I’m fine immediately after showering, but it’s a mini-snowstorm if I go through my hair in the morning having showered the night before. Been that way for years, but far better than it was back when I used “anti-dandruff” shampoos that just made it worse. Hair is short, doesn’t feel oily or only slightly. Happens across a variety of shampoos I’ve tried, though I’ll admit I haven’t looked beyond the 3-in-1 body wash shampoo combos. Sorry if this is a bit unappealing. Anyone else have a sort of “baseline” amount of dandruff? Or found a solution to this?
UPDATE: Thanks everyone for the helpful replies! It was eye-opening to learn that it’s not always just “dandruff”. Turns out it was the 3-in-1 soap all along. I finally got myself a proper bottle of shampoo (sulfate free wasn’t much more expensive so I went for that) and realized that tight feeling when my hair dried was dry scalp. Super satisfying now that I can run my hand through my hair and eyebrows without getting an avalanche in my face.
You might try Nizoral shampoo if you can find it. Leave it in for five minutes.
This is what made the difference for me.
First thing I apply in the shower, and the last thing I wash out.
Doesn’t work well on my beard tho for some reason. You can still see the dandruff on some of my shirts.
Often what people call “dandruff” is not actually dandruff. You might have dry scalp, which causes flakyness and the dandruff shampoos do nothing to help (I’d argue they even make the dryness worse!)
In my case it was dandruff and what made a huge difference is to wash twice in a row (lather, rinse, repeat). I leave the shampoo in my head for a bit on the second wash while I do my other shower business.
That doesn’t sound normal if you are looking for comparisons tbh
I used dandruff shampoos for most of my life. My dandruff is the best it’s ever been since switching to a shampoo and conditioner that are slightly acid of neutral instead of basic like nearly every other shampoo.
Your skin is meant to be slightly acidic. Constantly assaulting its pH is not ideal. Yes it reasserts its normal pH pretty quickly afterwards but being gentler with your skin can help with some issues.
Do you also have a dry skin?
Got rid of my dandruff problem when I realised that I was sensitive to SLS compounds. Try to use non-sulfate products for a while.
… and I no longer need to use skin lotions on a daily basis.
Aleppo soap finally resolved it for me after years of fighting the yo-yo effects of medicated shampoos. It’s just an old hard Castile soap made using olive and laurel tree oils. Laurel tee oil is apparently pretty good for skin, and works fine to clean your hair.
I don’t go in for woo, but it is kinda fun to be using a soap recipe that goes back a couple thousand years. Mileage may vary of course, but I’ve found it to work extremely well, and as a bonus has a pleasantly neutral smell—herbal as you might expect. 20% or so blends of laurel tree oil seem to do the trick.
like a bar of soap ?
Yeah it’s a bar soap, commonly used for both skin and hair.