baby dandruff

The prince has had some white flakes in his dark hair lately (not nits, thank god, despite a lice outbreak in his school a few weeks ago), and it turned out to be a patch of cradle cap about the size of a quarter, though he's six years old. I didn't want to go straight to medicated shampoo, because he's still going to get it in his eyes, so I did a home remedy Dr. Google told me: I rubbed some olive oil into his scalp and then washed his hair normally at bath time.

And then afterward, oh my goodness, friends, the dead skin was clogging the comb. I'd told him we might have to do this a few times until his head is better, and I might have lied: it might be entirely cleared up in one go.

If someone you love has seborrhaic psoriasis, consider this an enthusiastic data point in favor of olive oil. Holy crap.

[eta: Yeah so when I put him to bed his head still kind of smelled like a salad (look, of course I sometimes smell his head, I'm his mother), and this morning his hair is still quite stylishly oiled. Put another way, the shampoo didn't really get all the olive oil out. Might have to try to persuade him to do it in a running shower tonight instead of a bath. Still glad the scalp is less crusty, which was the point of the exercise.]