If you have dandruff don't stress about being alone with your problem.
With one out of every two people in the entire world having, or having had dandruff at some point you are definitely not alone with it.
Dandruff is a common hair problem that can happen to anyone at anytime.
Yes it is embarrassing but a very common problem that can be rectified.
So what are the causes of dandruff? Our entire skin from head to toes shed dead skin cells on a daily basis and we get a complete new coating of skin every 28 days or so, but we hardly even notice it.
Our bodies play host to a lot of microorganisms like fungi and bacteria that feed off on the sebaceous oils that our skin manufacture.
The scalp in particular, houses a kind of fungus called malassezia fungus.
Their foods are the oils produced by the hair follicles of our scalp.
So dandruff happens when for some reason or another, the malassezia fungus goes wild and aggravates our scalp therefore causing the dead skin to shed a lot faster.
Hence instead of shedding the dead skin cells of our scalp over a month the shedding process happens in two weeks and the oil that our hair follicles produce cause the dead skin cells to cluster together and form to become dandruff.
There are no known factors that trigger this phenomenon with the malassezia fungus and are still the subject of research.
Dandruff can be an embarrassing hair condition that can re-occur at any time even with your best efforts.
Recurrence of dandruff can be controlled with proper hair care management.
The best method to keep the flakes at bay is to shampoo your hair every day and stop the malassezia fungus from increasing.
Dandruff is a stubborn creature so if washing everyday with your regular shampoo it won't stop the flakes from becoming overwhelming.
So what is the plan of attack? Well the best thing to do would be to start using a good anti-dandruff shampoo such as head and shoulders.
If you look for anti-dandruff shampoos make sure they contain such active ingredients as zinc pyrithione, selenium sulfide, salicylic acid or ketoconazole.
But there is a problem here as the malassezia fungus can develop immunity to these anti dandruff shampoos, so by changing the brand of the anti dandruff shampoo at least once a month it will maximise the chance of getting rid of dandruff.
It is possible to try homemade remedies to wash the dandruff flakes away and to keep it from recurring.
But what is the best considered homemade remedy to combat dandruff.
Well it is vinegar if you can believe that.
Mix two teaspoons of vinegar with six teaspoons of water and rub the mixture on to your scalp before you go to bed and then wrap your head with a towel.
Apply the same mixture to your hair once again in the morning after you have woke up, then rinse it with water.
If you are worrying the smell of vinegar then don't as the smell of vinegar evaporates eventually.
One of the things you must never do is to scratch the clumps of dandruff with your finger nails as this will cause small wounds on your scalp.
To conclude, dandruff is an embarrassing hair condition but it is treatable.
If you wash your hair properly the flakes will go away.