Sam is 20 and in her third year of studying graphic design at Coventry University. She has had chronic scalp psoriasis from when she was 7 years old.

BY Sam 4 July, 2007

"I started getting small itchy psoriasis plaques on my scalp when I was 7 years old, my parents were worried that I may have inherited the skin condition that my dad suffers from which is psoriasis, so they were keen to try and get it ruled out by the doctor."

"However, I was not properly diagnosed until four years later. I went through lots of tests but they were never completely sure what I was suffering with. Unfortunately as my parents suspected, I was eventually diagnosed with scalp psoriasis."

"Suffering with scalp psoriasis is really awful as not only is it extremely itchy which is very irritating but it also looks disgusting as you always have bits of flaky scalp in your hair or falling onto your shoulders all the time."

"So as a teenager you can imagine that it dented my confidence quite considerably. On top of this, the treatments I had to use were horrible. The medicated tar shampoo was all gunky and the smell made me want to be sick it was so bad. I could not imagine any boys wanting to go near me smelling of this disgusting smell and with my scalp flaking everywhere."

"It was especially terrible while I was at high school. The problem was that the uniform was black and this meant that the flakes from my scalp showed up really badly on my clothes. It made me quite depressed as I was always really conscious to try and disguise my flaky scalp and ensure I kept the flakes off my clothes so no one would notice them. "

"Because my scalp was so bad I always wore my hair up to prevent flakes getting near my uniform from my hair. I would never let anyone brush my hair or try new style out on my hair as I knew the flakes would come out everywhere and my friends would have thought it was disgusting."

"Whenever there was a party or we went out I always made sure my hair was tied back and would never ever consider wearing it down."

"I felt totally trapped by my condition. I felt like I could never be myself or relax. I could never wear the clothes I liked in the shops, I could not follow any of the latest fashions, I could never let my hair down, I was always fretting and worrying about people noticing my condition and laughing at me, or worse thinking that I had some sort of contagious disease and not wanting to get close to me. I didn’t want to go through my whole life looking over my shoulder in cases people were staring at me."

"My mum spotted an article in the newspaper inviting people to take part in a trial of a new natural range for psoriasis sufferers. I was keen to volunteer to try something new as ultimately I had nothing to loose because anything had to be better than the sticky coal tar stuff I was putting on my scalp."

"I used the Oregon Shampoo, Conditioner and Scalp Spray for a month and the improvement has been amazing. Not only were the products lovely to use, they smelt pleasant and actually left my hair feeling well conditioned. But the main point was that the treatment really cleared my scalp of the flakes and not only this but it has also really prevented them coming back. I hardly have any flakes at all anymore and the results have been so good have been able to wear my hair down without worrying for the first time since I developed scalp psoriasis! I am much more confident about it all now and don’t feel I have to constantly check for flakes all the time. People have started commenting on how lovely my hair is in fact, and say I look totally different with it down – which is really nice to hear."

"The range was lovely to use and it was pure relief that the products didn’t have the nasty smell so many psoriasis treatments have."

"My scalp is so good now I only have to use the range once a week; and can use normal shampoo and conditioner again for the rest of the week which is really great. The hair care range really has helped me so I would definitely recommend anyone with psoriasis to give it a go."