All of us, at some point in life, have needed a fast-fix dandruff remedy—a shampoo or cream with an active ingredient that kills the fungal buildup and soothes any itching or inflammation. It’s never fun, and it’s decidedly not cute either: Thank goodness for ball caps, let’s leave it at that.

As the saying goes, “the best offense is a good defense”, which is fitting when it comes to dandruff prevention and overall scalp health. If you get ahead of the problem, then you never have to treat the problem. So, while we’d happily endorse all those treatments with ingredients like pyrithione zinc and ketoconazole, we’d bigger advocates of a proactive and nourishing scalp care regimen.

In many guys’ grooming routines, scalp care is in a nebulous gray area, stuck between hair care and skin care. In truth, it’s a little bit of both those two categories. After all, the scalp is all skin, but it’s also housing all of your hair follicles. Hence, proper and consistent scalp nourishment can prevent dandruff and promote thicker, full hair growth by preserving the overall balance of things up there. While dandruff in and of itself won’t necessarily play an impact on hair health, continued inflammation and buildup at the scalp can compromise circulation and nutrient delivery to the follicles, in turn hindering your hair’s longevity.

To practice your best defense against scalp issues, there are many things you can do to get ahead of any problems. So, start with the following habits and behaviors, and you may never find yourself at the drugstore searching for a fast-fix solution again.

Of the thousands of shampoos out there, make absolutely sure that yours is a hydrating and nourishing one. The brand should advertise as much, and should be able to articulate how its chosen ingredients will nourish the scalp and hairs alike, while also providing a thorough enough cleanse. Take Cardon’s shampoo, for example: We put yeast extract in there to boost hydration levels and to fortify the scalp with antioxidants. Niacinamide also fortifies hair growth and improves circulation in the scalp, which promotes thicker and better anchored growth from the follicles. And those are just the scalp benefits…

If your shampoo is too focused on its cleansing efforts—and not the least bit concerned with preserving the balance and order of things—then it’s going to do more harm than good.

It’s still important to have a moisturizing shampoo, since you want a cleansing agent that doesn’t dehydrate. But your conditioner will do the fortification and actual nourishment. By using it daily (including on non-shampoo days), it’s like giving yourself a little scalp treatment, and it even helps rinse away excess buildup, acting like a nourishing shampoo. Don’t let it replace your shampoo, but allow your conditioner to help you on those non-wash days.

How water and long showers are enemies to hair and skin alike—especially if you have hard water coming from the tap. So, in addition to getting a water filter in order to remove any mineral buildup, you can also try to limit showers to five minutes, and to turn down the temps. This is hard advice for anyone who likes to turn their bathroom into a steamy sauna each day, but your scalp will be significantly better off for it, in terms of preserving hydration. Yes, it may seem counterintuitive to say “less water yields better hydration”, but remember, the hydration in question is actually the natural oils in the skin, and we all know how well oil and water interact…

This tip is an easier pill to swallow: By giving yourself a scalp massage each day—even as your applying shampoo or conditioner— you boost circulation in the area and in turn improve the nutrient delivery to the follicles and skin cells. Doing so in the shower can also help exfoliate any dead skin, preventing those flakes from ending up on your shoulder during the work day. But moreover, this circulation boost is one of the best ways to retain hair in the long haul, due to more fortified growth from those nourished follicles.

If you’ve ever grown out your facial hair (even a month’s worth), then you might have also experienced itching and flaking beneath the scruff. Beard dandruff is very similar to scalp dandruff, and is usually caused by dehydration due to a lack of nourishment. The best way to remedy this—aside from taking colder, shorter showers—is to add a beard oil to your regimen, since this oil can slip past your whiskers and easily moisturize the skin beneath the beard. (It will also coat the beard hairs as well, to help soften and strengthen them, too.) We’d also suggest getting a good beard brush to scrub away dead cells at the end of each day.