Question from sue r.
Is there any natural remedy for dandruff? I am extremely sensitive to odors and head is irritated by the ones I have tried.
Debra’s Answer
Actually, in my very first book, Nontoxic & Natural, published in 1984, there is a remedy for dandruff: baking soda.
“Simply rub a handful of dry baking soda into wet hair and rinse. For the first several weeks of use, hair will be drier than normal, but then the natural oils will begin to make your hair very soft.”
Anyone else have a suggestion for this?
I finally found a dandruff shampoo for my husband after about 6 years of searching. It is Zerran Oily Hair Dandruff Shampoo. No synthetic fragrance added but does have a slight smell if smelling from the bottle. I don’t smell it on my husband. It has a lot of natural ingredients in it. The label says 100% Vegan, Sulfate Free, Fragrance Free, Paraben Free, Botanically Based. Here is a link to their website. We get ours off of Amazon.com. He wouldn’t try vinegar. He said he didn’t want to smell like a salad. All of the shampoos at the store have synthetic fragrance in them and you could smell them through the entire house and would give me headaches! I hope this helps someone else with a choosy spouse.
http://www.zerran.com/app/webroot/v2/ingredients.php
I have MCS………and sensitive skin. Many products won’t work for me. I’ve had good results with Neutragena T-Sal. I use it regularly with excellent results.
I had the same problem with dandruff. The way I treated it was to wash my hair with an all-natural shampoo mixed with baking soda; use equal amounts of both, but use more shampoo than you normally would. This will help scrub away any shampoo buildup and dandruff. Any time you use baking soda in your hair or skin, though, you always want to do a lemon or apple cider vinegar rinse afterwards, though. The skin is naturally slightly acidic, and baking soda can irritate it (your hair will also be impossible to comb, otherwise). Mix together 1-2 Tablespoons of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar with 8 oz of water (if you have long hair, double it). I usually just put the vinegar in a glass that I take into the shower to fill right before I rinse. The vinegar smell is gone when it dries, or you can just use the lemon juice.
You can rinse your hair with regular water afterwards, or you can leave it as is, but know that leaving in the lemon juice might lighten your hair after a while.