Should you Base Your Scalp?

I always get asked the question of which "hair food" is best for "basing" the scalp? I am not a fan of the tradition hair food as it contains ingredients like Petroleum, Paraffin and sometimes Alcohol which can clog and irritate the scalp.


Firstly lets talk about "basing"! Our bodies are amazing and wonderful machines that regulate our temperature, give us fuel and most importantly they produce an oil called SEBUM which is what helps keep our skin including the scalp and hair moisturized. Everybody produces sebum whether you are black, white, green or tangerine.  However because of the way natural hair grows it makes it difficult for the sebum to travel all the way to the ends of the hair. But sebum is present on our scalp, so should we be basing? My answer is NO however, there are times when your scalp does feel a little dry and can be itchy in these instants I would advise that you base your scalp to moisturize it and to relive the itching.

So what should we be basing with? I wouldn't recommend that you base your scalp for the sake of basing firstly determine whether your scalp actually needs additional oils or moisture, if there is flaking is this caused by product build-up, an irritation, an allergy, or an underlying medical condition? If it is indeed that your scalp is dry and maybe you have some itching from a braid installation then I would recommend that you choose oils that are light and that will not cause further build-up. Oils I would recommend are Jojoba, Grapeseed, Coconut Oil, Sweet Almond Oil, and Rosehip Oil. I am not against basing your scalp with Castor Oil but I am against the abuse of Castor oil, when I use castor oil for any treatments on my body I normally dilute the oil with a lighter oil as it is too heavy and tends to clog my pores. Read this Post: Reasons You should stop abusing Castor Oil

There are also ready made products that you can use to base your scalp with and I always recommend that you find products that are water based as the water in the product will help with moisturizing a dry itchy scalp, try and avoid the ingredients I have mentioned already as they may compound the issue.

As always should you suspect that your scalp irritation is been caused by an underlying medical condition please see a dermatologist or a doctor.

I am interested to know how many of you base you scalp and why? What do you use to base your scalp with? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.


XXX


Isabel