A skin pH that is too alkaline can create problems like dandruff, bacterial infections, or fungus. A skin pH below 5 can lead to very dry skin that wrinkles very easily due to lack of sebum. Thus, oily scalp skin usually happens when your pH is too high, towards the alkaline values.

Using shampoos and other hair care products with improper pH levels is one of the reasons why our hair and scalp skin have to suffer by becoming to oily, too dry, affected by dandruff, and so on. Buying shampoo with a normal scalp skin pH of values around 5 is not always easy. You may want to use a certain shampoo but you won’t know its exact pH value. Here are a few tips and hints that can help you with this:

1) Test the pH of your shampoo by using pH strips or a pH meter. These tools come in handy for many things, such as testing the pH of other products and seeing if it is within an acceptable range. A pH meter is more expensive but more accurate and can be used indefinitely for many purposes.

2) Always use lemon or vinegar to rinse your hair after you wash it. Vinegar and lemon have a pH level of about 2.3, which makes them highly acidic. This is enough to restore the normal pH level of the skin and to keep it at a low level. What you need to do is mix two tablespoons of vinegar or the juice of one lemon with a pot of water, which will bring the pH to around 4 or 5, and use this as a final rinse for your hair. It is also recommended to use yogurt and egg for hair. This will keep your scalp non-greasy and your hair will be less rebellious and shinier.

3) Avoid using shampoos that state neutral pH, as that is a value of around 7. Many people recommend using a neutral pH shampoo for oily hair, but this can actually make matters worse as a pH of 7 is too high for our skin, especially oily skin. For those with dry hair or scalp this could be a solution if their skin pH is too low. Most shampoos that you can buy in a supermarket have a pH of around 8 or 9, which is why a lot of people have scalp skin problems in the first place.

4) Avoid going to salons for hair treatments, as they tend to use products that are very harsh for the hair and that unbalance the scalp skin pH. For example, keratin treatments require huge quantities of formaldehyde, a well-known substance that has been linked to cancer. There are also other chemicals contained in hair mousse, hair gel, conditioners, and other hair care products, that are not beneficial for your skin or hair. These products also clog the hair follicles and the skin pores, so your sebum glands start producing more skin oil in order to protect skin from these substances. This leads to a vicious cycle for those that have an oily hair and scalp condition. Bacteria or fungus on our skin can’t survive in an acid environment, so ensuring a proper pH level is a good way to start treating an oily hair condition.

So test your shampoo for pH level, as an improper level can lead to problems like flaking scalp, irritated skin, dandruff, excessive oiliness, dermatitis and scalp psoriasis, eczema, and other problems cause by different type of fungus. Also, conditioners create a lot of oiliness problems too, so making your own home-made conditioner is a good idea, or you can just skip it altogether if possible.