Dandruff. It’s almost like a dirty word whenever you hear it. It’s a hair condition that plagues many and it’s almost impossible to hide. We’ve all seen the commercials with the black sweaters and the all too obvious flakes. Yuck!
What is dandruff?
Dandruff occurs when a very common fungus that lives in our scalp causes dead skin to shed at a very irregular and much faster pace than usual. See, our skin sheds every 28 days or so, but in the case of dandruff the shedding is occurring at about 3 times that rate. So as your skin sheds it begins to flake and thus…dandruff.
Dandruff is obviously something that’s very embarrassing and can make people that have it feel extremely self conscious. The one thing that can usually nip dandruff in the bud is to shampoo on the regular basis (daily). However, for many of us with not so easy to care for hair types, that’s not always an option.
Anti dandruff shampoo
It’s best to invest in using anti-dandruff shampoos. Keep your eye on the ingredients when you’re making your purchase; zinc pyrithione, selenium sulfide and salicylic acid are surefire ingredients to keep the dandruff at bay.
When dandruff is very heavy, shampoo twice to make sure that you get squeaky clean (and flake free) results. Also, because the scalp is part of our skin and can eventually grow immune to these types of ingredients (i.e. salicylic acid which is used in many skin care products for treating acne) you may find that it is best to switch up in brands and key ingredients every few weeks to keep your scalp guessing at what’s going to come next.
Conditioning hair with dandruff
In addition, if your hair is super dry and you require a conditioning regimen, make sure that you use a lightweight conditioner, suitable for your hair type that will not leave a heavy film on the hair .
It’s extremely important to make sure that you rinse your hair well. Build up from shampoo/conditioners and products that we use in our hair on the regular can also make dandruff become more out of control.
So remember, although dandruff is something that we never want to have to face, it can be quite easy to deal with. Just make sure you take the time and follow the steps and you’ll get that healthy, dandruff free hair you’ve been seeking!
