Why do you have itchy hair/scalp? Personal Experience

I have noticed that I often have weeks when my scalp hardly itches and weeks when the itch is quite frequent and as such decided to find out why. My research was based on personal experience as well as some internet searches.

Personal experience
Since December 2014 I have been observing and listening to my scalp more carefully than before. The aim was to listen to my body, feel my hair's texture and just make notes of what I was experiencing. The following were my observations and lessons learnt:

• When I had a weave (for 2 weeks only) my scalp was dry and more itchy than normal. By the beginning of the second week of the weave, my itches became more frequent and the scalp began to be flaky. The lesson learnt from the 2 week period was that even if you have a weave, you should still care for the scalp and hair underneath. I missed my weekly wash and conditioning, therefore my scalp became dry and itchy. 

• Whenever I wash my hair and simply moisturise the hair strands and leave out the scalp, by the 4th day after the wash my scalp starts itching (not too badly though). The lesson I have learnt is that scalp also needs care and shouldn't be left too dry. So I now use good oils on my scalp (e.g. Monoi, coconut, avocado or vitafro (careful not to clog pores, using just enough quantity). 

• Leaving out the water spritz out of my routine makes me find my hair quite itchy. I live in a Johannesburg, it is a very hot and dry city and as such I try to spritz my hair with a mixture of water & a small amount of conditioner/Monoi oil. Whenever I get lazy and do not spray my hair with this mixture, I get very itchy hair, it also gets really dry and brittle.Lesson learnt is - consider the environment you live in and it's effects on your then perform appropriate damage control; and be consistent.

My next post will discuss itchy scalp based on Internet/scientific research. 

Happy healthy hair!!!! Team Natural Hair! Team Afro! Love your hair!