exercise and hair

[helanek]

every time i exercise my scalp gets itchy. i might have SD but sometimes it is too much to stand. anybody has ideas how to deal with the problem?

[chrissy-b]

tea tree oil shampoo and conditioner has really helped my scalp when it's itchy.

[Gemma]

I've been scritching my scalp lately the night before a wash, and using a tea tree shampoo, and that's helped a lot with itchiness.

How do you wear your hair when you exercise? I'm wondering if the sweat is basically being trapped against your scalp and causing the itchies.

[helanek]

either braid or bun. depends on what i do. i know that bunning is worse but for some things i cannot have loose hair. the thing is - it gets disturbing when i am trying to exercise and the only thing i concentrate on is my head... ;)

[Islandgrrl]

I exercise a lot (kind of an understatement) and, as my husband puts it so delicately, I sweat like a pig. My braid DRIPS. It's kind of nasty. To put it in perspective, after an hourlong bike ride this morning, when I took down my braid there was not a dry hair on my head. Ick.

Depending on the activity, I either braid or bun. No diff in terms of how itchy my scalp gets.

Itchy scalp? Oh yeah. Shampoo makes it worse. I rinse my hair thoroughy (like maybe for 5 minutes or so) under pretty warm water and scritch around on my head a bunch and then massage a little bit of neem oil into my scalp. I do not CO every day, but closer to every 3 or 4 days, and this routine has totally saved my poor scalp. I don't have the flakies anymore since I quit using shampoo on a regular basis (I only use it now afer a really heavy oiling and then it's quite dilute).

Hope this helps some. :)

[Beesweet]

We've had some success with itchy heads in our house by using shikakai and neem powders instead of shampoo.

We no longer use anything else but Doc Bronners, coconut oil, and Whole Foods 365 mint conditioner. Those of us who itched no longer do.

Just my two cents.....

[Gemma]

A lot of people seem to recommend diluting shampoo when you have the itchies, and I find a cold rinse helps, too. :)

[trolleypup]

When I went to Water Only as an experiment, I found out that my scalp doesn't like products.

[serenitygal]

I run 3-4x/week, and while my hair isn't soaked by the time I get back, it's fairly damp. I CO in my post-run shower, and just clarify every month or two with a diluted shampoo/honey/tea tree oil mix. Seems to work well for me! I do need to CO after a workout, though; if I don't, the scalp gets itchy and smelly. Yuck!

[helanek]

well... i am only itchy during exercising. i switched to shampoo bars a while ago. still get flakes but mostly in the front. it is probably SD - i have very oily skin naturally, that easily gets very dry - go figure.
i tried different kind of natural shampoos but the bars + ACV seem to be the best for me. my hair is shiny and have weight to it.