help!! mega itchy scalp!!

Hi im wondering if anybody can help me out. My knots are nearly 14th months old. My scalp has always been a little itchy but in the past I've just washed it and its went away but recently its gotten really bad and still itches even after i wash my hair. I bought the tea tree and rosemary deadlock shampoo bar thinking that will solve the problem but it hasn't. I even thought it could be lice so i checked and found nothing but still washed my hair with rubbing alcohol the way SE has mentioned just incase and still no relief from the itch. Its just becoming so annoying and i really don't know what to do. I wash my hair every 2 days with cool water. is there anything else i could do or does anyone have any ideas that would maybe stop this itch Its not all over my head its mainly the back of my head that gets itchy the most.

updated by @harriet: 01/13/15 09:52:57PM

hmm.. is your scalp dry maybe?

Im not sure it could be the wether has been much hotter than it normally is so that might be why its itchy so much

NaturalDreads01 said:

hmm.. is your scalp dry maybe?

Do you sleep on your back?

When I do sleep on my back I notice increased itchiness there. Might be sweat related. I wash every 2-3 three days, too. Even if I don't think I need it. I wash just to wash because it gives me an opportunity to scrub around with my fingertips on soapy wet scalp. ahhhh.. feels soooo good!

Are your locks well separated? Pulling hairs can get aggitated and instead of hurting they can itch at times.

You could also have a scalp that is in recovery mode from all the alcohol you put on it. Regrowing skin itches like a bitch.

I'd suggest tapping or patting that itchy area instead of scratching with nails or even fingertips. Just don't knock yourself out. If it is regenerating skin then the itchiness will eventually pass.

I do sleep on my back actually! and as for the sweat related thing i work out once every other day and do work up a lot of sweat so that might be the problem as well. i was very itchy before i put the alcohol on my head so although that might be a factor now it wasn't the cause.

I separate my locks once a week but its only really the locks on the top of my head that needs separating all the ones underneath are fine but i do have rather large locks i think all together i only have about 40 but i do have about 4 really large ones especially at the back of my head which are all about 2-3 locks joined together where they have been just to knotted for me to rip apart in the past and i didn't want to cut them so i just left them be.

Ive just finished washing my hair so if i get any more scratches from now on ill try tapping instead of itching and see if that makes a difference Thank you!!

Angel Frye said:

Do you sleep on your back?

When I do sleep on my back I notice increased itchiness there. Might be sweat related. I wash every 2-3 three days, too. Even if I don't think I need it. I wash just to wash because it gives me an opportunity to scrub around with my fingertips on soapy wet scalp. ahhhh.. feels soooo good!

Are your locks well separated? Pulling hairs can get aggitated and instead of hurting they can itch at times.

You could also have a scalp that is in recovery mode from all the alcohol you put on it. Regrowing skin itches like a bitch.

I'd suggest tapping or patting that itchy area instead of scratching with nails or even fingertips. Just don't knock yourself out. If it is regenerating skin then the itchiness will eventually pass.

This reminds me of just why I wish there was a way to wash our scalp without washing the rest of our hair.

I don't begrudge the fact that the whole lock does need attention with soap once in a while but there are days.... grr.

how big are the big ones i assume ay t the back

have someone with good eyes look at the scalp and roots where it itches

if u have a small colony of critters they can be localized where thy feel safest behind the ears and back of head hidden under big fat dreads so if u check the top of your head u might miss them

moving on

have u started washing your pillowwcases with anything new? can be an alergic reaction to anything most likely the laundrey detergent but could be the fabric itself if its a new pullowcase

other possibilities infected or iritated sores from scratching

oh

if it was bugs doing 1 alcahol treatments not gonna kell em all

and u said wash u wash with alcahol u just get the bugs nice and clean..u gotta suffocate em fill yoir head with fumes (most efective to wraop in plastic wrap) seal in the fumes so they have nothing to breathe but toxic alcahol vapors

this has to be a bare minumum of 15 minutes they can hold thier breath 14 so 30 minutes isa highly recomended (dont smoke you are extremly flamable)

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

There big i guess probs about an inch wide i think. and i will i hope not though just mentioning lice makes me go all itchy ewewew!!

i do have eczema but ive never had it on my head before if it sores or something. I dont even know if you can get eczema on your scalp ill have to look into it.

And thank you if i can find nothing that will help ill do another alcohol wash but for longer this time. If its not lice and just that i have an itch would doing another alcohol rinse ruin my hair in anyway? Im just curious.

soaring eagle said:

how big are the big ones i assume ay t the back

have someone with good eyes look at the scalp and roots where it itches

if u have a small colony of critters they can be localized where thy feel safest behind the ears and back of head hidden under big fat dreads so if u check the top of your head u might miss them

moving on

have u started washing your pillowwcases with anything new? can be an alergic reaction to anything most likely the laundrey detergent but could be the fabric itself if its a new pullowcase

other possibilities infected or iritated sores from scratching

oh

if it was bugs doing 1 alcahol treatments not gonna kell em all

and u said wash u wash with alcahol u just get the bugs nice and clean..u gotta suffocate em fill yoir head with fumes (most efective to wraop in plastic wrap) seal in the fumes so they have nothing to breathe but toxic alcahol vapors

this has to be a bare minumum of 15 minutes they can hold thier breath 14 so 30 minutes isa highly recomended (dont smoke you are extremly flamable)

Hi Thank you for your advice!! ill see if i can try and looking into what i eat more and see if that makes a difference. I do eat alot of bread if white flour is a trigger! i have actually just washed my hair about 2 hours ago and i finished with a jug full of cold water and some peppermint and tea tree oil and it felt soooo good!! and no itch yet!! I'm hoping this will work and i wont wake up tomorrow morning with a itchy head again! Thank you for your advice and good luck to you aswell !!

Heidi said:

My scalp is itchy a lot, too. No bugs. I use dreadlock shampoo bars from buck county soap and I rinse in cool water that has a few drops od peppermint oil and tea tree oil added. I even make a rosemary thyme tea for my hair occasionally. That all helps but the itchiness comes back. I think it's my diet. I know eating refined flour and/or sugar can cause an overgrowth of yeast in the body and that sometimes results in a very itchy scalp. I have cut out all refined sugar and now I am working on eliminating all the white flour, too. I've noticed some relief already. Good luck!

You can definitely have eczema on your scalp but with Caucasians it's pretty rare because of the oils our scalp produces. The only real way to cure ezcema is to moisturize like crazy(shea butter/cocoa butter and the like) and NOT SCRATCH, period. The skin has abrasions that is letting in germs. That's what's itching. I learned this the hard way from having chronic eczema on my legs for over 25 years. All the Rx creams in the world didn't help. Raw shea butter gently rubbed on my skin after every shower is the only thing which keeps it at bay and my skin in tip top shape. At $7 a pound I couldn't be happier about my cure.

Anyway, about the itchy scalp. If you got some relief from the essential oils I'm going to throw one out here for you to try that I've had some bizarre luck with. I had a major case of the itchies a few months ago and had some sage EO laying around. Nothing else was working so I was willing to try it. So I put three drops in a 1 cup of warm water and after I was done shampooing I squirted it on my scalp. TINGLE ALERT!!! I could only keep it on for about four minutes before I HAD to rinse it off. My scalp was completely numb for about three days. NO itchies at all. Kept down the oil production, too.

Afterward, I researched sage as a hair herb and then it all made sense. It has long been used as a hair tonic to strengthen the scalp, ward off creepy crawlies, and even dye the hair(only if you do it a lot). I wasn't expecting the anti-itch and lessening of oil production effects, though. Very cool!

Each herb has it's own unique properties and value, that's all I can say. Nobody mentions sage here but I've found that even mundane herbs like sage can do some crazy good things for your skin.

I only had to use the sage EO rinse on my scalp twice and then never again. You might luck out the same way. My scalp healed over in a few days and maybe that's what stopped the itching, too. Itching is cyclical with damage to the skin.

If you'd like to try sage then I'd say it's definitely worth the splurge at your local nature store. Just don't use too much of it. I even use the stuff(10 drops per large load) in my husbands dirty clothes wash to get the funk out. Works like a charm. Lavender can't even hack it. I've tried.

Turn washer on let it fill 1/4 way, add your soap + 10 drops of spaced out sage EO. Let it fill up a bit more and then put the skankiest clothes down at the bottom of the wash with the cleaner ones toward the top. Even let it soak for an hour or so if you want. I don't. But you can. When the wash is over the clothes do smell like sage but the scent wears off in the dryer.

Sorry I went off on a tangent there but I've discovered some wonderful uses for EO's since I started locking my own hair. lol