Are you prone to dandruff?

Much as the main culprit for this problem is a skin fungus, stress, poor health, too much sugar and fat in the diet make it worse, writes DR BRIGID MONDA

Dandruff is an itchy, annoying and persistent scalp problem that any one of any age can suffer from but is most common amongst young adults. A form of it, known as cradle cap, occurs in newborns and infants. Seborrhoeic dermatitis or ‘stubborn dandruff’ is a severer form of dandruff.

Most people think that dandruff is due to a dry scalp but this is not the case. A dry scalp occurs when your scalp lacks its natural oils and the scales shed are small and dry.

The underlying problem in dandruff is a skin fungus, called Malassezia furfur found naturally on the skin surface and particularly in the areas where dandruff occurs.

This is what it does to cause dandruff: Normally, the skin all over your body including the scalp constantly sheds off old dead cells and manufactures their replacements in an orderly manner every 28 days or so.

The skin fungus feeds on the natural oils of the scalp and secretes by-products that irritate the skin on the scalp and the scalp reacts to this irritation by increasing the amount and rate of shedding of the skin cells but in a very disorderly manner and in a much shorter period of time — every seven to 21 days.

These departing cells are often not dead before leaving the scalp and rather than being shed as separate microscopic cells as would normally happen, they are shed as large clumps of hundreds or even thousands, giving the dandruff ‘flakes’.

Because the fungus feeds on the natural oils of the skin, it thrives most on areas of skin that tend to be oily: on the scalp face and upper part of the body. That is why dandruff also ccurs in the eyebrows and beard.

tolerance to fungus

Every one’s tolerance to this fungus varies and the lower it is for you, the more likely you are to have dandruff.

Stress, poor health, too much sugar, starches and fat in your diet, hormones, and excessively oily skin can aggravate the situation.

Other factors are excessive use of hair sprays, hot hair curlers or curling irons and also genes. There is no known ‘official’ cure for dandruff because the dandruff causing fungus is a guest of nature on our scalps and so cannot be eliminated.

It can only be controlled with the right solution like shampoos that reduce the amount of fungus on the scalp or those that slow down the production of skin cells without acting directly on the fungus. For instance, coal-tar clears scales from the scalp and hair, relieves itching and inflammation and slows down the rate of skin cell growth to a more normal level.

Coal-tar is also antiseptic and so will prevent infection of the dandruffed skin that would make the condition worse.

Other shampoos contain sulphur and salicylic acid which break down the bonds that hold the skin cells together on the uppermost layer of the scalp so that these cells are shed separately rather than in clumps.

The best approach is to find the product that works best for you at controlling your dandruff and continue to use it. Always select the mildest shampoo possible because although detergent based shampoos will clean the hair and scalp well, they are drying which makes the flaking worse.