Goal Update: Continue growing my hair out

For 2013, I set a few goals for myself and us as a couple.  You can see that post here.  One of my personal goals was to continue growing my hair out.  Sounds easy enough, right?  There are 2 reasons why this might be a problem for me this year.

1) The grass is greener: I love how my hair looks long, but I get jealous of all the cute shorter styles I see.  I have, throughout my whole independent style choosing life, consistently grown my hair out and then cut it.  Usually every year, sometimes every other year.

2) Scalp issues: about 2-3 years ago, my scalp started to get dry and itchy.  It would flake, so I thought it was dandruff.  I started using dandruff shampoo, but I gave up because it never seemed to do anything.  Last year the flakes and peeling got much worse, and this year I started getting scabs on my head.

What I am doing to overcome my challenges

So far, I have been trying new hairstyles.  I have been able to try many new things, which helps me stay happy with my longer hair.  It makes me realize how many different things I do with my hair when it is longer compared to when it is shorter and I want to keep it long.  This has stopped the grass is greener problem so far.

After the scabbing started this year, I became sick of having a constantly itchy, painful scalp so I started doing research.  I have narrowed it down to 3 things: allergies, eczema, or psoriasis.  I started getting to scabbing problem soon after I switched to a new shampoo and conditioner, so it could be that I was having dandruff problems and I am also allergic to the shampoo and conditioner.  

Eczema is often aggravated by cold, dry air and I seem to really only have this problem in the winter.  Also eczema runs in my family and I have had a bit of a problem with it in the past.  I am using a special eczema medicated moisturizer at night to help with this.  I have also been hearing about people having a lot of success with coconut oil so I have started trying that.  It has the added benefit of preventing split ends as well.

I also heard from a friend who has struggled with this problem that tea tree oil helps.  I mixed some into my shampoo to see if that will alleviate the problem.

If all of these solutions do not help, I think I will have to go to the doctor because it is probably psoriasis.  Hopefully it won't come to that.

After using these solutions for about a week, things seem to be getting a bit better.  My scalp is less itchy and doesn't seem to be scabbing as much!