Yay! It’s Spring already and I am so happy. I don’t like winter at all especially the dull clothes, the layers and the fact that I tend to pick up a few kilos of weight in winter. I hope to step up my life in spring and I am so looking forward to summer, with the heat waves and all.
It’s story time today. If you have been reading my blog posts long enough, you will know that I’ve always struggled with dandruff from way back when I was a young girl. Although I used to wear my hair short all the time, (my mom could not be bothered doing hair) my scalp was flaky all the time. Growing up, I’ve always looked out on how I can keep the condition under control thus my many posts on dandruff and other scalp infection issues. So, today I am more confident in sharing with you how I have managed, not to cure but to keep my dandruff under control.
The Turning Point
There came a time along my hair journey that I was now getting flakes as big as a South African five cent coin and washing my hair with any dandruff shampoo, remedy or whatever you call it did not change my situation. I now had sores on my scalp and the condition kept getting worse. It’s a miracle I still have hair growing on my scalp. I knew then that it was beyond hair blogger knowledge and I now needed medical science help. So, I went to see my GP. Because he knew my medical history, it did not take long for him to pinpoint the problem, the root cause of my dandruff. I had a serious yeast overgrowth in my gut. What! I thought that was under control since I had adjusted my diet and was no longer a type 2 diabetes patient? Looking back now, his diagnosis was spot on. He sent me away with oral medication and a shampoo that I had to buy. I was to take the medication for 6 weeks straight, wash my hair with the medicated shampoo, keep my scalp moisturised and make more sugar restrictions on my diet.
How I used the Dandruff Shampoo
The shampoo is called Niz shampoo and I bought it from Dischem. It is only found behind the counter so you will need to ask the attendants at the self medication side. I used the shampoo every time I washed my hair for 2 weeks. I washed my hair every other day although it was said to be done every day. To loosen the dandruff on my scalp, I used a shampoo brush which I also got from Dischem. I would apply the shampoo on my scalp, massage the scalp and then rinse before applying the second time to now use the shampoo brush. The shampoo brush helped me to emerge out of every wash with a clean, massaged scalp which felt really great. For scalp moisture retention between washes, I used African Black Castor oil (which I am going to review soon). During this period, I had to wear wigs most of the time as I could not style my hair any other way because of the need to wash my hair every two days.
My Diet changes
I have always been strict with my diet but I used to fall back too many times until one cheat treat turned into a cheat day and a cheat week where I ate more unhealthy food than what I was supposed to be eating. Now, I had to keep my diet on point to make sure I make real progress in balancing the bacteria in my gut. Although I have not been able to give up sadza (pap) completely, I take as minimal a share as I can get and eat more vegetables and protein. I also only eat starches once a day so I am managing quite well. I have cut down on sweet fruits as well just to reduce the sugar some more.
My regimen now
I am back to washing my hair once a week which is awesome. Who has time to wash hair every two days? I still shampoo my hair every time I wash it followed by deep conditioning. Protein treatments are still once or twice a month. I plan to do a Henna/indigo treatment but I am still trying to come up with a way that will not make the process too long especially the rinsing part.. If you have suggestions, please share in the comments below. I have made peace with the idea that it turns my hair brown 🙂
Many blessings to you and yours! Till next time, keep loving!