I’ve been struggling with an oily, itchy, dandruff-y scalp since I was about 30 and I almost can’t believe it. But after trying just about every anti-dandruff shampoo on the planet, I was finally able to get rid of my itchy, oily, head of hair by doing just about the opposite of what is commonly believed to be what one should do. How? I’ll explain.

What is dandruff? And what is the cause of it?

About 50% of men in their twenties have dandruff. And about 2/3 of all people suffer from it at one point in their lives. Dandruff usually presents itself as white flaky particles that, in the worst cases, can become extremely noticeable. Those flakes are dead skin cells that have been shed from your scalp. A lot of people think dry skin is the cause of dandruff, but that’s not true — dry skin can cause some flaking, but the particles are usually too small to see. Most people with dandruff have oily skin, and the latest research shows that the real culprit is probably a tiny fungus called malassezia globosa which needs fat (=oil!) in order to thrive.

Now, this isn’t anything nasty — every human being has this little b**tard on its skin. It only becomes a problem when the fungus grows too rapidly, and our natural renewal of cells is disturbed. It causes skin cells to renew at a rate which is too fast, and dandruff starts to show because the skin cells bond with the oil on the surface of your scalp. Result: a formation of white flakes.

When looking for ways to get rid of this annoying flaking condition, you usually read suggestions like: “Wash your hair daily,” “massage shampoo in well and leave in for some minutes,” “use anti-dandruff shampoo” (duh), and so on.

Anti-dandruff shampoos can contain active ingredients that, according to the cosmetic companies who sell them, cure dandruff — coal tar extract, salicylic acid, selenium sulfide, sulfur, ketoconazole, and zinc pyrithione, to name a few — and the last one is probably most well-known: it is used in common drugstore shampoos like Head & Shoulders, Pantene, L’Oreal, and so on. Well, while these ingredients might keep the dandruff under control, it certainly won’t help you get rid of it forever. And it’s a lot of work to wash and style your hair daily! It can’t really be healthy either, putting all that stuff onto your scalp over and over again without giving the skin a break.

“Do you think your (grand)parents washed their hair every day? They didn’t. The hair-washing ‘epidemic’ only started in the 70’s and was made up by some very smart marketing people with big $$$ in their eyes.”

As you might assume, I began getting pretty desperate. I even bought an anti-dandruff comb in the US, which supposedly “leaves behind copper particles to kill the fungal infection.” Well, it did nothing for me outside of combing my hair (which it still does pretty well, as a matter of fact), and I guess it would be the same for most of the others who tried it. You see, companies are very good at making up reasons for you to purchase a product just so they can make money on us silly believers. Because if you ask me, one of the biggest pranks the cosmetics industry pulled on us is making us all addicted to shampoo!

A healthy head of hair & scalp have their own natural balance of oils, and that balance is disturbed with each and every washing. Did you know that normal shampoos contain chemicals (mostly sulfates, like SLS – or sodium lauryl sulfate) which are identical to the ones found in detergents used to clean the kitchen? They completely strip your hair and scalp of its natural oils and create an imbalance. This in turn leads you to use conditioners and other styling products – usually made with petrolatum and mineral oil – which act as a substitute for the oils you literally just rinsed out of your hair.

But after washing, your body also starts generating sebum (=oil!) like crazy to restore the natural balance. And what happens then? Your hair will again become very oily very quickly, and within a day your scalp will be a great place for – you guessed it! – the fungi that cause dandruff to have themselves a little party. Hmmm…!

“So you wash your oily, itchy hair, stripping it from its oil – use all their fake-oily styling products, your hair becomes oily again very fast, you get flakes and itchiness, and then the whole cycle starts again from the beginning: we have become addicted to shampooing our hair! When I realized that… it made me think: “What if I could break that cycle?“

So, I decided to do a little experiment.

“Little Experiment”

1. The first thing I did was stop using normal shampoos (those containing aggressive active ingredients) and anti-dandruff shampoos entirely. I switched to using natural/organic shampoos without silicones, sulfates (like SLS), and other nasty chemicals – like those from Rahua.

2. Whenever I would wash my hair, I first wet it with luke-warm water. Then I very gently massage the natural/organic shampoo into my scalp (without using my nails) so I don’t irritate the skin. Then, and this is very important: rinse out with cold water. As cold as you can possibly handle. Cold water will close the follicles of the hair as well as the skin’s pores, making it much easier to keep out dirt or any harmful substances that may cause negative effects like dandruff. Your hair will be softer, silkier, sleeker and shinier than after a rinse with warm water – then you can also use less styling products, or maybe even none at all.

3. I also stopped washing my hair so often. I started with every other day. Then just two times per week. Then even less. This was pretty hard in the beginning – my dandruff got worse and my hair got really oily. But just when I was about to give up, I noticed a radical change: my itchiness was gone and my hair looked… healthy! Apparently my scalp realized something had changed and didn’t need to produce as much oil anymore. Hooray!

A quote from a book written in 1955:

“…To keep [the area] healthy, wash your hair and scalp once every ten days.”

4. I would towel dry my hair with a clean towel, or a towel that I only use on my hair. This is to make sure that no bacteria from the hands or other parts of the body reach the hair. Do this very gently. Don’t rub — just pat it down and let the towel absorb the water.

5. As for my styling techniques: since I don’t strip my hair of its natural oils, I hardly need to use any styling products. Only if we want to go out and I want to look even more sexy than I already do (ugh), I use a little bit of Less is More’s Honeywax or Balm Balm Tea Tree Foot Balm (yes, really) — it works great as a hair styling product! Tea Tree has great antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, and antiseptic qualities and creates a cellular climate that is not conducive for the fungus to grow in.

6. Last tip: Water contains minerals like calcium, and natural/organic, sulfate-free shampoos are rather terrible at removing these from your hair. So when you live in a place with water like this – very ‘hard’ water, like here in Berlin – you might start to notice that your hair seems to slowly turn a bit… grey!? OMG! (You can probably imagine my wife Ingy teasing me non-stop when this started to happen.) But then I started to see small particles of calcium, which can easily be mistaken for dandruff. Of course I already knew I wasn’t turning grey just yet!

Well, I’m very happy to tell you that there’s an easy solution for this build-up of minerals. As you might know, sour liquids are quite good at getting rid of calcium – found near the faucet, for example. By the way, did you know we use Dr. Bronner’s lemon soap to clean the kitchen, floor and parts of the bathroom with? When mixed with water it makes a perfectly toxic-free — and cheap! – household cleaner that is totally safe to use with children. (Read more at this awesome blog: http://lisa.drbronner.com/)

I remembered my mom sometimes rinsed her hair with a vinegar mix when I was little. And I had another ‘aha!’ moment! So I went to the supermarket and bought some organic apple cider vinegar. (I think it was 2€ per liter… in Germany you can even find it at Lidl!) And it really gets the job done. Once every two weeks or so, after shampooing, I simply make a little mix of 1/4 vinegar and 3/4 water, massage it into my hair. I leave it in for a minute, and rinse it out – with cold water, of course. This makes my hair look amazing: shiny and healthy – just the way we want it.

Well, good luck – a little bit of experimentation goes a long way!

Most important sources:

My head
My mom
Wikipedia
www.ksmm.org/catImage/file_report/4-천영진.pdf

Update — I learned some more about my dandruff issues… and responded to a lot of emails and comments that I got from readers facing similar issues.

So I did a test. I tried to see if I could “cause” a flare-up by using normal, or even anti-dandruff, shampoo. As it turns out, I can! I washed my hair with Head & Shoulders and I have to admit, cleaning my hair and scalp vigorously like that felt pretty good. So two days later I did it again. And like clockwork, my scalp became itchy, red and even started flaking again. My first instinct was to use the H&S shampoo, but I resisted and started using my usual natural/organic shampoo again. It took me almost a month to restore balance!

Some readers emailed me saying that their scalp responds poorly to coca-betaine. That’s no surprise really. People can indeed be sensitive to all sorts of surfactants (“surface active agents”). Coca-betaine is a lot milder though compared to SLS and usually causes less problems. But I know there are people for whom it’s the other way around. For instance, I learned that even though I have my dandruff pretty much under control, my scalp is still sensitive. That’s why I’m always trying to keep the balance so that the condition doesn’t resurface.

I managed to do this by using Rahua’s Voluminous Shampoo exclusively. (After trying many other natural/organic shampoo varieties, this seems to work the best for my skin/hair type.) It also contains citric acid, which is just sour enough to remove the minerals from my hair so that there’s no need for extra rinsing. (As I do not particularly enjoy the smell of vinegar early in the morning.) I agree that it’s expensive for a shampoo, but I only wash my hair once or twice a week. And I use just a little bit! The trick is to leave it in for 2 to 5 minutes before rinsing it out; then the surfactant can do its job properly. And a little goes a long way – just one bottle can last me months!

Every now and then, I lose that balance and the dandruff comes back a bit. At those points, what really helps is using a shampoo containing 2.5% selenium sulfide — and no SLS. But I use this only once! This can help keep things in check for months at a time. And I don’t want to use it any more often than that; after one wash I go right back to using Rahua. I did this 3 times in the last year. (I also tried a 1% selenium sulfide shampoo but this did not end up producing any positive effects.)

The difference between selenium sulfide and other active ingredients in anti-dandruff shampoos is that selenium sulfide actually fights the cause of dandruff: the fungi themselves. Others – like zinc pyrithione, which most over the counter anti-dandruff shampoos contain – only clean the surface of the scalp. They remove the flakes, but that’s it! They do not fight the cause. So basically, they’re useless and you have to continue using them every time to see any effectiveness.

Now you can do a test: use a shampoo containing selenium sulfide. If it helps, the cause of your dandruff is indeed a type of fungus. If it doesn’t help, then it’s something else, maybe just irritated skin. Knowing this is the first step to gaining back control of your hair and scalp’s natural balance; then you are well on your way to solving the problem!

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Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in August 2012 and was updated in April 2018 for accuracy.