Unfortunately, this seems to be pretty common amongst African American babies. In order to keep the hair from drying out, we use moisturizers, and in turn causes some form of cradle cap.
Cradle cap on the scalp is just an imbalance of oils. The more oil you place on the scalp, the more it thinks it should maintain that level of moisture, so once the oil wears off, the scalp reacts by flaking. It does indeed sound odd to wash a dry scalp daily however the reason for this is the get the scalp to re-adjust to having no oils so it can re-balance itself.
For my children, I specifically avoided oil moisturizers such as Pink Oil, Motions, etc and opted to use a glycerin based moisturizer or "activator", such as S-Curl (spray or lotion), Long-Aid Gel, or Wave Nouveau (spray or lotion). Wave Nouveau is great because it leaves the hair silky.
The glycerin in these products actually are absorbed into the hair to retain moisture unlike most oils that just sit on top of the hair. In addition, glycerin adds elasticity to the hair strands to prevent them from snapping off during styling (which is a major cause of hair damage).
I have also tried using the African Pride Miracle Cream to treat the scalp after the cradle cap was cleared. If you are unable to get the cradle cap to clear up quickly, try using a mild hydrocortisone CREAM (not ointment) on the scalp, face and diaper area until it improves.
I hope this helps!!