How I Fixed My Dry, Irritated Scalp With The Help of The Kristin Ess Scalp Line

Another Kristin Ess post?! How lucky are you guys!! I hope you know of my love for Kristin Ess hair products by now because it seems like every review I do of her products I just ramble on and on about how big of a fan I am. I’ve done posts on her core cleansing and style products (read here), her limited edition Christmas products (read here) and now, her scalp line! Side note: I hate the word scalp. It just sends shivers down my spine. It’s in the same category as moist and blouse. Let’s ban these words from our vocabularies y’all.

My scalp health never used to worry me. It wasn’t something I paid much attention to. I would just shampoo my scalp, condition my ends and that was that. However, a couple of months ago, my scalp started to get really dry and flakey. It was red and irritated and just not cute. I went through a lot of trial and error trying to get my scalp back to it’s normal state. I tried tea tree shampoos thinking there was build-up of product on my scalp, I tried thick conditioning masks thinking my scalp was just dry and I tried switching up my hair part thinking my scalp was sunburnt. I don’t know, y’all. I am not used to worrying about the skin under my hair. Usually it’s just the skin on my face I have to worry about. I wish I could say it was these Kristin Ess products that ultimately fixed my scalp but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. The solution was so much more simple than that. I was watching Zoolander (for the first time, I know, I know) a couple of weeks ago and Derek tells Matilda, “With your complexion, you really shouldn’t be wearing your hair pulled back that tight. It pulls back the skin on your forehead, creating a tension which clogs the pores. That’s why you have some light pattern dryness around your scalp” (Zoolander, 2001). So here I am, watching this movie and this lightbulb goes off in my head. Like holy shit. Could that be why I have a dry scalp?! I wear my hair in a low tight ponytail 24/7. I style my hair a couple of times a week but if I’m too tired in the morning and don’t have time, throwing my hair into a low bun or pony is my go-to hairstyle. And so, for the past week, I have stopped wearing my hair in low, tight ponytails. And guess what?! All the redness and irritation and dryness has gone away. It’s a miracle! So thank you, Derek Zoolander, for fixing all of my skincare problems. Wow.

But anyways, enough about Zoolander and his brilliance, we have some awesome Kristin Ess products to talk about. The first product is the Bubble Mask ($14USD/$18.49CAD). I was so intrigued by this one! You have to shake this up a ton (we’re talking like five straight minutes of shaking, it’s a workout) and then dispense a golfball-size amount of product into your hand and disperse on your dry scalp before hopping in the shower. This is the dream scalp detoxifying product. It instantly removes oil, build-up, dead surface skin cells and debris. Plus it’s such a soothing feeling with this cold, bubbling mask fizzing away on your scalp! Think pop rocks but on your scalp instead of inside your mouth. It’s fun!

The next product is the Scalp Scrub ($14USD/$18.49CAD). I have tried a similar product to this from Kerastase called the Gommage (review here). As much as I do love that hair scrub, it’s $50 and just a lil’ out of my budget. So, I was super excited to see that Kristin Ess had launched a super similar product for just a fraction of the price! This Scalp Scrub removes flakes, product build-up, excess sebum, and hard water deposits from the scalp through super gentle exfoliation. It’s not a harsh scrub at all. And, because it’s formulated with sugar particles, it helps to keep natural moisture in your hair instead of drying it out like a typical salt scrub would. One of the reasons I especially love this scrub (as opposed to the Kerastase scrub) is because it has a pointed nozzle that allows me to apply the scrub directly to my roots and get right in there! I then go in with my fingertips to gentle massage my scalp and disperse the product! And voila! A build-up free scalp!

The last product I decided to try from Kristin Ess’ scalp line was the Micellar Shampoo ($12USD/$15.99CAD). I wanted a shampoo to use once a week in between a more nourishing shampoo and these other scalp products. This shampoo is super gentle and uses Micellar technology to carefully wash away dirt, grit, product build-up and excess oils from your scalp, without stripping away natural oils. The Micellar Water attaches to oil and dirt particles on the hair and draws them out like a magnet, leaving your hair and scalp feeling clean and healthy with a shiny finish. It’s not going to strip your hair like a normal purifying shampoo! And once again, I love that this shampoo bottle has a pointed tip allowing me to dispense the product directly on my scalp! Kristin Ess really does think of everything.

So those are the three products that I decided to try out to help fix my scalp predicament. And even though Zoolander turned out to be my saving grace, I still ended up loving all three of these products and I will continue to use them to just help my overall scalp health! But one word of advice: do not and I repeat, do NOT use all three of these products at the same time or even within the same week. I like to alternate through these products, one at a time, through a three week cycle. AKA one product per week. We don’t want to be over-exfoliating our scalp. Ugh for someone who really hates the word scalp, I’ve used it far too many times in this post (36 times to be exact).

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