Pasting hair oil onto dry, itchy, flaky scalps will not solve the problem.
ALL THOSE white flakes peeping through strands of carefully coiffured hair and resting gingerly all over the neck and shoulders, can really put the dent in a fashion statement.
The most natural home remedy the bottle of hair oil. Plaster a layer of this grease all over the scalp; that should solve the problem. Not really, says Dr. Patricia Yap, dermatologist.
This cultural practice of 'oiling the scalp' in fact, only exacerbates the problem. Dr. Yap explained that at the root of dry, itchy, flaking scalp may be the culprit known as yeast. Hot, humid, dirty, oily environments are its favourite. Pasting on oil to the scalp is only providing this type of yeast with its favourite food, leading to further multiplication of these unicellular fungi.
The culprit yeast the pityrosporum plays a critical role in the inflammatory disease, seborrhaeic eczema, causing the dry, itchy, flaking, scalp referred to earlier.
"In a small amount they (the yeasts) cause us to have dandruff.
Normally, they give us anti-dandruff shampoo, which is something to kill the yeast itself and cause the flakes to de-slough but in presence of heavy amounts, you need an anti-yeast topically or internally because you want to control it," Dr. Yap said.
"The yeasts can live on the surface of skin and eat some of your nutrients, that's fine but if they multiply a lot under the right condition, when the time is hot, for instance, then they can go deeper for more food, affecting the hair follicle which houses the hair attached by the root. So when they are in the hair follicle, you comb your hair and it comes out."
Hair loss (alopecia) is a major problem associated with the yeast which is often just overlooked as merely dry scalp and dandruff.
Dr. Yap indicates that in her own practice, this scalp problem is one of the main reasons for hair loss among patients mainly women, who further worsen the condition by chemically treating their hair "creaming" (straightening) it, for example.
Other areas of the body can also be affected by the seborrhaeic eczema ("the yeast disease") these are areas where there are large amounts of sebaceous oil glands, such as the hairline, eyebrows, sides of the nose behind and in the ears, and in the middle of the chest and back.
The flakes, falling on the face (of black skin), Dr. Yap said, may cause a pitchy, patchy appearance often these white blotches might lead onlookers to think that the person is bleaching her skin.
The culprit yeast figures highly in hair loss, in Dr. Yap's practice but there are also other causes of acquired hair loss, such as chemically-induced hair loss. This may occur in the "bonding" process where hair extensions are glued to hair on the scalp.
"Now that is the maximum insult you could ever do to your hair, and if you have an inflammation already on the scalp, seborrhaeic dermatitis/eczema then you do further injury to it by creaming it. I tell my patients, do not even think about creaming your hair, if your scalp is itching and flaking, because when you cream your hair, most people say that it burns, if you have a healthy scalp, it will not burn," Dr. Yap said.
People also experience severe hair loss, if they are allergic to substances such as beeswax which is used to twist the hair or if they wear hairstyles, such as braiding, that tug onto the root of the hair (traction alopecia) or if they are under stress. In children, the hair loss problem may be due to ring worm.
