- Hey everyone, Kayley, your friendly
neighborhood hairstylist here and today
we're gonna talk about winter scalp blues.
I think every year I get so excited for boots
and scarves and warm, delicious drinks and marshmallows
and firesides and I completely forget that with this season
comes the itchiest, driest scalp of all time.
And then I get knee deep in fall wonderland
and then I just stop dead in my tracks,
'cause it's here, it's now. (laughs)
And I hate it, winter scalp is itchy
and it's dry and it's flaky, why is it flaky?
(laughs)
It's not fun guys, and so I wanna talk about
how we can fix it, these answers are coming from
me as a person with a dry, itchy, flaky scalp
and me as a hairstylist, who has had to learn lots of fun
little facts to help combat all of this.
So, I hope you guys enjoy it, if you have any tips
that I don't end up covering in this video,
please comment down below and I apologize in advance
to all of you for making you itch your scalp
because I swear, talking about an itchy scalp
makes your scalp itch more, am I right, am I right?
Yeah, I'm very right. (laughs)
I'm so right. (laughs)
Okay, let's get into it.
First order of business, flakiness.
Now, when it comes to flakiness,
there's a bit of a misconception, a little bit of fake news
out there that I need to go ahead and talk about
and that is that anytime people see flakes in their hair,
maybe on their shoulders from the scalp,
they automatically call it dandruff
because we often associate just flakes
with dandruff, but that's not the case.
Flakes can actually come from a whole lotta things.
Your scalp is just normal skin like the rest of your body
and it can flake for multiple reasons, like your elbows
or your knees or anywhere else when it gets dry, gets flaky.
Or, if you didn't exfoliate your elbows
or your knees, they get flaky.
But flakes can also be caused by dandruff
and the proper name for dandruff is malassezia,
it's a fungal infection that can be treated
with over the counter shampoos
or more intense treatments from a dermatologist.
The difference between the dry, under exfoliated scalp
and the dandruffy scalp are the size
of the flakes and the texture of the flakes.
We're getting very real. (laughs)
Don't worry, don't click away, I'm gonna be done
really soon, I promise! (laughs)
The flakes with dry, under exfoliated skin
are gonna be very, very small,
like very, very tiny, little snowflakey.
And then, when you have larger flakes
and they might feel a little greasy, a little waxy,
I'm sorry, I told you we're gonna get real,
that's more likely dandruff and in addition,
your scalp can be oily, scaly and even red.
And if that's the case, then you might wanna ignore
the steps I'm about to give and instead,
go pick up a dandruff shampoo from your local drug store,
take it home, give yourself a nice, little scalp massage
with the shampoo for a couple showers, see if that helps.
You can also try tea tree oil and coconut oil,
those are natural antifungals, and if that doesn't help
clear things up, I would get thee
to a dermatologist so they can really help
just get things sorted for you. (laughs)
And by the way, dandruff can be caused by simple things
like hormones and stress, it does not mean
you're a bad person in any way,
it's just something that happens and I want to give you guys
the tools to deal with it if you need to.
Cool, that has been my PSA slash TED Talk
on the difference between dandruff and dry scalp,
so glad I started the video with that. (laughs)
Let's talk about how to fix flakes that are caused
by a dry or under exfoliated scalp.
The first thing you can do is exfoliate with a brush.
Now, I am a big fan of shampooing scalp massage.
Anytime you shampoo your hair, you should be massaging
your scalp because that's where oil
and dirt and flakiness builds up.
Now, you can do that with your fingers
and that can make a huge difference,
but if you're getting into winter and you need more,
like I do right now, I really love shampoo brushes.
You can get these anywhere from a dollar to $20,
I went with the crazy one that has massage settings
so it vibrates like a little massage chair, it's so good.
So I just put some shampoo in my hands, put it in,
and then I just scrub around with this.
It's especially good for those of you guys that like to go
multiple days between washing your hair,
'cause when you do wash your hair, you wanna get it
squeaky clean, like, girl, clean.
And that will also elongate how long you can go between
washing your hair, so, you know, so many benefits.
And it does not have to be a five minute,
I don't have the energy for that thing,
like, give yourself a 30 second massage, it will make you
happier, just go for it, no excuses, shampoo brush.
So there's the brush and if a shampoo brush
is like a loofah, then a scalp scrub is like a body scrub.
There are quite a few scalp scrubs on the market now
and I love it, I think that they're such a great thing to do
to help to disrupt those flakes and be able to just rinse
them down the drain and never deal with them again.
My favorite, I've bought three tubs of this and gone through
all of them, is the Briogeo Scalp Revival Charcoal plus
Coconut Oil Micro-exfoliating Shampoo, I love this.
The exfoliation granules are so small and satisfying,
it's pepperminty so it makes your scalp feel very refreshed,
you know, get your hands on whatever you want,
I'm even gonna give you a DIY option,
but if this is in your budget and in your country,
I just, it's ahh, you won't regret it.
You can even just buy it and use it once a week
and this will last you for a few months that way,
and you'll just be so much happier,
this has been your QVC commercial for this product,
I just. (sigh)
But there are other scalp scrubs out there
at different price points so I'll try to get that rounded up
in the description box as well. (laughs)
Another option for kind of creating your own scalp scrub
is to take baking soda and put that in your shampoo,
and use that as a shampoo, but the baking soda gives it,
again, that kind of micro exfoliation so that can help you
to really exfoliate your scalp as well.
And basically, all you have to do is get your shampoo
in your hand and add baking soda into and just like,
mix it together and then use it in your hair.
And you can't really do it wrong, you're not gonna use
too much or too little, I would say,
just make the consistency of scrub that you want.
So, if you want it to be really thick
and very, very scrubby, add a lot of baking soda in,
if you don't want a lot, put a little bit.
And you can keep messing around with it
and figure out what you like for you.
I do about four parts shampoo to
one part baking soda, if that helps.
And then, the next way to fix flakes is obviously to fix
the dryness, now dryness is our entire category number two,
but before I close out the flakey category,
I just want to point out that while I do very much recommend
treating the dryness, I think it's very important,
I also really recommend treating the flakiness
with some kind of exfoliation, that way,
when you moisturize your scalp, the moisture can totally
get in and it's not obstructed by flakes, okay, cool.
Now, on to number two, how to fix the dryness in your scalp.
This seems pretty obvious, but everything gets dryer
in the winter, your skin gets dryer, your lips get dry
and chapped, and your scalp gets dry.
And we can fix that both from the inside and the outside,
I'ma talk about the outside right now.
Now, caveat here, if your scalp is itchy and flaky and oily,
it might be dandruff so see my advice prior. (laughs)
But, if you're noticing your scalp is producing less oil
than usual, then hey, you're dealing with dryness,
you're probably dealing with it everywhere
and we've got to add some moisture back in
because your scalp is not self moisturizing anymore.
So the first pretty obvious thing you can do
is use a more moisturizing shampoo, I think it's good
to think about shampoos as kind of like face cleansers,
you know, if you're dealing with dryer skin,
you're gonna use a less harsh, more moisturizing face wash,
do the same thing with your shampoo.
I mean, they're literally right next door to each other,
the logic does not have to stretch that far. (laughs)
And just adding in that extra little bit of moisture
and maybe a little bit more gentleness
into the shampooing routine can help from disrupting
the natural oils as much so that your scalp
is able to kind of maintain a happy oil,
water balance, just a little bit better.
And you can do creative things like use your normal shampoo
one shower, use a more a moisturizing one the other shower,
you can mix them together in the shower
and play like, shower chemist.
I've done both of those, actually,
I do the switching on and off all the time.
And I do my shampoos more on like, how my scalp feels
going into the shower than anything else.
If it feels dry when I'm getting in the shower,
I'm gonna pull out my moisturizing shampoo.
If my hair is super dirty, then I'm gonna pull out
my volumizing shampoo, 'cause it cleans more,
you know, that kind of stuff, just do your thing.
So whatever you want to do, whatever works, I'm just saying,
get some more moisture in the sudsing routine.
My next tip for adding more moisture
into your scalp is a moisturizing scalp massage.
Now, I have talked about this in a video before,
which I will link above, it's got some
winter haircare, hacky tips if you want it.
But, the idea is that you're gonna either take
a conditioner or an oil and at the beginning of your shower,
after you've wet your hair, you're going to put it through
your roots and you're just gonna massage your roots.
You can even grab your handy, dandy shampoo brush
and just the conditioner that's already in your shower,
and just massage it in because, basically,
it's like rubbing in lotion to your skin.
Like imagine super flakey, ashy skin,
like rubbing lotion into it, how satisfying that is,
that's what it's gonna be for your scalp.
And you can DIY it with some oil, like coconut oil is great,
jojoba oil is great, I've heard great things about
castor oil for your scalp, but if you just want to use
the conditioner you already have, like, put it in
like you're putting in shampoo and then
massage it in and it's so satisfying.
And then afterward, I would do a light shampoo
to get all the build-up off, 'cause you don't want to leave
all the conditioner on your roots,
'cause then it's just gonna be like,
(blows a raspberry) it's not cute. (laughs)
Just do a light shampoo and wash it out,
and if you want, you can do a little more
conditioner on your ends, just depending on
how dry they typically are or not.
And finally, to treat a dry scalp you can do oil treatments
and the coolest thing is that there are kind of like,
leave in oil treatments now that you can spray or massage
into your scalp, I do find, on me, that I can't make my hair
last as long between showers, but if you're just
going through it, they're very, very helpful.
So, Briogeo has a good one and SheaMoisture
has a good one and I will link them down below.
And those kind of things can be super,
duper helpful, but I would do those
if the first two tips aren't helping you.
So that's been flakiness and dryness,
finally we have to tackle itchiness.
Now, moisturizing your scalp is going to help a whole lot
with itchiness 'cause it comes from just uncomfortable skin,
just like the rest of the skin on your body,
when it gets dry, it gets itchy and uncomfortable.
So, we've talked about how to moisturize it
from the outside, I thought for the itchy category,
we could talk about making sure
that everything is right inside.
And for happy, healthy skin, you need a mix of fat
and water, so oils and water, essentially.
So, you need to make sure that you are still drinking
enough water, I feel like, especially when it's cold
outside, the last thing I want is cold water,
but that's one of the things you really need
to keep your body functioning properly, A,
and not dry and itchy constantly, B.
And then, just like water, you need to make sure
that you're bringing healthy fats into your diet,
so you can bring that in through the food that you eat
or through vitamins, things like omega-3's and fish oil
can help so much with just giving your body what it needs,
just to be able to handle the winter and have extra leftover
to keep your skin all nice and healthy and moisturized.
I mean, it's a good thing to do for your overall
wellness and self care, but it will help the whole itchy,
flaky, dry scalp as well. (laughs)
And there you go, those are my tips and tricks on dealing
with winter scalp, I hope that it helps you guys. (laughs)
If you have any tips that I didn't talk about, tell me
about'em in the comments, I would really love to hear.
I think that things like this are such important parts
of just boring self care, like, just doing things
that seem boring, but things that really help you
to feel better, literally not itchy anymore,
and also to have more happy, satisfying moments in the day
like giving yourself a scalp massage in the morning,
it can change things so much and I think those
little nuggets are so important to give ourselves,
so, yeah, this has been your inspiring talk
with Kayley, hope you enjoyed it. (laughs)
But that's it, I hope you guys enjoyed today's video,
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And that is it for today, I'll see
you guys in my next one, muah, bye!
I feel like every time fall rolls around,
I'm always like, fleas! Fleas? (laughs)
You know what, I'm gonna Google this
to make sure that I don't get it wrong, dandruff symptoms,
oh, do not Google image search dandruff!
Ooh girl!