Fascinating article Diane, thank you, you have sparked some memories for sure. I'd like to share a short story about my dandruff journey. I suffered for decades with dandruff and yes head and shoulders was probably the go to shampoo for me, but it had very little impact unfortunately. Thinking about it now, it probably coincided with me getting pimples during puberty. Maybe the two were indeed linked? First let me share how my mother had me deal with my pimples. She used to go an see a beautician regularly in Amsterdam, where we lived at the time. She used to have her facial and nails done, which usually took about an hour.
Consider that I had to wait for that time knowing what would be happening to me afterwards. Of course the very first time I came along, I didn't know I had no idea what her treatment would be of course. But every subsequent visit I had to wait in anticipation of what pain would be inflicted on me.
She use a flat metal implement, the only way to describe is like a cuticle pusher and she pushed that down on every pimple to make it erupt and clear away the gunk. This took quite some time and was extremely painful. A bit of alcohol toner, ouch and job done. Needless to say they didn't go away, they only spread further.
Back to dandruff. For decades I used dandruff shampoos and in the end as I said settled for head and shoulders. Daily washing and it made no noticeable difference. I also suffered with terrible itching on my head, so scratched it continually, which of course made the dandruff or dry skin evern worse.
It was only years later when I changed my diet and decided to stop eating bread and oh my I love bread, growing up in The Netherlands, the bread there is SO gorgeous, basically I am bread boy, but when I stopped within days the dandruff disappeared. It was then that I made a direct causal linkage to dry flaky skin on head = bread. Ever since 2004 when I changed my diet I have known that when I eat bread, I get dry flaky skin. Nowhere as bad as I had when I was a teenager and in my 20's but it happens guaranteed every single time. So I basically don't eat bread any longer, no toast, no nothing. Now of course from time to time I eat something that probably has bread type ingredients and of course dry flaky skin results.
I know I have to live with that, but I am pleased to say I no longer have any major issues, neither any major skin issues either. Not sure if this was useful in anyway, but your article made me reflect on my journey with breakouts and dandruff.
