Dandruff Shampoo

Dry Scalp

From the age of 16 right up until 19 all i can recall about my hair was having an über dry scalp. Myself and my sister would spend minutes upon minutes in front of the mirror using a comb to scratch out our dry scalp flakes. Strictly confidential: we thought it was so cool! Not knowing the cause or how to treat the issue my first assumption was of course to use a dandruff shampoo.

Did it solve the problem? Not at all! In fact all it did was dry my scalp and make styling after washing a huge pain. Of course after one or two attempts of using a dandruff shampoo, i stopped and was lucky enough to stumble upon a few hair sites that discussed my issue. 

The biggest mistake i made of course was to falsely assume that a dry scalp is dandruff. Many of us do not know the difference and therefore give ourselves the wrong diagnosis.

Definitions

Dandruff is a mixture of sebum (oil which comes from the hair shaft), sweat, bacteria and scalp tissue. It is always yellow or orange colored because of the sebum and sweat. 

Dry scalp is an over shedding of dead and dehydrated skin cells of the scalp caused by itching, scratching, over combing, and due to severe dehydration of the sebaceous glands. This shedding will be white in color, in fact the white colored flakes you may see in dandruff shampoo commercials is actually dry scalp not dandruff. There is also not a bacteria present in most cases, and the skin has not combined with sweat and sebum.

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Though each individuals hair case is different. The steps i took to eliminate this dry scalp problem were very simple and worked for me:

My hair regime Then vs Now

Then:

Washed hair once a month

Rarely deep conditioned

Used any shampoo- never cautious of its moisturising qualities

Never massaged my scalp

Never oiled my scalp (only greased it on my wash day)

Now:

Wash hair at least once a week.  

Deep condition on every wash day

Replace moisturising shampoo with moisturising conditioner 2/4 times in the month.

Massage my scalp whenever i can (always on the day i use jbco)

Nourish my scalp with castor oil every 2/3 days 

This regime is what turned my hair care journey around, i haven't had problems with dandruff ever since.

Other tips to consider:

*Combing your hair from the roots encourages sebum flow and allows your naturally produced sebum to be  spread throughout your hair.

*Scalp massaging encourages oil production and blood flow.

*Take care to use a moisturising conditioner. Word has it the cloudier the colour the more moisturising it is.

x edF

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