Battle against dandruff

Dealing with an itchy scalp and constant flaking is very frustrating, especially if you like wearing darker clothes, which get full of white flakes almost instantly. There are countless or home remedies for dealing with dandruff, but in my opinion few of them work long term. I’ve tried from honey – olive oil – lemon juices mixes to different kinds of vinegar. While those remedies worked temporarily they were kind of annoying due to cleanup (from oils) and due to smell (from vinegar). So I’ve turned to pharmaceutical remedies. The first thing that was recommended on the internet was Ketoconazole. In my country you can only buy shampoos containing Ketoconazole in the pharmacy.

The brand name is Oronazol and it contains 2 % Ketoconazole and costs around 12 € for 100ml bottle, which is kind of expensive. It lasts for about 1 month if you have shorter hair. But the problem with this particular brand is that it left my hair very dry, which amplified my problem with dandruff. My scalp got very dry and as a consequence dandruff was back. I have also tried combining this shampoo with a cream that cointains azelaic acid, (skinoren) which was supposed to alleviate itchy scalp and dandruff but for me it had the opposite effect. After using combination of Ketoconazole and azelaic acid for couple of months my dandruff worsened. It was also almost necessary to use some kind of hair conditioner as my hair got very dry.

 The other shampoo I tried was Alpecin. This shampoo costs around 6 € for 250ml in our local stores and it lasts for about 2 months. Its active ingredient are piroctone olamine and fumaric acid. I was very happy with this shampoo as it didn’t leave my hair dry and my dandruff problem was greatly reduced. Also I don’t have to use any kind of hair conditioner, which is also a plus. 

*This post was written by Krištof. Thank you! :)