Home Remedies for Itching
Itching can be embarrassing, along with often being extremely irritating and frustrating. Unfortunately, itchiness could be a result of any number of factors, including climate, sun exposure in some cases, a change in diet, and especially side-effects from medications. Keeping humidity in the home around 50% could help, along with drinking plenty of water, but you’ll be happy to know that other home remedies for itching can be used as well.
Rather than reaching for expensive over-the-counter drugs or harmful antibiotics, try a natural home remedy to heal and even prevent itching.
Itchy Scalp? Poison Ivy? Try these Home Remedies for Itching
Hay Fever
Spring brings more than blankets of yellow pollen on windshields; it brings lovely seasonal allergies—known as hay fever—that can affect skin, eyes, ears, and noses. You can even experience these at every change of the season, depending on your body’s sensitivity. You can treat hay fever, and subsequently treat your itchiness, naturally by:
- Drinking herbal tea. Chamomile and peppermint are especially helpful in clearing and even preventing sinus congestion.
- Green tea blocks histamine production and gives a boost to the immune system.
- Try a delicious ginger drink by boiling half of a thumb-sized root in 2 cups of water. Add a tablespoon (or two) of coconut milk and honey to loosen phlegm and help the immune system. And in addition to the numerous health benefits of honey, using locally made honey will help your body recognize that local pollen is not a threat worth all the inflammation and excitement!
- Omega-3 fatty acids may decrease inflammation that results upon exposure to an allergen.
Itchy Scalp
Possible causes of itchy scalp include sunburn, head lice, eczema, over-shampooing (or under-shampooing) hair, or an adverse reaction to chemicals. For itchy scalp, try these simple home remedies for itching:
- Pour 1 part apple cider vinegar and 1 part water onto your scalp and through hair while avoiding your face. This balances the pH of the skin in the case of over-drying, thereby preventing and helping with dandruff. Apple cider vinegar benefits are extremely abundant in general, so it is no surprise the liquid can help with itching as well. The same solution but with witch hazel can calm itching and help heal scratches, too.
- Tea tree oil infused shampoo can heal itchiness and dandruff. It’s also anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, and antiseptic.
- Aloe vera is a natural antifungal, antiviral, and antibacterial cleanser, which makes it a good shampoo in its gel form. It’s also a heavy-duty healer, making it a natural choice for sunburn.
- After shampooing with a gentle cleanser (like aloe vera), try conditioning hair with rosemary-infused coconut oil. Just add a tablespoon of dried or fresh rosemary to the oil or any shampoo.
Poison Ivy and Poison Oak
Those blisters can be quite a pain. To get rid of poison ivy or poison oak naturally:
- Apply a paste of baking soda and apple cider vinegar to the rash. Cooked oatmeal does the trick, too. The paste will draw out toxins and alleviate itching.
- Take a bath in Himalayan crystal salt to flush out toxins and fluids from the rash.
- Take the flesh of aloe leaves or store-bought gel and apply to affected areas and cool irritation.
Jock Itch
This slightly embarrassing condition is caused by a fungal infection that thrives in warm, moist areas (like the groin). Get rid of it by applying any of the following:
- Raw garlic
- Apple cider vinegar (unfiltered)
- Tea tree oil
- Hydrogen peroxide
- Colloidal silver
It’s best to combine these home remedies for itching. Take a warm bath in a cup or more of vinegar and a ½ cup of baking soda.
Eat lots of raw garlic and apply raw slices to affected areas. Try to do this at night before bed to avoid stares! In the morning, use apple cider vinegar instead. Lastly, just let it dry before putting on clothes to prevent carrying the smell.
For mosquito bites or other kind of bug bites that make you itch, check out our article on home remedies for mosquito bites.
Coconut oil is wonderfully soothing for itchy skin – a couple of days and rashes subside in many cases but use it reguarly. Take a spoonful to reduce itchy throats. I also notice it is increasing in price.
I highly recommend Apple Pectin. I have had Atopic Dermatitis (a kind of eczema that is difficult to cure) since I was a baby, and I tried many things that are supposed to be good. Those things did help improve the skin but Apple Pectin does quite wonderfully in reducing the itch more than anything else by reducing the production of histamine. I used to scratch everyday for DECADES but now I just don't feel the itch so much any more. Consequently, my skin is getting better rapidly. Apple Pectin has many other good benefits also, so if you have a stuborn skin problem with uncontrolable itch that drives you crazy, try it. I wish I knew about it decades ago…
Scabies is a horrible malady (skin mites) that causes intense itching and is often misdiagnosed. Scabies is normally treated using a form of pyrethrum based ointment called scabicides, permethrin, that are only available by prescription. The ointment is extremely toxic and people are told they should only use it once every two weeks. A natural approach that works, is to make sure all bedding and clothing are washed daily with borax added and dried thoroughly. Pillows should be dried on high heat for at least 30 minutes, daily. The bed and cloth furniture needs to be sanitized (steamed or sprinkled with borax) or covered for three weeks with an allergen cover. To kill the eggs under the skin, tea tree oil and neem oil mixed with 1/3 olive oil or coconut oil, applied to the rash works and is not toxic. You should also treat your head.
Do take note that there are many causes of itching. Be sure you know what the itch is and what's triggering it first before applying any remedies.
I just feel itchy when I am exposed to dust. Sneezing is not a problem but itchy skin is. Witch hazel seems like a good solution for itchy skin.
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For jock itch, wash, dry & dust with baby talcum!!! Easy.
Try a drop or two of lavender oil in a small spray bottle of filtered water for bugs of any kind that you may run into outside! Also a great freshener for skin and clothes. Wonderful smell!