Dry scalp & flaking

[namaste]

Does anyone here have experience with combating dry scalp and flaking? There is so much conflicting information out there about dandruff vs. dry scalp (if there even is a difference). First of all, I live in at a high elevation with very, very dry air. My scalp is only mildly itchy but when I rub or scratch it these small white flakes fly all over the place. They are not large, yellow, or greasy. I have had this problem on and off for a while now - it has appeared during all different seasons and doesn't seem correlated with skin dryness on other parts of my body.

Could this be a classic fungal/dandruff issue? Might it be related to my stress/dysregulation issues? Or is it simply dry skin that needs to be treated with a moisturizing hair product?

 

[mattyb]

Try finishing every shower you have with cold exposure.

I live in a ridiculously cold and dry climate most of the year, and it can take a toll on the scalp and skin. I find doing a hot shower and finishing it off with very cold water for 2-3 minutes is incredibly helpful for my skin. Otherwise I'm more likely to be itchy/dry all day.

 

[vicecaz]

I developed this too, a few months after I crashed from accutane. The RSO oil I took seem to have worsened it, probably by disrupting even more the mineral balances, especially zinc/copper , that are crucial to treat infection, or by sebum overproduction caused by the THC

I'm not sure if your case and mine are similar, but I have the same flaking, and It spread to my beard, eyebrows and chest as well. I'm definitely convinced this is Malassezia in my case, a fungus . Not necessarily dry scalp, even though accutane effect on sebaceous gland is likely to be involved too.
This flaking made me lose hair, eyebrows and facial hair too, the infected area. I managed to stop it by using climbazole / zinc pyrithione / cycloprox olamine shampoo and with what Matty said, cold water.

I wash my body with hot water but extremely cold water for the hair/infeceted area , and it helps a lot
I also add solubles vitamin from idealabs ( estroban/retinil/kuinone etc ) and it definitely helped too, maybe by controlling sebum production that is known to feed the malassezia fungus
Also, avoiding food that are known to trigger an immune response , especially nuts/seeds/eggs seems to help a lot. Again, in my case .

The flaking has really diminished and I lost little to none hair/eyebrows now and I'm convinced that treating this Post accutane syndrom for me will fully resolve this as well. I'm amazed how every part of the body are connected together. This whole thing disrupt my minerals, hormones, digestion, immune system, etc . No wonder how this malassezia fungus could developed on those condition.