Water only washing, WO, 2019

[Tinyponies]

Hi Luna May and welcome! You’ll find lots of good advice and shared experience here. I’m fairly new too, learning so much and starting to settle nicely now.

I’ve had an itchy flaky scalp too, but I had a bad shed that (I’m hoping) is stopping since going wo so a bit of itchiness hasn’t bothered me much. I’ve been washing my scalp with some cold spring water when I really need to ease it.

Wish we could all get together and have a good look at each other’s hair and scalps. That would help a lot.

Yours and my itchiness and flaking could be happening for completely different reasons, we only know that the symptom is similar.

For me I suspect it will ease off in time (as it is relieved by cold water rinse) and is likely acidic waste leaving through the skin that was suppressed before. There’s no redness or weeping or anything like that, just itching and white flakes.

If you don’t really get greasy hair, do you feel that your hair has a coating of sebum? Do you get any at all? Hows your eczema and skin in general? Did you take medication for it, how’s your diet? Things to maybe think about.

Has anyone else here had anything like this as a phase in transition and seen it pass?

[shaluwm_agape]

Hi Luna! Welcome. What I would suggest when your hair does start to itch are diluted teatree oil or diluted peppermint essential oil and spray it on your scalp and massage. Or you can do peppermint tea rinses. I have had Seborrheic Dermatitis for a few years and since being WO I feel it has really helped. My skin and scalp in general are very sensitive. So though I rarely get itchies once every other week I rinse with something acv, peppermint tea, or oils

[Luna May]

Hi Tinyponies & shaluwm_agape, thank you so much for the kind welcome and your helpful answers!

Meeting up would be helpful I guess but not sure if I'd want anyone to have a close look at my snowflakes

I do find my scalp produces sebum as I can tell whenever I'm massaging it / washing it that my hands are a bit "tacky" (in a good way) and I can spread it to my ends especially while washing it with lukewarm water. I wondered if my scalp just needs some time to get used to the change? I've also switched to wo for my face (cut out all skincare, and I don't do make up anyways) and it's taking a while for my skin to adjust, too. Maybe I just need to be more patient I know skin gets lazy from overusing moisturiser and it stops renewing & moisturising itself properly so I guess it's the same with the scalp so now that it can learn to self regulate again it goes crazy and sheds too much :/ ?

I don't take any medication and currently don't have big issues with eczema other than maybe a bit of itching on my arms/back if there's lots of dust. And diet wise I feel like I could get more vitamin A as I read that helps fix dry skin/hair, so that's still something to try but the thing is I didn't have more vitamin A before I switched to wo and I could go a week or longer without washing my hair and my scalp won't go itchy, my hair would just go dry, so I feel like the itching must be connected to the switch?

How often do you wash your hair Tinyponies (sorry if you already mentioned that somewhere) ?

Do either of you think the dryness/itching could also have to do with the cold weather (I'm in England)?

The peppermint tea wash and teatree oil are great tips, thank you! I've got both at home so that's something I could try easily! Thank you !!

[Luna May]

Edit: I've just found the bit where you said how often you wash your hair, Tinyponies! Do you wet you scalp/hair in between though without washing it? I quite like making it slightly damp before I braid it at night to help give it texture between washes...

And you, shaluwm_agape, do you find you need to wash it often?

[Tinyponies]

Sounds like you’ve covered all the bases. I’m in England too - maybe we will both feel better when it gets warmer! My house is a big old Victorian one and always freezing :brr:
Love the idea of wetting hair a bit to braid - I’ll def try that

I’ve been using the corner of a microfibre towel soaked in cold spring water to wash my scalp/rooots when it gets too itchy. Peppermint tea sounds nice.

[RavenMane]

I've never been able to totally get rid of my flakes. After reading a bunch from you all and especially EdG, my guess is that my flakes are actually build-up of waxy sebum and dead skin. Ever since I've gone water only I've been combing a lot while it's damp and I'm getting a lot of dry waxy gunk on my comb. I'm hoping once I comb it all out of my hair and off my scalp I won't see the flakes anymore.

[RavenMane]

Tinyponies, your advice worked very well for getting the smoke smell out of my hair. Thank you so much for sharing.

Anyone have any thoughts or experience on doing a gentle brown sugar scalp scrub? Would there be any cons? I'm still in transition and I'm wondering if it would help clean my scalp.

[shaluwm_agape]

I have done many scrubs and brown sugar & even coffee are my favorite. Just test it because your scalp may be sensitive.

[EdG]

I've never been able to totally get rid of my flakes. After reading a bunch from you all and especially EdG, my guess is that my flakes are actually build-up of waxy sebum and dead skin. Ever since I've gone water only I've been combing a lot while it's damp and I'm getting a lot of dry waxy gunk on my comb. I'm hoping once I comb it all out of my hair and off my scalp I won't see the flakes anymore.

Yes, the gunk on the comb is a mixture of accumulated waxy sebum, dead skin cells, and lint. Combing it out is the right approach. The amount will diminish over time (months). Eventually, combing will yield only a small amount of fine powder.

A difference between your experience and mine is that my flakes disappeared long ago. My flakiness seemed to be caused by full-strength shampoo. The flakes disappeared after I switched to diluted shampoo (a decade ago), and remained gone after I went to water-only (2.5 years ago). I think too-strong shampoo is one of several reasons why the scalp can flake.
Ed

[RavenMane]

Thanks Shaluwm_agape and EdG!