White flakes on top of the shoulders of your black blouse while you’re presenting before a board? Yikes. Nothing says stress and bad hygiene other than your scalp itching and shedding flakes all over your blouse. The condition is very common. At least one in three people suffer from dandruff. It’s caused mainly by stress and the use of harmful hair products. Yeah, it’s hard to believe that stress causes more than physical and mental illness. It also leads to an itchy scalp and dandruff.
What Causes Dandruff?
Cosmetic dermatologists are pointing out to stress and hair products as the cause of dandruff. Not using the right purifying shampoo will lead to these tiny white flakes on your scalp. Stress affects your hormone levels, which, in turn, disrupt the micro-flora of the scalp.
But the effects of stress on your scalp aren’t immediate. You won’t even notice it until six to 12 weeks later when your scalp begins to itch and flake. As a result, most people don’t even connect these two events. If you were stressed out five weeks ago because of a work-related incident, you wouldn’t even connect that event to your scalp itching and flaking right now. Still, these two events are directly connected, so reducing stress plays a critical role in reducing the possibility of dandruff and an itchy scalp.
People who over-wash their hair and use harsh shampoos, conditioners, hair treatments, gels, sprays, and creams will also suffer from dandruff. These products leave residue on your scalp. No matter how hard and often you wash your hair, these residues remain on your scalp until they are treated correctly.
Those who also undergo hair treatment procedures such as rebond, wax, perm, and hair color are more likely to develop dandruff, too. Dandruff is most common in people aged 15 to 25 years, but it can affect other age groups, too. If you are often stressed and use chemicals on your hair, you’ll most likely suffer from dandruff.
How to Get Rid of Dandruff?
You need to change your lifestyle and diet. The changes you need to make should target stress-inducing episodes in your life. You should eat less oily food because dandruff is exacerbated by oil production. The fattier food—such as chocolates and dairy—you eat, the more oil that your body will produce. So get rid of that stuff. You should try to add vitamin-B-rich food in your diet, as well as green vegetables, protein, and grain (as long as it contains good oils).
You should switch your hair-care products, too. Clear hair products are better than pearly or opaque ones. Clear formulas have deep-cleansing agents that battle against dandruff without leaving any residue on your scalp. If your everyday shampoo can’t get rid of dandruff, consult a dermatologist. You might need a medicated shampoo.
You don’t need to panic because of your dry, itchy scalp. Dandruff is a normal occurrence. Almost everyone you know has probably suffered from it. What you need is to manage your stress, a balanced healthy diet, and the right hair products. Once you have this routine down pat, your dandruff problems will become less frequent.
