Crochet / Snow Day / Tea Tree Oil & Scalp Issues

I spent all of yesterday morning and afternoon doing the things I figured I wouldn't have time to do once I started Nursing school. I did two loads of laundry, dishes, picked up the apartment, shaved my legs and armpits (which is always the first task to get neglected), and finished crocheting a scarf. 

Crocodile Stitch Video Here.

As it turns out, I had one more day to do all the those thing because my first day of Nursing school was canceled due to snow. Living in New England, I am sure that this happens almost every Spring semester. (It has happened to me more than once.) On the bright side, this gives me an extra day to keep reading the absurd amount of material for my first lecture, which was rescheduled for Friday morning. On-campus clinicals start tomorrow.

My town only ended up with about 5" instead of the anticipated 10-14".

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A few days ago, after coloring my hair again, my scalp completely rebelled. I've had scalp issues regularly for years, but this was so much worse. Not only was my scalp dry and flaking, it was itchy as sin and I had actually acquired a fair amount of scabs on my scalp from the combination of chemical processing and scratching. Since she's well versed in such things, I had my sister check it out. She parted and sectioned my hair to see more areas of my scalp and told me that I was right, I did have some scabs, it was, in fact, dry and flaking, and in addition, the areas that were less problematic appeared to be red, almost rashy. Great.  

I had suspected for a while that my on-going scalp issues probably weren't dandruff. After having my sister inspect my scalp, I realized that it was most likely eczema, which I had issues with most of my childhood, but never on my scalp.

So, after some brainstorming and research, we decided that tea tree oil was my best option. Regardless of the scalp condition, be it eczema, psoriasis, or dandruff, tea tree oil is used to treat it. So, I  bought a bottle of Jason Dandruff Relief Treatment Shampoo and a bottle of tea tree oil.

Here's what I did:

• Mixed 10-12 drops of tea tree oil with 30-40 drops of argan oil.
• Using a clean eye-dropper, I applied the mixed oil to my entire scalp and massaged it in.
• I threw my hair in a pony tail and let it sit for 20-30 minutes. 
• Shampooed with Jason Dandruff Relief Treatment Shampoo. 
• Skipped conditioner and used SheaMoisture Raw Shea Butter Extra Moisture Detangler.
• Applied a quarter-sized amount of DevaCurl Light Defining Gel to wet hair, avoiding the scalp.
• Air dried until 80% dry.
• Applied a dime-sized amount of Ganier Fructis Pure Clean Gel to the lower third of my hair.
• Diffused for 2-3 minutes until dry.

My scalp felt better as soon as I applied the tea tree oil. Luckily, it took almost two days before the itching returned, so I followed the same routine (minus the first three steps for pre-treating my scalp) this morning. The results are pretty awesome.