The Long Hair Community - Sensitive/breakout-prone scalps, questions for you

bellawave · May 23rd, 2003, 09:13 AM

1. What makes YOUR scalp break out?
2. When it does, how do you treat it, that works for you?
3. What favorite products NEVER make you break out?

I should have a handle on this by now. I have
identified some causes (citrus oils, not enough washing),
but I still keep getting the intermittent breakouts
of hard itchy welts on my head. I shampoo daily
and use conditioner.

Any and all responses to this rather specific poll
are welcome!

Anne · May 23rd, 2003, 12:59 PM

Do the welts just show up when your scalp itches? When I have a really furious bout of the itchies I get the welts from scratching, but they go away after a good wash, an acv rinse and some lavender eo rubbed into my scalp. You could also try adding some mint eo to the rinse for a cool feeling. The itching is inflamation, so anything cool should help.

I get the itchies when I'm stressed out, so you might want to check your stress levels and do some things to help calm your nerves.

Maybe try a natural shampoo and conditioner.

Good luck, I know it's frustrating.

Bethany · May 23rd, 2003, 02:00 PM

What's in your shampoo? Do you ever use conditioner on your scalp? If so, what's in that? I itched and flaked rather than breaking out, but watching what I put on my scalp has helped a lot.

Anne -- I think mint is actually quite a potent scalp irritant. You have to watch out for those scalp-itch solutions, too... a lot of them have menthol or camphor in them, which are also potent irritants. I think lavender can be an irritant as well.

Off the top of my head, I believe both chamomile and green tea are anti-irritants.

Rachel · May 23rd, 2003, 04:27 PM

Chamomile's great! Lavender can be anti-irritant as well, it depends on the person. Anne... I sincerely hope you're using diluted lavender essential oil, and not using it neat (pure) on your skin! It's been shown that people who use any essential oil neat (pure) for a while eventually become sensitized to it.

That's like an allergy, only worse... you wouldn't be able to use / stand anything from the lavender family. So, if you don't want that to happen, always dilute your essential oils!

Melusina · May 24th, 2003, 02:41 AM

The couple of times I've had problems with my scalp, I've used cool water with lavender and chamomile oils in it. I would pour it over my scalp two or three times a day until the itching and welts began to subside. I don't know if it was the cool temp or the oils, but I found the herb rinse very soothing.

Melusina · May 24th, 2003, 02:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rachel

Chamomile's great! Lavender can be anti-irritant as well, it depends on the person. Anne... I sincerely hope you're using diluted lavender essential oil, and not using it neat (pure) on your skin! It's been shown that people who use any essential oil neat (pure) for a while eventually become sensitized to it.

That's like an allergy, only worse... you wouldn't be able to use / stand anything from the lavender family. So, if you don't want that to happen, always dilute your essential oils!

:shock: That would be tragic for me, I adore lavender.

bellawave · May 24th, 2003, 02:58 AM

I'm currently rotating between 3 shampoos: Jason EFA, Aveda Shampure, and Avalon Lavender. Then I use either a bit of Beauty without Cruelty leave in (sometimes as a leave in, sometimes as a rinse-out), or some Pantene Classic Care conditioner as a rinse out. They all have a lot of different ingredients. I tend to try different products so I've only been using these for a couple of months, but I've had this problem off and on for a while. I was using styling products, but I've stopped those to see if that helps, so far it hasn't yet.

It was really really awful about a month into my trying a CO-washing routine. Going back to shampooing cleared it up for a while, so I figured that time it was conditioner buildup (lemon or ACV didn't help much and actually made my scalp very inflamed after a while). I haven't CO-washed for a while. If I don't shampoo or rinse with something every day, the oil on my scalp will even cause a breakout.

What happens is that I wash and condition in the evening, then if I'm going to get a breakout it happens around the middle of the next day. I feel an itchy irritation on my scalp, feel around with my fingers, and find hard welts. I'm thinking maybe they're blocked pores? Washing that night soothes the itch, but sometimes it can come back the next day. When it does clear up, the welts turn into scabs and fall off within a few days.

Last night I washed with the Avalon Lavender and used no conditioner. My hair was tangled when I woke up, no surprise. No itch so far today, but I'll have to see in the afternoon. Maybe I'll try no conditioner for a few days. My hair is still short enough that it shouldn't cause a huge problem except for a few morning tangles (it's also too short to put it in any sort of braid or bun overnight). I might also try some EO scalp rubs mentioned here and in other posts (in someone's journal they used rosemary for a scalp problem). I have some chamomile tea, maybe I'll try that as a rinse.

Thanks for your replies.

Eventually I'd like to figure out a routine that doesn't cause this at all.

Olivia · May 25th, 2003, 01:49 AM

Bellawave,

I wish I knew the answers to your questions, because I have the same problem.

I add a drop of tea tree oil to the diluted shampoo when I break out, and it seems to help, but I would really like to be able to pinpoint the responsible ingredients. I had to give up the CO-washing for the same reason.

Kati75 · May 25th, 2003, 07:53 AM

Ok, here are my answers:
1. Everything, well almost? :shock:
2. Wash with Wella Pure Shampoo, line lifetex.
3. Lifetex Pure Shampoo for hypersensitive scalps.
Hope that helps!

Anne · May 25th, 2003, 11:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rachel

Chamomile's great! Lavender can be anti-irritant as well, it depends on the person. Anne... I sincerely hope you're using diluted lavender essential oil, and not using it neat (pure) on your skin! It's been shown that people who use any essential oil neat (pure) for a while eventually become sensitized to it.

That's like an allergy, only worse... you wouldn't be able to use / stand anything from the lavender family. So, if you don't want that to happen, always dilute your essential oils!

Thanks for the info Rachel, I was using it neat, but have added grapeseed oil to the eo's.

Kao · May 26th, 2003, 08:18 AM

Be careful using chamomile on your skin if you're allergic to ragweed, especially if you're worried that the breakouts are because of an allergy. I have to be very careful with products containing chamomile... A very few I can use, and others cause my eczema to flair up pretty badly and generally make me miserable.