HAHAAHHAVAVAHAHHAHAHAHAAH sorry, I forgot!!!

ok this is a complex, layered answer and I am very bad at being brief, bear with me.

first of all, there are mainly 2 causes for flaky scalp: either your scalp is oily and has fungal overgrowth, or your scalp is dry/sensitive and/or prone to eczema.

(these are not black and white categories, they can potentially overlap in some scenarios, but let’s stick to the basics first.)

the most common active ingredient in anti-dandruff/flakiness shampoos is zinc pyrithione, which works against the fungal infection, plus ingredients to prevent oily scalp. this is the working mechanism of head&shoulders, so if your itchy scalp is caused by dryness/sensitive skin, using head&shoulders is actually making it worse by stripping your scalp of its natural oils.

it’s fundamental to understand the cause of the itchiness to address the problem correctly. but generally speaking, there are a few things you can do to keep the scalp healthy:

- use shampoo & conditioner that target scalp health – these conditioners are usually meant to be applied directly on scalp and left on for a minute or two. brands I’ve used and recommend: Sachajuan, Klorane, and Nioxin. Klorane also has a calming spray that you can use on dry hair, but I’ve never tried it. of course, these are NOT targeted to fungal infections, for that I’d recommend seeing a dermatologist and getting a proper medical shampoo, not a store-bought one.

- blow drying your hair instead of leaving it dry naturally helps (specially against fungal infection).

- watch the frequency of washes (you might need more or less) and temperature of the water (super hot water is always bad).

- now, this is weird, but after moving to Germany from Brazil, with the crappy hard water, once a year I’ll get flaky itchy scalp on the winter. I do a one time thing that is VERY weird but works for me.

I mix yoghurt with sugar to make a natural exfoliant with probiotics. I apply it to each section of my hair and gently scrub it for around 10min (if you have super sensitive skin this won’t be good) and then leave it on for an hour for the fats of the yogurt act as a lipid-barrier-nutrition thing and then wash my hair normally. I know it sounds very weird, but I swear I do this ONCE and my problem is solved for the whole winter 😂 but I am sure there are industrialized scalp masks that do the same if you don’t feel like having yogurt on your head.

good luck!