What is dandruff and why does it only appear on my head?
In: Biology
People often confuse little white flakes on the shoulder as dandruff. Thats not. Thats just dry skin. Dry skin falls off of all of your body. Your head and shoulders are visible and your shoulders provide a nice landing spot to show case some dead skin cells.
Dandruff is a totally different animal. Large yellow greasy flakes fall off. The hair is greasier than normal.
Shampoo likes to play off normal skin flakes as dandruff to sell product.
Dandruff is dead skin cells. It appears on your head because you hair keeps the dead skin from easily falling away so it builds up until it is noticeable.
It’s seborrheic dermatitis (skin condition related to your sweat pores).
And it doesn’t only appear on the scalp (source: ihaveitonmyface.facts)
There is a fungus/yeast called Malassezia which loves to eat the oil especially the saturated fatty acid. Our head produces lots of oil, and this particular fungus feasts on the saturated one and the unsaturated one is left alone. This unsatured fatty acid sinks into the skin over period of time, and causes the skin to leak the moisture/water. Our body recognizes this loss and then causes a reaction to repair this leak. This is when you start getting the itches. the regenerative process is accelerated and the cells that are generated are not mature, this is why they appear as white flakes and when they get shedded, you recognize it as Dandruff.
I learnt all of this while mindlessly watching YouTube on a TedEd Video. I didn’t know that it would be useful to answer a question ELI5 🙂
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6DUOokXZAo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6DUOokXZAo)
fungus is nasty and gets on every part of your skin in different forms. if its on your scalp its dandruff. if its on your face or body its fungal acne. If its in your mouth its called oral thrush (white tongue), if its on your privates you may have yeast infection.
You dont see it but your body is home to many organisms including fungi amd bacteria. Sometimes this fungi overgrows and you could balance them all out by taking prebiotics or some food like yogurt.
I got some on my eyebrows. The cause of rapid skin growth and death isn’t clearly established, but the fungus *malessezia* is considered a contributing factor. [Sauce](https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/understanding-dandruff-basics).
It doesn’t only appear on your head, lots of other people have it appear on their heads to.
overshampoo-ing or using harsher shampoos that have lots of sulfates can also lead to dandruff
It’s not just your head, on your head the hair collects it, usually it doesn’t collect on our person’s and we call it dust
I can scratch my beard right now and conclusively say that dandruff doesn’t just appear on the scalp.
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