yucky!!

st, You have tried what I would have, dandruff shampoo and a fine tooth comb (like you would with a new babe who has cradle cap). Is it gunky like petroleum or something and come off if you use your fingernail? Maybe several good washings with a good shampoo, like Aveda, and leave in conditioner and oil each day until it is back in shape. Think that might work?

DD has scalp issues, too. I usually have her just try to get the Head & Shoulder on her scalp & use something else on her hair. She has braids in now, so it's doable. For her, shampooing more often with the medicated shampoo helped her scalp improve. She has to keep everything else moisturized and oiled or it will be dry. She'll scratch it, too. Personally, I do not prefer the petroleum products. There have been many good products recommended on the list. She is still going back & forth. Good Luck.

sounds like she has some sort of scalp dermatitis. some aspects of seborrheic dermatitis. you can try stronger otc shampoos like Nizoral, tgel coal tar shampoo, etc, which might help. my husband has this-layers of gunk that flake off, oily when you touch them. ick. so he uses Nizoral 2x a week and it keeps it under control. He uses Tgel salicylic acid conditioner too. the important thing is to really lather it up, and massage the scalp, making sure to not to scrape the scalp until it opens up and later scabs over. leave it on the hair for 5 minutes, rinse and shampoo again. Finally the conditioner you use should be left on for about 3-5 min too. go easy on the hair products. find something light, like carol's daughter products which are natural without petroleum jelly. the shampooed hair needs to be remoisturized since you probably stripped it with the shampoos. it may take up to 8 weeks to see a significant difference. You might try and ask the pediatrician for a dermatology consult. good luck. it may take a while to figure out what scalp dermatitis type she has, and then what to do to treat it. some alternate shampoos, etc. but once you've figured it out, great! Lisa

thankyou everyone i will try it all. it is thick and gunky but oily, but then her scalp is dry and itchy in other places. i think i will start with the nizoral and tg conditioner. i tried head and shoulders, it helped a little but didnt get it all. anyway thanks again. :clap:

we've just been dealing with these issues ourselves, so it's fresh in our heads, lol. One thing that was helpful in identifying exactly what was up with dd's scalp was doing a search of google images of scalp dermatitis, seborrhea, psoriasis, eczema, etc. then I was able to say "yep, that's exactly what she has". from there I did a search on google to find other folks who were dealing with the same issue and what treatments worked for them. part of our problem is that dd has dry skin, with mild eczema outbreaks on her face and back. we usually treat with a touch of hydrocortisone and a ton of lotion. Areas of her scalp, particularly around the ears, have seborrhea, a condition made worse by hair oils. so it's a delicate balance of shampoos, and oiling of hair. then other parts appear to have just a light scaling of dandruff of unknown cause, that need a light oiling. yeah, it's fun, but we appear to have it under control. the good part is that I think hers is stress triggered (she just had 4 molars and two canines pop out at the same time-that triggered the eczema and seborrhea). now that things are calmer, everything's improved significantly. we may even go back to our regular routine of head and shoulders dry scalp care (fingers crossed). good luck! Lisa

Hey, Lisa! I just wanted to say thanks for that info about seborrheic dermatitis. DH has had a problem with scaly oily flakes for a long time. Periodically he'd go and get a consultation and some anti-fungal meds (which works but you can't stay on 'em forever) but the flakes always came back so he'd get frustrated. It's really affected his self esteem. Kinda makes it hard to go to the barbershop, ya know?? So anyway, I've him on a 3-4x/week cycle of wetting/shampooing, combing (gently), and moisturizing (which works) but he wouldn't believe me about it making a difference and didn't have the patience to do it himself. But now, being able to give his condition a name, being able to show him pictures of other people with the same problem (only lots worse), and finding the right shampoos to use with my off-the-top-of-my-head-but-surprisingly-correct-technique... well, that's just priceless. We picked up the Neutrogena, Nizoral and Dermarest products and we'll see what works best for him. He's finally on the path to emotional and physical recovery so hopefuly he'll be able to control it himself. THANK YOU SO MUCH!! :cheer:

glad my knowledge of my family's hair issues could help, lol. guys so don't have the patience for hair stuff. dh's philosophy before i dated him was "just leave it alone! if you touch it, it will flake off!"- :confused: . so i did the scalp scraping for him and boy was he not happy! it flaked off! but with those dandruff shampoos he's a much happier camper, lol. Now if he'd only leave it on longer...ah well, I'm just pleased with the progress he's made ;) . the boy can now wear black and navy blue. just found out it runs in the family. dh has a brother with the same issue-he does nothing too. just makes you wonder.

You should have heard DH complain about that last night. "I don't have time for this," he said. "This is stupid." You know how long it took me, start to finish? 30 minutes. Pathetic!! :rolleyes: