What is dandruff and why does it only appear on my head?
In: Biology
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)
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