Healthy Hair Starts at the Scalp

I am back after taking some time off to focus on myself, but I have so much exciting new content planned and cannot wait to share it all with you! This week is almost over and I am hoping that the cold weather in Chicago is almost over too. So for now heres some hair tips to keep your hair looking healthy even in -50 degree weather!

Lots of people have been reaching out to me about issues with hair or their scalp, not the most glamorous discussion to have, but an important one. After months and months of battling some very bad dandruff myself, and trying every product out there, I figured I would share some of my tips and tricks with you. 

Since dandruff was a recent onset, the first step was identifying what caused my dandruff. After extensive research, and getting some advice from a hair expert and a herbologist, I was able to figure out that my “dandruff” was due to stress. When we stress out, the immune system weakens and our bodies are not able to deal with the normal bacteria that is always present on the scalp. To make matters worse, once you notice symptoms of dandruff, it may stress you out even more and cause, you guessed it, more dandruff. The important thing is to keep those stress levels down and try new things or combinations of different things until something works for you, until then, here’s what I’ve been doing to get a healthy scalp and beautiful hair.

1. Use gentle shampoo – I checked my shampoos to make sure they were all sulfate free, and silicon free.  Most of the ones I use are anyway since my hair is Balayaged and I try to use very gentle shampoos and conditioners.
2. Limit cleansing – I made sure to only wash my hair twice a week max, that gives the scalp enough of a cleanse, but also enough time to produce all the healthy oils that keep your scalp balanced.
3. No hot water! – Use mild temperature water, don’t use hot water, its bad for the hair in general not just the scalp and tends to wash out color faster too.
4. Pick your product – I will pick and choose certain products depending on what my hair feels like, the weather and my mood. 
   • I use a cleansing duo like Verb’s Hydrating Shampoo and conditioner when I need to feel that extra clean feeling. This is a mild cleansing color safe shampoo does an amazing job of getting my scalp clean and keeps my hair hydrated. I’ve noticed this shampoo has really made my scalp itch free and flake free without even being an anti-dandruff shampoo.
   • Kristin Ess Extra Gentle Shampoo is a super affordable line of products (you can buy the whole line at target) the Sensitive Scalp shampoo smells fresh and very light and it really helps with dry scalp without having any of the extra unnecessary chemicals. 
5.  Exfoliate – Third and the more aggressive option I tend to do this every 3 weeks or after using a lot of dry shampoo. Ouai Scalp and Body Scrub is amazing for dry, itchy scalp. The scrub has glycerin, coconut oil, sweet almond oil, and a proprietary probiotic blend that, when mixed together, boost your scalps natural defenses and help keep it hydrated and soothed. 
6. Deep condition – I deep condition every wash, my long hair needs it and you kind of have to especially with how cold it gets in Chicago. I am rotating between Moroccan Gold Series Treatment Mask or Hairdressers Oil Conditioner, which I bought because I absolutely love the oil from that same line (check out my post on the Hairdresser’s oil too). 
7. Try not to scratch, instead use an in shower shampoo brush to help get rid of flakes and itching and feels like a mini massage on the scalp.
8. Drink more water!

Do you have any tips or tricks to deal with dry scalp or dandruff? Send them my way!