to fungus infections etc). I went SL(E)S free and the problem resolved itself, just under stress it's not enough. I do vinegar rinses too sometimes and I'm looking into co-washing. For the dry ends you could do SMTs and seal the moisture with the shea butter you got (or maybe any oil you can find), but I think you are already doing that:p If I do prewash scalp treatments, I use castor and almond oil with lavender eo (it's not as harsh as tea tree eo). I'd stay away from the baking soda if I were you, it could throw your skin off balance since it's quite alkaline (but if you do try it, always do a vinegar rinse afterwards).

[Blond On Blond]

Cassia has anti-fungal and antimicrobial properties. In any case, it won't hurt to try it out.

[natural80]

It's hard to find good SLS free shampoo. I have tried Aubrey Organics and Giovanni and they dried my hair out more than sulfate shampoo. I also tried Organix and it did the same. I used the tea tree brand for Giovanni and Organix and for AO it was for an itchy scalp, but it was too drying. The only sls free shampoos I have used that were not drying was Shea Moisture (yellow) and Elasta QP conditioning creme shampoo. I tried the SM african black soap shampoo and it was horrible.

@Winter I'm going to look into henna. I'm love my fro, but it's a curly fro. Mine doesn't get as kinky as some other women.