The Cider Head Rules

You may recall that the painful rash on my face which plagued me for months last year was diagnosed as atopy. One of the hallmarks of this condition is itchy, flaky skin--a trait familiar to me, and common to many of my family members. One of its more frequent and irritating manifestations has been in an itchy, flaky scalp.

For awhile I had pretty good luck with Pantene True Confidence Anti-Dandruff Shampoo. Then that got harder and harder to find. It seems that you can still order it online from some places, but that's hit-or-miss, kind of expensive, and not at all convenient. So I switched to a CVS-brand shampoo which, after an initial adjustment period, worked pretty well. (And which I was often able to get for free.) Then this winter, that stopped having much of an effect at all--I was miserably itchy and embarrassingly flaky, especially after taking a hot shower. Hoping for a more holistic fix, I turned to the Internet--where there is a strong rally of support for apple cider vinegar (or ACV, as it's fondly known) as the solution for all things flaky. While there are a variety of ways to use it--rinsing with it, spritzing with it, leaving it on, rinsing it off, and even taking it internally--I decided to start with a 1:1 ration of ACV to water, applying it to my head and hair after shampooing and leaving it on through the rest of my shower. Then I rinsed it off. (Though it still generated enough fragrance to prompt Matt to poke his head in and ask if I was "making salsa in there.") After drying my hair, the normal irritation and flaking that I notice after showering were probably a good 80% reduced. My hair really didn't smell like vinegar, and it's also supposed to be good for increasing shine and reducing buildup. I didn't condition after that and I don't know that I really would need to.

One of the other natural fixes for a flaky scalp is said to be tea tree oil, so I looked for a way to incorporate this as well. Matt has long sworn by Nature's Gate shampoo, and I have always loved its hippie smell and natural image--so when he told me that they have a tea tree version, I thought it might just do the job. I started using it at the same time as the ACV, so it's difficult to sort out where the most benefit might be coming from, but I'm happy enough to continue doing both.