Pimples?

So about a month ago I made the decision that I needed to transition to washing my hair less often, mainly because I figured out that showering is my largest personal usage of water and california is low on water resources (and, as a lesser secondary reason, I wanted my semi-permanent special effects hairdye to last longer). I used to wash and condition every day, showers took me about 10-12 minutes. Even with my low-flow showerhead that's 20gal. I posted to longhair and got a variety of advice, including someone who pointed me here. I have been reading ever since then and I haven't seen anyone with my problem post and I can't find a "pimples" or "acne" tag so maybe noone else has had this problem. But I figure it can't hurt to ask.

If I skip a day of washing my hair, even if I do a water-only wash that day, I get pimples. 1-3 new pimples form for every day skipped. This is not psoriasis and it is not dandruff - it's definitely pimples as they look like the ones on my face and there is no flakey or dry skin accompanying them. I seem to have very acne-prone skin in general - at age 31 I still get pimples on my face and occasionally shoulders, but for some reason the ones on my scalp bother me more (I always manage to break them open running my fingnails over my scalp and then they bleed). The ones on my scalp ARE preventable - just by washing every day (if I do this religiously I only get one or two every few months).

I even saw a dermatologist about my acne a few years back. His solution was to put me on antibiotics for a very long time and all that accomplished was to reduce them slightly but not eliminate them. I gave up after about 2 years because I didn't think the idea of being on antibiotics constantly was good (I've always thought of them as more of an emergency measure, not to be abused - the world does not need more antibiotic-resistant bacteria!). The pimples on my scalp seem to be caused by the grease blocking up pores so the idea of waiting through a greaseball detox period scares the heck out of me - I'm afraid that by the end of it my scalp would be one massive bleeding wound.

Things that I have tried:
- dry shampoo with cornstarch (created gummy mess as the cornstarch mixed with the grease and refused to comb back out)
- lavendar tea rinse (smelled nice but did not lessen grease or prevent pimples)
- rosemary tea rinse (same)
- tea tree oil massaged into scalp after hair dried (same)
- apple cider vinegar rinse (did not prevent pimples OR smell nice! reduced grease slightly over water only but not much.)
- baking soda rinse + ACV rinse (stripped my hair and made it feel like straw. was SHOCKED that people consider this less harsh than shampoo. maybe I need a weaker solution (I used 1c water plus, uh, some. I didn't measure, just sprinkled a little in). applied conditioner to hair the same day so I don't actually know if it would have prevented pimples had I waited a day)
- wooden-tooth brush to distribute scalp oil (doesn't remove enough oil to eliminate pimpling and, damn, I just don't have the patience to brush my hair that much)
- conditioner-only (reduces time it takes to wash my hair, but still needs to be done daily or I get pimples)

So, as of this writing I am conditioner-only. I haven't actually used shampoo on my hair in three weeks. I alternate between Max Green Alchemy scalp rescue conditioner and Avalon Organics tea-tree mint treatment conditioner, both of which are all-vegetarian no-harsh-chemicals earthy-crunchy brands (the latter seems to work a little better on my scalp but the former works better on the length of my hair and I love love love the smell - it's like lemongrass - so I can't pick just one). I sometimes use ShiKai color-reflect conditioner on just the length (never the scalp) but mostly that's because I have some I need to use up and when that is gone I won't buy more (it's all natural too but it seems like it would be too strong for my scalp and it contains dimethicone).

I was shocked to find that there was NO transition period with CO! I just switched to using conditioner on my scalp instead of shampoo on my scalp and, voila, my hair is still clean and happy! The conditioner absorbs the scalp oil and dirt and allows it to rinse out! I do find that it looks and feels slightly greasier than with my old shampoo routine, presumably because the conditioner contains oils itself that are being deposited, but it is such a light shiny oil that I don't mind at all. It does not seem to build up - the level of this oil is the same it was after my first CO wash three weeks ago. I have cut my shower time in half and the hairdye in my hair is lasting longer (I can tell because the water running off my head when I rinse isn't bright purple). This is much progress! It's funny - I always thought CO was just for curly-girls which is why I never tried it before but my hair is stick straight and loving it (that's my hair in the icon).

However, I still can't skip even a single day of washing without getting pimples and this bugs me. Has anyone else here had this problem? Or am I just a freak? Is there any hope of me ever being able to switch to true no-poo or will I have to do daily CO for the rest of my life?