addicted to scratching the dandruff flakes from my head

I know I'm a little young but I am a 13 year old girl and I have the same problem as most of yall. I am part african american so my hair is how i say hard to tame when i wash it. so i dont wash my hair every other day (thats when I take showers!) so my dandruff is on over load! But the digging started in 6th grade that figures from elementary to middle school nerve racking! Any way you could say I was a known kid in school but for bad reasons like being too goofy and a nerdy girl! In 5th grade being goofy was cool and i had glasess and it didnt matter! But in 6th grade glasess are a NO NO! contacts was the word hanna montanah, i carly THROW IT AWAY! victorias seceret was the word! so anyway i would usually scratch my head because of an itch untill one day i was in bed stroking my scalp!!!! and i felt something hard and me being a very curiouse girl picked it and looked at it and then ATE IT! it tasted like nothing but the crunch was awsome to me later i found out it was a scab i didnt care! But i would mostly do it at school you know when taking a test i didnt study for and id find alot of dandruff because you know the african american hair thing but i just ate it and went on with my life! Ok summer vacation i only scratched when itchy but then 7th grade came zooming around the corner and it was even worse wearing things like mini skirts, fruity dresses and all now me being me i was kind of a tom boy but only with what i wore like instead of skirts i wore jeans ok never owned a perfume bottle in my life look 7th GRADE CHANGED ME usually i was the one who could care less about dress up days or crazy hair day that changed i would be the one who would over do it and make it in the year book! ANYWAY! alot of stress i would start to find myself finding scabs at lunch, during tests, during class, during the bus ride, during gym, during violin class EVERYWHERE OK? Then it started getting worse like when im at home watching TV ill pick it but it came naturally to me like english i wouldnt even have to think about it! O.M.G. when im doing this while wearing black merry chrismas! Now i will not stop till i find all the scabs in my head or get what i call all of the dandruff! sometimes i would perpously dig in my scalp till it bleeds just so in the morning ill have a fresh scab to eat! Thats horrible! I only made myself bleed 3 times but getting to that point is bad but i just get toilet paper wipe it up and keep scratching! What can i say i have a problem : ( its afecting my life like when i dig hard i cant comb, brush,or even style my hair till my head heels I dont know what to do I need help all my mom says is stop digging but she doesnt understand i cant:-)

hi i am pretty young like 13 and have that to i would recommend looking for a certain shampoo for your dandruff problems. I wouldnt scratch your head and then touch your face as well.... When you take showers first put the shampoo in your hair and while washing your hand strand your fingers through your hair make sure you wash good and repeat and if you tink about it its better than having lice :)

i am 19 and have the same problem. not sure why my dandruff wont go away. it is quite embarassing actually. i mix mayo, olive oil and one raw egg yolk and i mix them, put it in my hair, massage my scalp, and wrap a towel around it for 25 minutes. then i rise and was twice. it hydrates my hair and i dont have an itch for weeks. you can try and let me know how it works!

Hi, im 13 and im so glad to find out that other people have this "disorder". i just want to stop but when i try to i find myself doing it without evan knowing. i like to scratch off bigger flakes. i dont evan have itching. i just like to pick big flakes off my scalp. i probably have my hands in my hair 1/16 of the day. i think i might try the rubber band trick or maybe chew more gum. ill do it for a couple weeks and let yall know how it goes.

well i went to the hairdressers this morning and for the second time now when she back combed my hair the metal comb she was using got caught on the only scab i have on my head that was almost healed. It was removed clean off and bled quite a bit. It was embarassing to say the least.

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Hi, im 13 and im so glad to find out that other people have this "disorder". i just want to stop but when i try to i find myself doing it without evan knowing. i like to scratch off bigger flakes. i dont evan have itching. i just like to pick big flakes off my scalp. i probably have my hands in my hair 1/16 of the day. i think i might try the rubber band trick or maybe chew more gum. ill do it for a couple weeks and let yall know how it goes.

well i went to the hairdressers this morning and for the second time now when she back combed my hair the metal comb she was using got caught on the only scab i have on my head that was almost healed. It was removed clean off and bled quite a bit. It was embarassing to say the least.

the largest flakes ive had are half the size of my little finger nail, i often wonder - what is the largest dandruff flake ever produced?? My laptop keyboard is covered in flakes as i type this....

Since I can remember
yes two different school a year until Jr. High
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes and no I usually feel around until I find some
27 white Female Alabama

I started scratching my ear now too

Ok everyone I would like to share my lifelong struggle with Dandruff and how I have learned to control it, I grew up in a home where my father had dandruff and we all used his brush, first mistake, now everyone  in the home is exposed to the fungus that causes dandruff, the fungus feeds on the Sebum (oil) in your scalp, my scalp is very oily the same as my fathers, fungus thrives on Sebum to live, however the one thing that promotes Fungal growth is moisture, I had always allowed my hair to dry on it's own, I never used dryers because I assumed dryers would promote dandruff by drying out the scalp. 2nd mistake. Now my head therapy consists of using the following I first wash my hair with Tea Tree Shampoo which contains Tea Tree Oil and is a good natural shampoo which isn't harsh as I also have a chemical sensitivity, then I use two of the following four shampoos, each time I shower, Neutragena T-gel Extra Strength (Coal Tar), Nizoral (2% Ketoconozole), Matrix Essentials Actrol (Pyrthione zinc) and Keratase Specifique (mutiple anti-dandruff ingredients) this combination of therapys controls by dandruff with the addition of the follwing post shower I use an brush with built in UV lights this will kill off some of the fungus and blow dry my hair with a good quality hair dryer on cool setting. I finally am able to go relatively dandruff free, although when I travel my dandruff seems to flair up possibly due to using others shampoos available in hotels etc. and change in humidity and climate. In any case I hope this may help you all out as I understand the struggle I realize some of you enjoy the flakes I certainly don't I think some of you are obsessed with the flakes due to the irritation and itchiness dandruff causes. Another option is to invest in comb brush sterilization equipment. Best of  luck to everyone.

Love from no longer a flake.

my brother has small pieces and sometimes big on the front of the hair line. he said the top of his head was itchy. the crown area. He asked me to look cause he scratched and nothing came off. he knew there was crusty dandruff/scab cause his hair was pressed different ways. i looked and said i see nothing. upon further review, it was so big i didnt see the edges. used a metal comb. if you touch your pointer finger to your thumb it was close to that size jagged.he asked me to help him out....ive posted before my poor brother will have this dandruff that was so attached to his scalp you couldnt see or feel it. but the itch would cause him to scratch and it lift off the scalp from nowhere. So your talking to a girl confident about your new hair cut and no dandruff seen in the mirror. then you go out talk to a girl and you get such an accute itch that your body reacts scratching franticly. He scrached and 5 M+M sized pieces went flying. a couple on to her face one right into her clevage and one big pieces floating in her drink. he handed her a 20 and said im so emberassed went to leave....she grabbed him by the arm and told him that she loves picking peoples dandruff!!!!!! they have been together ever since and she puts on her black shirt and grooms him and has a look on her face like she is getting it like crazy. what a great girl....back to the guiness book piece....so i have this piece up and trying to slide the hundreds of hairs out. it broke into a bunch of giant pieces...like earth from space all the continents. it was quiet in the house and yes the pieces made sounds while hitting the ground.....ill show you a pic his hair lots of druffers and with giant pieces......

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 and lots of dandruff but look at how thick? hole head when scratched, picked and combed...2 day total of almost a quarter pound.

it goes to show you that by being isolated on different continents really can screw up your immune system. hell even a few states away can change it. alot of people go to france and get skin rashes and some develop awful dandruff. i mean to the point where its not fun to scratch anymore because so much comes off it can be inhaled causing irritation with sever couhing. i have seen it the ER . rarely but the dandruff is just eating the scalp and when they tried to clear it with a metal comb it was so thick on the face when the person inhaled to breathe theyd start screaming because all they got was a throat filled of sludge due to saliva and dandruff scales. they eventuallu used the metal comb with lots of pressure, demerol a powerful pain killer actually was used! with short deep scrapes they loosed they crust until it looked like a prank. it looked like snow dumped on his head. they finally wised up and gave the person an O2 mask and used a large tube with suction. the point of worry is that if dandruff turns into this something like hiv aids actually is worse if contracted in those countries. like dandruff they become more poweful if you can believe that, hiv turning to aids in months and ARV's dont work.....check out this article..

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 I am NOT a doctor or am not making any relation between hiv and dandruff i am simply pointing out that travel as stated bt hal can have weird adverse health effects. hal seems very smart. maybe he can add more to the travel part???

lol this is what happens to my dad i am always taking out his flakes and dandruff .

You don't know how relived I am to know I'm not alone. I have been doing this for almost a year now. I am not as extreme as your story but I'm afraid that it will. Is there a specific name for this disorder?

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I am so happy to learn that I am not alone in this situation! I've been thinking about it the past couple weeks to google it and finally did it today and what a relief that I'm not alone! I am a 24 y/o female and I have been doing this for twelve years. I used to yell at myself like "agh, what am I doing stop it. This isn't normal." But as time progressed I've become extremely dependent on it and don't want my dandruff to go away. Even when I don't have dandruff I will scrape at my skin with my fingernails, fingernail clippers, scissors, knives, etc to get some skin to come up to pull or pick at. My fingernails are always digging at the the top of my head and I take a comb and make little sections so I can see if there is dandruff there to scrape off and sometimes if there is I will take tweezers and try to pull the skin off one by one. Then on the back of my head I roughly drag my fingertip across and check my finger when it's done. When I would wash my hair it would burn because of removing all the skin on my head. It's an awful habit that is so hard to break. For years I've thought something is seriously wrong with me to be doing this type of behavior. In the past I've tried stopping and found myself picking up other odd behaviors, such as, tweezing and pulling at my nose hair I've caused scabs in my nose and have actually perm removed some of my skin inside my nose from doing it so much. I've stopped doing that, thankfully, but now I'm back to doing the whole dandruff thing again. I've even started scratching at my forehead when my face is dry or right above my eyebrows too where I get dry skin sometimes.

I've been monitoring when I've been doing it and I usually only do it when I'm unable to handle my emotions (either when I'm stressed, sad, or angry) so what I've been doing since is when I get the strongest urge I run to the bathroom and wet my hair down because I have no desire to mess with my scalp while I have damp hair. It's been working pretty good actually. Or sitting on my hands if I'm watching tv or a movie. The only other thing I would suggest is getting shampoo that controls dandruff (either by the store or clinically) EVEN if you don't want to. and if you can't handle that then I would recommend going to a therapist to receive treatment for the OCD and or behavioral/ mental disorder.
I know that it's something really really hard to break but it's much better for your/our skin if you/we stop this asap before the damage becomes more permanent.

You don't know how relived I am to know I'm not alone. I have been doing this for almost a year now. I am not as extreme as your story but I'm afraid that it will. Is there a specific name for this disorder?

well im a male of 37, have my hair cut shortish, yet again my hairdresser caught a scab that had nearly healed and ripped it clean off with the metal comb she was using, i washed and conditioned my hair twice a day for two days followed by a wash and conditioner this morning before having my hair cut as dont like going with a head full of dandruff. It thankfully doesnt take that long to return so i can do the dandruff snow shower thing. I just love taking photos of my dandruff shower in a dark room- this makes ghostly looking orbs in the photos. Try it, you will be amazed how the dandruff is captured!!

He definitely has dandruff but most of you other people have dry scalp. I thought for years that i suffered from dandruff but its actually dry scalp. Dandruff is a fungus thats why its so itchy and neverending. For those of u who have dry scalp wash ur hair more once every two weeks it should be every few days. For those that want giant dandruff wash less. (Which is really gross btw) head n shoulders has a good dry scalp shampoo that works wonders.

So here's another one for you. I'm a 28 year old. I thought this habit was starting to diminish but today has been off the charts. It's so weird to talk about, none the less with other people who seem to have the same or a very similar problem. I'm honestly surprised at how many other people seem to have problems with this as well.