Monday, April 22, 2013

Dandruff Remedy: Tea Tree Oil vs Head & Shoulders

A month and a half ago my husband and I were presented with a rare opportunity. Somehow we both ended up with dandruff at the same time, so I knew it was the perfect opportunity to test my herbal remedy against his traditional one. After doing a little research, he decided to go with Head & Shoulders, while I decided to use Tea Tree Oil. We both shower once a day, so we each used our own cures once a day. Here's the results:

Ease Of Use: 
My husband definitely won this one. All he has to do is pour a little shampoo in his hand, massage it into his hair and rinse it out. But me? Before I shower, I pour a bit of my shampoo into a little cup and use a toothpick to stir in 4 drops of tea tree oil. Then when I'm in the shower, I scoop it into my hand, massage it in my hair, and then wait 5 minutes before rinsing it out.

Price:
Two ounces of Tea Tree Oil cost me $8. I use 4 drops a day. After 45 days, I still have 3/4 of the bottle left.  A 14 oz bottle of Head & Shoulders cost us $5. He goes through a bottle every 3 weeks. We just bought his third bottle, which brings his total so far to $15 (yikes!).

Immediate Results:
To be honest, there were no immediate results with the Head & Shoulders. A week after he started using it, my husband still had the same amount of dandruff as before. Plus he said his hair was really hard to brush. Even though he bought shampoo plus conditioner (2 in 1), he still had to use conditioner in order to brush his hair.
My Tea Tree Oil was a different story. First off, let me tell you how amazing it feels when I massage the oil laced shampoo into my hair and scalp. It's amazing! After a minute or so, my scalp feels all cool and tingly (and that feeling lasts even after I rinse it out). I love it! Plus I started to see results after just 3 days. Yep, after 3 days, I actually had to search to find the dandruff flakes.

Long Term Results:
Like I said, it's been 45 days and for the last 30 of them, I've been completely dandruff free. Two weeks ago, I started only using the oil every other day and still, no dandruff. So I guess you could call it a complete success. My husband, on the other hand, isn't as happy with his results. After 45 days of using Head & Shoulders, he still has dandruff. While it's not as bad as it was, you can still see the flakes.

So I hope you don't mind if I end this post with a little "Yay for herbs!" happy dance!