Yeah, the ACV made me have itchies, too. I think it's because it sloughs off dead scalp like a fiend. Not sure. Just a personal opinion. I had to cut it out entirely. My hair locked up waaaay faster without it, too.
The best way to add essential oils to your regime is right after you've washed and your head is still wet. Fill your long nosed pointy tipped squeeze bottle with warm water(1 cup will suffice) and add a few drops of essential oil. Shake and then shoot the warm water/EO combo in toward your roots all over. Literally lift your hair up in sections and get up in there. Let it sit for a minimum of three minutes and then rinse. Voila!
Four drops per cup of water is perfectly strong enough to get a healthy dose of EO medicine.
Basil works wonders, strangely enough. Makes the scalp tingle after five minutes but whoo boy does it feel good and clean and wonderful afterwards!! Deadens the itchies.
Hint: Don't do more than a few drops of one particular new EO at a time while testing it out. Basil really threw me for a loop because I never figured it'd make my scalp tingle like that. No other EO does that to me.
Also, just to get rid of itchies in general, consider not using plain baking soda full time. Alternate at least once a week with a good bar shampoo like this:
This is Mosalu dreadsoap with Citrus EO's . LOVELY!!! And only $5 a bar.
She also makes a fantabulous blue charcoal orange, coriander, black pepper, and rosemary(weird combo I know, but it's AWESOME I promise)
Mosalu also has a quirky licorice(anise EO) based shampoo bar with tea tree, peppermint, ylang ylang, rosemary, lemon, lavender and anise. It's like you're opening a bag of Twizzlers.
She's working hard on adding more dreadsoaps and likes playing around with unique EO combos. And I can't rave enough about how great these are on the scalp. Makes me actually want to wash my hair more often because it feels so great, lol.
NOT too moisturizing either, I want to make that clear. If you've got infant/baby dreads then it'll take a little while to get off the ground while using bar soaps but if you've got at least a dozen that that are tangled then you'll be good to go because she doesn't use shea, cocoa, or any heavy oils like avocado. These bars are perfect for Caucasian/Asian locks or for Black locks that don't need the extra super duper moisturization.
It's all about treating your scalp right, I think. The initial phase of itchies, everyone gets. Lord knows I did. I felt like I had fleas. But if it persists to the point that you're ready to rethinking letting your hair lock up and it's making you miserable then definitely look at alternative ways of scrubbing your head.
updated by @angel-frye: 02/05/15 10:12:49AM