What You Ought To Know About Flaking Scalp

from bath and body

It probably doesn't matter much to you whether your problem is dandruff, dry scalp, or seborrheic dermatitis. What does matter is that you're afflicted with a flaky, itchy, tight, or inflamed scalp, and you just want to fix it.

Dandruff and dry scalp are both considered forms of dermatitis. Dandruff is often mistaken for a dry scalp, but it can afflict an oily scalp just as easily as a dry one. It's believed that dandruff is caused by an overgrowth of yeast that's found in moderation even on healthy scalps. The yeast, Pityrosporum ovale, irritates the oil glands below the surface, and the scalp responds by accelerating the cell turnover. Dandruff results when the skin cells divide and multiply at such an accelerated rate that they reach the surface before they die and clump there. These flakes of white, scaly skin look bad, and they itch.

Sometimes, what's believed to be dandruff is simply shampoo residue from sloppy rinsing or flaking from that gel you're hooked on. Or it could be dry scalp caused by dry indoor heat, harsh shampoos, too-frequent shampooing, conditioners or gels applied directly to the scalp, hair processing, or a too-hot blast from a blow-dryer.

If you've been colouring, perming, relaxing, or straightening your hair, your scalp can become oily, flaky, and inflamed, which may mean that you have a more severe form of der¬matitis called seborrhea. One common mistake is to treat seborrhea with a harsh dandruff shampoo—that only makes it worse. So, first of all you need to know what kind of problem you have. Here's how you can tell.