I’ve been dealing with dandruff since I was a kid, it’s always made me really insecure and always wear a hat. I’ve tried plenty of different hair products, none seem to work. It’s not just my hair on my scalp, it’s my beard as well. I’m a 19 year old male (Caucasian), I’ve been already deciding if I want to go bald or not. I still get dandruff even with a buzzcut and stubble. My skin just sucks. Please feel free to recommend products. I’m trying to improve my life and I find this to be one of the most annoying things.
Personally…I embraced my curly hair and started learning how to take care of it.
It started with the No-shampoo movement. The thing about most shampoos, especially dandruff shampoos, is that that are very harsh. “The tingling tells you it’s working” is bullshit. That’s your skin drying out from the chemicals. And the more you use it, the more dandruff you have when you stop and the more you need to use it. It’s a vicious cycle. Then you have to use a conditioner just to try to put moisture back into your scalp, but silicones can’t hydrate like natural oils that your scalp produces can. The biggest confusion is not washing my hair for a few days, and ending up with dandruff and greasy hair.
After not shampooing for about 3 months and then only using shampoo once every 2 weeks, I found that my dandruff almost disappeared. Almost…because I was still using harsh shampoos that would strip all the moisture from my head and dry out my scalp. My hair would be oily for a few days and then return to normal after a few showers. That’s when I decided to grow out my hair and learn to take care of the curls. I discovered that most shampoo are harsh because of the sulfates, parabens, phthalates, alcohols, and other chemicals designed specifically to strip your hair of oils. Switching to sulfate free shampoos stopped that cycle immediately. Learning about conditioners and other hair products brought out curls that practically every woman I meet would kill to have for themselves. And I haven’t had dandruff or itchy dry scalp ever since, even on the coldest and driest days in the winter.
Treat your beard the same way. The skin underneath still needs the oils it produces to stay healthy. Use the same sulfate free shampoo to wash your beard and allow your skin to heal and rehydrate naturally.
+1 and similar story here with the shampoo. After years of trying different brands and treatments, I just started rinsing my hair and scalp under warm water (not hot) and sort of combing the oils from scalp to tip til it all felt even, and then let it air dry. I’d wash with a little bit of T-Sal every so often when it felt like it was more waxy than oily, or if the scalp was getting too “oozy.”
I make a hair and beard oil with food grade mineral oil, vitamin E oil, some camphor oil and a drop or two of tea tree extract. I use it as a leave-in conditioner after I wash my hair with shampoo. It probably doesn’t do much, but it smells nice I like the texture it leaves my hair.
For my face, I switched over to the Dr. Bronner’s Castile soap with tea tree extract, and Cetaphil to moisturize after. It worked OK.
Eventually I had a psoriatic arthritis flare up accompanied by the worst eczema I think I’ve ever had. I got with a rheumatologist who put me on Otezla, which both knocked the arthritis right down and improved my skin.
The “no 'poo” method is still working great for me except for when it was overcome by that bad flare up. While the Otrzla worked some miracles, I can’t really recommend it-- it’s been really harsh in my stomach and I still have to take it with a Zantac.
When I told my dermatologist I was working with a rheumatologist for the psoriasis, she heartily agreed that was a better specialist than her to treat the condition. If you have the means to do so, you might try an initial consultation with one in your area.