EP80: Alzheimer's Disease Care: 3 Tips to Shampoo Hair in Sitting in a Chair

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I went home to help my 70-year old mother take care of my 91-year old grandmother, who'd been in a nursing home for a year and a half during COVID. Grandma Trudie was extremely debilitated and my Mom needed me to help her figure out how to provide basic care - including how to wash her hair.  In this episode, which is part of a 3-part series on Alzheimer's Care, I will give you 3 Tips for how to shampoo someone’s hair while sitting in a chair. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">My Grandma Trudie has pretty significant seborrheic dermatitis on her scalp, which is a common skin condition that causes scaly red patches, red skin, and stubborn dandruff. Treatment for it involves using a certain type of shampoo to remove the buildup of dead skin with gentle removal of the dead skin a few times a week until it clears up.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On top of not being able to recline or having the setup of a beautician's shop, she is also always cold - so we needed to wrap her up and make sure we didn't get her wet (or make a mess!) </span></p> <p><strong><em>3 Tips to Shampoo Hair in Sitting in a Chair</em></strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">✔️</span> <strong>Tip 1: Be organized and make sure that you have all of the equipment you will need.</strong> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Prepare a couple of towels and washcloths, and then have the special shampoo that you need to wash somebody's hair with. We had a brush and then a comb that had two different layers to it, which would allow us to gently brush the dry skin off of her scalp and then comb it out of her hair.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">✔️ </span> <strong>Tip 2: How to Shampoo Hair in a Chair. </strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We didn’t need to run the water on her, because her hair is so thin that we could wet it with a washcloth. We added her medicated shampoo and used the brush to gently massage her scalp. Then we had her lean forward a litt