Right. There are plenty of other things I would rather talk about – trust me this isn't easy. It's embarrassing, it's awkward but it needs to be done. We need to talk about the D. And by that I mean DANDRUFF.
I'm joking of course. Why do people get offended by dandruff? Like, I know it's not the most pleasant thing in the world but as someone who has had it for MOST OF THEIR LIFE, it's more annoying and frustrating for the person that actually has it. I honestly couldn't give two hoots about someone's opinion on dandruff if they've never had it. You have no say. It's like men having an opinion on the physical effects of childbirth – NO WOMB NO OPINION.
I'm going off topic. I think we need to get down and dirty with the subject – the why's, the wherefore's. And HOW THE HELL DO YOU GET RID OF THE BASTARD THING?
Firstly - for those who have never really experienced dandruff, or for those who have it and feel alone and need some validation – it is extremely frustrating to live with. It's itchy, it's irritable, it hurts and it's a bugger to get rid of. Then there's the fact that you apparently need to feel ashamed about having it because it makes others WITH PERFECTLY FUNCTIONING SCALPS feel awkward. And it makes wearing all black and feeling like a badass less impactive. No-one takes you seriously with hair-snow.
Now there are two ways to describe dandruff. There's the usual standard dead skin at the surface of the scalp - which can be caused by the over use of hair products, emotional stress and washing your hair too much or too little. It can also be caused by malassezia - a harmless bacteria on the skin. These factors speed up the natural cycle of cell renewal, causing the dead skin. And then there's Seborrhoeic Dermatitis. Having experience both, I can tell you SD is disheartening to have. It's where the skin becomes itchy, scaly and sometimes (I HATE this word) crusty from constant irritation. It feels like open wounds or burns on the scalp.
So that's all the nasty stuff out of the way. Now – what on earth do you do about it? Because you've gotta wash your hair and becoming less stressed is easier said than done.
I have tried a million different products to sort this out. The world famous Head and Shoulders did absolutely nothing for me. It irritated my skin further and made my hair greasier than it was in the first place. I'd gone from looking like the peak of Mt Everest to the BP disaster. Not fun. Then there's Neutrogena's T-Gel. Which was kind of harsh on the skin, didn't really clear up the problem and smelled like a treatment for athlete's foot. Paul Mitchell's Tea Tree shampoo was fun to use. It had that delightful menthol relief that cools and soothes the scalp, and to be fair worked pretty well. But the cost was something else to be desired. I could never really justify £15 a bottle a time, especially spending most of my life as a cash strapped student.
No, after years of trial, error and desperation, my winner is the humble Ginger Anti-Dandruff shampoo from The Body Shop. It smells clean, lathers nicely for a deep cleanse and most of all it leaves me PRETTY MUCH FLAKE AND ITCH FREE after just a few washes! And for something that works so, so well, it only costs £6.50 for 400ml! This lasts me a month or two, sometimes longer, depending on the length of my hair.
Now what I will say is that this, at the moment, is probably the only shampoo I can use. And I will continue to use it forever and always.
I find that also having an olive oil or coconut oil treatment really helps. It's literally just massaging either oil into the scalp, wrapping the hair in some cling film and leaving it in for a couple of hours (sometimes over night). This leaves my scalp and hair feeling extremely moisturised but I only do it every couple of months because otherwise I'd just end up with really greasy hair.
I have learned from so many of my mistakes when it comes to dandruff. I have learned that it doesn't matter if you have no money, you HAVE to factor in the expense for a decent anti-dandruff treatment. There's no point in buying an 85p bottle of Tesco's own shampoo in hard times. It sets you back in the healing process and isn't worth the pain. The last time I did this in my final year at Uni reduced me to tears because my scalp was such a mess.
I also found that constantly dying hair or having colour treated hair and leaving it for longer between washes to preserve the colour, is not your friend if you have issues with dandruff. This is the sole reason I got rid of my luscious raspberry locks.
And if a shampoo is SLS free, it could well reduce irritation of the scalp. However, I tried the L'Oreal SLS Free shampoo range and it made zero difference whatsoever and caused more issues. So just keep an eye out for that.
So here I am, flake free and loving life. Never thought I'd see the day. Just so #blessed.
If you have any other tips on combatting this issue PERLEEEAASE SHARE. We need to stick together on this one.
Take care,
Ashley x
P.S. I have literally scratched my head the whole way through writing this. It's like when you talk about nits. So itchy.
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