Natural Remedies for Scalp Infections

Posted by Miss M (New York) on 05/03/2020
★★★★★

I'm glad I found Earth Clinic.

Was at my wits end battling itchy, scratchy scalp. Like others I spend a fortune on shampoos, and deems and had zero luck. My scalp was always irritated and it actually made me feel sick. What worked for me as last treatment I mixed baking soda and borax into a paste and massage into my scalp and left on for ten minutes, then diluted it some in shower massaging mixture into skin. After rinsing followed up with Apple cider vinegar. Miracle! No peeling skin, or flakes. Amazing. I have a habit of touching my scalp from this affliction of a year, and there are no plaques! Ecstatic that such a simple remedy actually works. I have have also been using one part vinegar, one part 3 percent peroxide, pinch of borax, then the rest water as spray during the day, but what really worked was the baking soda and borax mixture. I did try just borax but it didn't give me the results. I am taking anti candida fungal herbals pau darco, caprylic acid, probiotics. Coconut yogurt.

Posted by Poppy (Alabama) on 04/03/2017
★★★★★

You can do it like that. I had scalp sores so tried borax. My recipe was borax in water to make a paste, then add dish liquid. Apply to hair, lather it up, and let it sit for about 5 minutes. That helped a lot, but now I do this: stir borax into water, no need to measure because you want to dissolve as much as you can. Then you let the solid borax that cannot dissolve settle onto the bottom. Pour off the borax-saturated water, add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and a tablespoon of hydrogen peroxide and mix. Apply to your head, being careful not to let it drip into your eyes. I do this while standing in the shower and just keep my head out of the water. I leave it on long enough to get the rest of me clean, so 5-10 minutes, and then rinse.

Posted by Lisa ( Syracuse, Ny ) on 04/26/2015
★★★★★

I've been suffering with a fungal infection on my scalp and skin for 15 plus years. It took me 14 of those years to actually get a proper diagnosis, that a fungus was actually the culprit. I get what looks almost like mosquito bites on my scalp, skin-mainly neck, back, upper shoulders and occasionally legs.I start with an intense itch that burns and feels prickly. I scratch until it bleeds .A scab forms and it constantly itches.The scabs take a very long time to heal. So at any given time I usually have 100 or more of these in various stages. I went through total hell. At one point I was putting high heat on my head and skin thinking it would help. It made it ten times worse. Hence heat spreads fungus. Unbeknownst to me, it got so bad I thought it was scabies.

Went to every Emergency Room and urgent care as well as family practice docs. None were helpful at all.They looked at me as if I were dirty and crazy! To the contrary I am extremely obsessively clean. Finally had one doc scrape a small inflamed area and analyze it under a microscope.I have tried everything from lindane to nix, creams, topical and oral benadryl, calamine, apple vinegar, tea tree oil, Alcohol, bleach...

Borax was the only thing that has worked! It's amazing! 3Tb borax with 1 liter of aloe vera(100%). Massage into affected areas after shower and at bed.I am 85% healed.Some of my scalp was severe. So it's going to take a bit to completely heal. Literally spent thousands and dealing with an itch that has kept me from sleeping some nights. For under $5 and about 5mins to massage borax I am almost all healed! I recommend this to anyone suffering with itching/skin inflammation. It's truly a miracle. Finally after 15 years, almost completely healed! It's been a long time coming!

Posted by Jon Cynthia (Connelley Springs, Nc) on 06/22/2013
★★★★★

Scalp sores, bumps and itching: I too have had problems with this condition. I purchased the Borax, peroxide and dish detergent put in small bowl mix to a runny consistancy, wet my hair then, slathered the mixture on my head while in shower(don't get hair wet).

After bathing, I then rubbed mixture like shampoo into hair/scalp rince complety. I woke up this A.M. and no itch, bumps reduced in size and open spots were closed with scabs. I will do this 2-3 times a week and I believe this will end my scalp problem. Thanks for the heads up. (no pun intended).

Posted by Shaun (Olde York, Uk) on 02/19/2012
★★★★★

Hi James from Waterford, I had this same issue for about the same length of time as I have variously reported here on EC. I too am cured! Anyway, what you may find you also have to do is wash/rinse your hair with Milk of Magnesia from time to time. This really helped me 'nail it' in the end. Good luck, Shaun

Posted by James (Waterford, Mi) on 02/18/2012
★★★★★

I am a 57 y/o male and have had scalp problems my whole life which seemed to be increasingly worse the last 20 years. I have been to doctor(s) dermatologists, tried all of the dandruff shampoos, creams, etc .. I had really given up and figured I had to just live with this scourge. I would develop welts or zits on my scalp which would itch , ooze / bleed and crust over, eventually heal and then the process would start all over again. I would spend everyday picking the irritating crusts and scabs off my scalp. It WAS miserable.

After finding this site I decided to give the BORAX a try. OMG, I can't believe it. My scalp is completely healed and for the first time I know what it is like to have a normal scalp. The kicker is (as others have stated) my hair comes out so soft and manageable it is amazing, better than any shampoo / conditioner ever. I will never use shampoo again.

Simply dissolve the borax in water. I would use 1/2 to 2/3 cup per gallon ( if its too much you will get some borax crystals in the bottom of the jug no big deal) Soak your hair in it and shampoo into the scalp. I leave it in while I shower, and then rinse it out. I have been following that with the ACV / H202 solution that TED recommends and rinse again. I may discontinue the ACV rinse but so far I haven't wanted to mess with a good thing.

It has been about eight weeks and my problem is cured. It only took about two or three shampoos to cure it but I wanted to wait and make sure before posting here. Thanks to everyone who is supporting this website, it is like a miracle to me. My only regret is that I didn't know this 40 years ago.!

PS and the dandruff is next to zero too!

Posted by Patti (Babylon, New York, Usa) on 03/09/2010
★★★★★

This site is really pretty cool, thanks for all the suggestions! For many years I suffered from a VERY itchy scalp and I could no longer take it and was very close to just ripping it all out!! Then I read all this stuff about Borax and I gave it a try for the first time last night and I used 1/2 a cup of Borax with a half gallon of water and scubbed my scalp and rinsed it off with warm water, and I did the same tonight, and my scalp feels great! But after doing all this do I then Shappoo it or just use Borax??I want to do this for at least a week and then once aweek, but it does make my hair look dull, unless I'm doing it wrong or too much, but NO MORE ITCHING!! and that's what counts, Praise God for your site, Thanks, but please let me know if I'm supose to shampoo after this treatment with the borax, Thanks :)

Posted by Shelly (Mesa, Az) on 01/14/2010
★★★★★

Wow! I am totally thrilled with Ted and his borax suggestion! My daughter came home from camp with head lice and I ended up with them also-June 09. I bought Nix and killed the lice, but... I was still having that "crawly" feeling. I used the Nix 2 more times as well as about 6 different remedies and shampoes but I got itchier and itchier. Little did I know that all of these treatments messed up the Ph of my scalp and that was the cause of all the itching and the pin prick feeling. Last Sunday night I mixed a couple of tablespoons full of borax in some warm water and used it as a hair rinse in the shower. Monday I was about 85% better! In the morning I applied a little Borax water to my scalp and massaged in. I have been repeating this process everyday and today (Thursday) and I am probably 95%. My hair looks and feels great too!! I can't believe something I have been cleaning my carpets with and adding to my dishwasher detergent cured my scalp problem. So much for the health food stores $12 shampoe! This remedy REALLY works~~

Posted by NANCY (ANDERSON, SOUTH CAROLINA) on 02/21/2009
★★★★★

I used the 20 mule team borax last night as a shampoo ... It is the best my head has felt in 32 years. And now I know trichotillomania is not a condition of bad nerves, I believe this is either a mite under the skin or a fungus. And dr.s wont help .they don't want to admit there is no cure. They just keep you coming back and shoving more money in their pockets.I have 5 sores on my head,4 of them have been ther for 2 or more years 1 of them for about 1 year their always sore or half heald and sore underneath. After using the borax last night. 3 are healed and no soreness under neith, and 2 are very slightly sore this morning. My scalp feals like scalp and my hair feels like normal hair ...... Absolutly amazing. If it is a mite.. I'm getting rid of all the pillows. I just recently moved here and and bought a water bed, so that is new and no mites in the mattress. I will continue this treatment on mon .wed and fri. For a month and then go to the acv and peroxide if needed.i have also used tea tree shampoo for about 10 years it has helped but not cured.. I did use tea tree oil straight about 6 weeks ago 1 time maybe that did help some. But nothing has worked like the 20 mule team borax and my hair is soft and shining and manageable today first time in 32 years, amazing.

Posted by Lynn (USA) on 01/04/2008
★★★★★

What a wonderful site! I find so much honest mindblowing information on this site. I already know quite a bit about herbs and vitamins but I am really being educated to some incredible healing therapies here. I have fallen in love with borax. I have had an itchy scalp for 10 years. When I say that it sounds pretty benign, but it has dominated my existence, alternating between itching, inflammation, tenderness, prickliness, numbness and downright pain. I noticed that it had a hormonal connection, but because my head "talked to me" with all of the above symptoms, I touched and tugged on individual hairs to calm my head. Of course I knew it wasn't working and it only made matters worse, but there was a "reaction".

I have purchased rogaine, shampoos, conditioners, pills, anti itch sprays, etc and the list goes on. I happened on a diatribe on curezone, and they mentioned borax and also earthclinic. so I went to this site and found a ton of amazing information. Of course the light bulb goes off. The next morning I mixed some borax in water and poured it on my scalp. Small amounts of tingling pain. My hair felt silky but stronger and thicker. My hair looked fantastic, but the other noticeable thing was that my scalp didn't itch. Later on in the day, there were tiny scabs where the small bumps would show up.(I know I didn't mention that earlier, but neither did I mention that my hair didn't feel like it was firmly connected into my scalp either) I knew that I had found a solution to what has been driving me crazy.

I really wonder if the people who pull out their hair are reacting to some of the same conditions that I have been experiencing for so long. I no longer feel like I need to "play" with my hair. when I say play with it, I actually mean that I was pulling a lot of it out. I was not trying to pull it out, but I felt that if I just ran my nail down the length of it that I would somehow "fix the individual hairs, and sometimes they would come out, because as I said they were not firmly rooted into my scalp. I take away the symptoms with the borax and I no longer need to touch the hair. I think they call it tricholotomia or something like that.

I have a question and I don't know if anyone has an answer, but my brother in law has a bone chip on his ankle. He has had surgery once to "fix" it but it didn't work, the pain is back, and he is once again, walking with a cane. I don't know how big this bone chip is, but is there anyway to either dissolve the bone chip, or to get the bone chip to attach to his ankle?

anyway, I am glad this site is out here in cyberspace where people can get real and helpful information and not have to pay 150.00 for either a non answer from a doctor ( I brought my scalp problem up 3 times with 2 different doctors and they would look at my scalp and offer zero advice or help) or an answer which doesn't do crap or hurts you. I don't know about you but when I pay a doctor 150.00 and they either don't answer my question or whatever they do doesn't work, I think I should get my money back. Speaking of doctors, I went to one once because I was sick two days before I was going on a long vacation. I diagnosed myself and knew that I had rocky mountain fever. My father in law had gone hunting and his wife cooked some of the meat that he brought back. They both had come down with it. I had heard my mother in law say how hard it was to diagnose. I had all the symptoms but I tend to get really gassy and nausous. I DID not want to be sick on christmas vacation around family.

I went to dr. before I left, explained what I had, symptoms, and why. He said absolutely nothing to me, gave me some anti nausea meds and sent me on my way. They did nothing. I got some charcoal pills before I left because the dr. hadn't helped at all. I spent 10 days in bend ore. sick as a dog, Toward the end I felt like my insides were starting to dissintegrate. I separated myself from everyone because of the terrible gas. I finally started to have diahhrea just before we left (I have always been constipated) It took us two days driving home in the snow. I went to a check medical as soon as I got home (different doctor) I told the doctor, I know I have rocky mountain fever, just give me the meds, you can run the tests but I can not live with this another day. He gave me the drugs. Two days later, they called to say indeed I had rocky mountain fever. I was so pissed at the other doctor for ruining my vacation. Of course this was about 17 years ago before wonderful access to web information. But that doctor was so arrogant he could not stand having a patient telling him what was wrong. Thank god for the second doctor because I was ready to kill myself by then rather than feel like my insides were literally pulling away from their internal walls, feeling constantly nauseated, but not being able to throw up. Sorry, I am still pretty angry about it and I have never called or said anything directly to that doctor. I simply never went to his office again. sincerely. me

Posted by rhonda (seattle) on 12/03/2007
★★★★★

I learned about borax on curezone for itchy painful scalp and decided to try it. Someone else on this site has mentioned how nice her hair is as a result of using the borax. I have NEVER used a hair product- a shampoo or a conditioner that has equalled the lustruous results I have achieved with borax. My hair was dry and straw like now it feels soft and silky and very manageable. The rats nest is gone! I can now comb and brush my hair again without fear of tearing my hair out. If for no other reason, I think everyone should abondon their shampoo and start using borax to wash the hair. As for my scalp? I was pretty desperate the day I tried the borax. My scalp was very sore, there was an inflamed (swollen) ridge on my part and there were tiny bumps like zits forming. I have a theory that hair pullers are reacting to whatever it is that causes these symptoms I experience. I started messing with my hair when I started experiencing all of the above. anyway. after using the borax, pain and itching subsided. bumps scabbed over that same day. soooo gentle. Have you noticed that if you get it in your eyes, it does not burn? I remember when I was a kid, I had some sort of eye infection so I went to the doc and he said I had pink eye and prescribed boric acid ointment. so of course it would be gentle to the eye. I am anxious to try it internally for some of the other issues I have read here on the site.(arthritis, tmj, fibromyalgia).