I do not know every day busy you have not encountered such a situation, a day without washing hair scalp will be very itchy, even with a simple hand comb, dandruff is also like snowflakes fluttering down, sometimes can not help but to use their hands to pick, the result will be a chunk of dandruff off, especially when washing the hair, but also will be a large amount of hair loss.

What’s going on here? Today to talk to you about this issue.

01, Scalp

The scalp itself is the skin to which the hair attaches and grows, and if there is a problem with this part of the skin, then it can cause the scalp to start shedding abnormally, and the follicular part of the hair itself can be affected, which results in the appearance of hair loss.

Behind this, there is no small relation with the health of the scalp. Normal scalp cells are divided into different cellular hierarchies, from the stratum corneum on the surface to the epidermis, dermis and subcutaneous tissues on the inside.

These cells are able to maintain a relatively constant rate of metabolism and renewal, so while everyone experiences some dandruff shedding, it can be replenished and maintained in a timely manner. However, if the scalp itself is in a poor state of health, then there is an excessive death of scalp cells and a problem of massive dandruff develops. Depending on the state of the dandruff, there are two types: dry dandruff is in the form of snowflake-like flakes, which can be easily shaken off, and oily dandruff is in the form of powdery dots, which are adhered to the scalp or hair by oil. At the same time, excessive proliferation of scalp keratin can lead to premature degeneration of hair follicles, a decrease in hair follicles or even the disappearance of some areas, as a result, hair loss occurs.

Therefore, the presence of dandruff problems can often not be ignored, as it can be one of the precursors of hair loss.

02, Why is the scalp a problem?

Why is there such a situation as dandruff and massive hair loss? In fact, this situation is often due to problems with the scalp. And the cause of this situation is related to both the health of our body itself and the external factors that we are exposed to.

The former factors such as diet, work and rest will affect our body’s homeostasis and endocrine, and these factors will feedback to the cells of the scalp, resulting in the health of the cells of the scalp is affected.

The latter, such as prolonged exposure to sunlight, or wind and rain, or even exposure to other air pollution, then, at this time, the microbes of the scalp may not be able to carry, not only that, but also further affect the health of the scalp itself.

03, Scalp microbiology

When it comes to scalp microbes, many of you may be unfamiliar with them.

In fact, our scalp is a complete microbial ecosystem called “microflora”, including staphylococci, rods, micrococci and many other microorganisms [1]. These microorganisms have adapted to the human body and formed a relatively stable ecosystem. The oil and sweat secreted by our scalp provide nutrients for the microorganisms, and these microorganisms maintain the ecology of the scalp by secreting some components to defend against harmful microorganisms. It can be said that this is a mutually beneficial behaviour.

These surface microbial ecology and the skin structure of the scalp together form our body’s scalp barrier, which maintains the scalp’s own resistance to a variety of environmental stresses, but also protects the scalp cells themselves well, and only in this way can we maintain optimal health. But when these factors are disrupted, dandruff problems and even hair loss can be triggered.

For example, the most intuitive is that the scalp microbial balance is in trouble, this time, those may be harmful microorganisms will take advantage of the situation, and further disturb the ecological balance of the scalp, resulting in the confusion of the scalp microflora.

Many of you may be unfamiliar with Pityrosporum, a fungus also known as Pityrosporum, which is widely distributed in nature. Our scalp, being exposed to nature, is not immune to Malassezia spores. Often, like other fungi, Malassezia exists in the form of spores.

If the scalp barrier is damaged, then Malassezia will multiply rapidly and secrete irritating squalene peroxide to irritate the scalp, triggering scalp inflammation, which leads to an inflammatory reaction in the scalp and dandruff, which is one of the causes of dandruff. Continued Malassezia damage, coupled with impaired cellular health of the scalp, can lead to recurring dandruff, and even hair loss problems.

04, How to restore scalp ecology?

Therefore, in the face of hair dandruff or even scalp shedding, it is often necessary to repair the hair in a comprehensive manner, by means of external interventions to achieve a certain degree of restoration of the micro-ecology of the scalp.

So, how to restore scalp ecology?

In fact, probiotics is one of the choices, as we mentioned earlier, the scalp microorganisms of the normal population is itself an ecological balance, one of their important roles is to resist those harmful microorganisms, so as to allow the scalp to maintain the balance, and when this balance is destroyed, only to lead to harmful microorganisms to take advantage of the situation. Therefore, in the process of repairing the scalp, it is especially important to restore the balance of scalp microorganisms, and one of the strategies for this is the use of probiotics.

In fact, very often, with regard to probiotics, it is always easy to think of them as yoghurt or something like that, but in fact, probiotics themselves are a very broad concept, and in principle, any bacteria that is good for human health is a probiotic. Like we just mentioned the removal of Malassezia is only part of the surface, the real deep restoration is to repair the scalp barrier and restore the stability of the scalp ecology.

Therefore, if you are experiencing an itchy head and a lot of dandruff shedding, you must adjust your shampoo in time, as far as possible, choose those ingredients that are restorative to the scalp micro-ecology and the scalp barrier, so as to avoid further deterioration of the scalp and hair loss.

Of course, if we want to get a long-lasting improvement, we still need to adjust our lifestyle and diet in order to ultimately achieve the restoration of the overall scalp barrier.