Dandruff consists of little flakes on the scalp and this condition is usually accompanied by an itchy, scratchy feeling. More often than not, it is the result of a disturbance in the body’s metabolic process. Your scalp, like the rest of your skin, is constantly renewing and shedding itself. Old cells die out and give way to new ones. And when the natural balance in the metabolic process is upset, the new cells form faster than the old cells can be shed off. These then accumulate on the scalp in the form of flakes. Did you know that around 50% of adults are affected by dandruff at some time or the other in their lives? If you haven’t got dandruff, chances are that you might be next!

Dandruff causes …

Dandruff occurs when the metabolic process is disturbed and this could be due to:

The usage of drugs
The onset of puberty
Emotional stress and strain
A sudden change in the climate
A Sudden Change Of Diet
It is also believed dandruff is caused by a fungal infection of the scalp.

The outermost layer of skin, the epidermis, acts as a protective shield for the more sensitive tissue lying under it. The epidermis is made up of layers of hardened dead cells – about 20 to 40 cells thick – and fulfills the same protective function on the scalp as on all skin that covers our body.

After a new cell is born at the inside of the epidermis, it hardens and dies and moves to the outer most layer. The dead cells on top are constantly being worn or scraped off, but they are so tiny that we don’t notice them. Usually, this process takes about 28 days for a cell to move from the bottom layer to the epidermis to be shed at the skin’s surface.

But if you have dandruff, cell regeneration works slightly different. The cell growth in a dandruff scalp is disorderly and often the life cycle of the cell is not completed before it leaves the scalp. Normally, a discarded cell flake is only a few layers thick, whereas in the dandruff scalp, the disorderly cell growth keeps cells from separating as easily, plus the sebum (hair oil) secretions seem to be stickier and act to bind the cells into large scales 20 to 40 layers thick. The cluster of dead cells which make up a dandruff scale are large enough to be visible unlike the far greater number of normal cells which are discarded daily and go unnoticed.

Dandruff home remedy…

• What to eat: Fresh fruits and vegetables, fish & vitamin A rich foods.
• What to avoid: Dairy products, spicy food, piping hot food & animal fat.
• You could also try a Anti-Dandruff shampoo enriched with lemon and curd extracts.