Learning My Skin, Hair & Scalp

When I was a kid, I kind of accepted certain things without question. For example, my parents use so-and-so for their skin, hair and scalp so that should work for me too, right?

NO. *slaps cheek*

*fast forward from baby child to 11 yr old*

Around middle school, a girl, who didn’t like me much, scratched my scalp for a second during after-school daycare. Back then it startled me and what she said afterwards sent me down a spiral of self-conscious, nervous behavior for years about my scalp. Nowadays, I think, why in the world did she even want to touch my scalp?! But thank you, girl, whose name I still remember but will not name. (ಠ_ಠ)

She was so kind as to point out that I have dandruff. Much internal screaming occurred that day. What was dandruff? How did I get it?! I even went so far as to use a microscope toy I got from lord-knows-where to investigate a piece of dandruff that I got out of my hair.

I tried every name brand and home-brew dandruff remedy that my parents told me about to manage my newfound problem. As I got older and smarter, I learned that what I ate contributed to what happened to my body; learned I was an idiot for not questioning things earlier in life and for being such a damned, picky eater which kept me from eating healthy.

I sadly admit that my soda habit is to blame for most of my recent skin and scalp woes but I’ve been working to limit my sugar intake. My scalp and skin suffer when I eat too much sugar and wheat. When I lower the amount of either sustenance, my skin is a glow and my scalp is free from dandruff. But when I do eat poorly, I will develop patches of dry, inflamed and when it gets real bad—cracking skin. At these points, I try to drink more water and use Cortizone 10 Maximum Strength Intensive Healing Eczema around my chin, nose, eyebrows, and hairline after each shower.

As for the rest of the reparative products I use, I’ve had to undergo all sorts of testing of products to find a decent combination. So far, I’ve found the following helps with my scalp as well as the softness of my hair:

Aveda scalp benefits™balancing shampoo – shiz be a bit pricey though but you feel it working its magic hoodoo~ At least it does a better job than the Head & Shoulders for me
Schwarzkopf Gliss™ conditioner – I had balayage done to my hair early last year, then ruined it with Head & Shoulders because I was too frugal and thought it was the only damned thing that helped my scalp but in truth it didn’t. So now I use this conditioner to help repair my hair and keep whatever color I have left. It helped soften my hair a lot too.
For added softness I will sometimes use a bit of CHI Silk Infusion, brush it in well, and then blow dry my hair. NOTE: I put this stuff around my damaged hair near the ends. I don’t put it onto my scalp nor on the hair close to my scalp. One time I did this and my hair was way too oily and weird feeling.

Earlier I mentioned Cortizone for the inflamed, dry patches. I use an exfoliate for my face during my showers called St. Ives Apricot Scrub to clean off the patchy, peeling skin making it easier for the Cortizone to do its work. To clean my face at night on a regular basis I use Alba Botanica Hawaiian 3-in-1 Clean Towelette. It has Pineapple Enzymes and I fek’n love pineapple so I was all over that. Cleans my face up well, skin feels happy afterwards and it smells nice.

When I used to take a shower every day, it seemed to help with my skin/scalp issues. Now that I work freelance, I take a shower every other day which occasionally makes my skin more susceptible to issues, especially if I eat unhealthy foods. When these bad days happen, I use the following for my scalp:

Aveda scalp remedy™dandruff solution – again pricey, not sure if I’ll buy this again, and I only use it every once in awhile. It’s got a lot in the spray so I feel it’ll last the rest of this year at the rate that I’m using it NOTE: The relief felt from this is temporary if I’m having a very bad dandruff day

I took a picture of all these products I use so you know what they look like in case you ever are looking for things that may help you with your own skin, hair, and scalp journey. Only thing I forgot to add is the CHI Silk Infusion but that seems to be a hit or miss product for most anyways.