Can dandruff cause hair fall? It was a question I only began asking seriously when one quiet week of a calm, flake-free scalp suddenly gave way to an unwelcome comeback, often before an important event, during a stressful stretch or on the day I decided to wear my favourite black blazer. For me, the frustration wasn’t limited to the white specks on my shoulders. During my worst bouts of dandruff, I also began noticing more hair in the shower drain than usual.
Every wash day came with anxiety as clumps of strands pooled at my feet. It raised an uncomfortable question: can a flaky scalp actually contribute to hair fall or was I connecting two unrelated concerns in the mirror? To separate science from panic, we spoke to two experts: Dr Kiran Sethi, skin and longevity doctor, founder of Isya Aesthetics and Active Longevity and Dr Naznin Holia, aesthetic physician and founder of Amber Cosmetology.
How does an itchy scalp worsen hair fall?
“Medically speaking, dandruff itself does not directly destroy hair follicles, but it is a very likely catalyst for secondary hair shedding,” clarifies Dr Sethi. The reality is that your hair loss is a casualty of a severely compromised scalp microbiome and the aggressive itch-scratch cycle that follows.
At the heart of the issue is an overgrowth of Malassezia, a lipophilic yeast that naturally resides on our skin. “The fungus that causes dandruff irritates the scalp and completely disrupts its natural balance,” says Dr Holia.
Dr Sethi expands on this pathology: “An overgrowth of Malassezia yeast metabolises scalp sebum into inflammatory free fatty acids. This disrupts the skin barrier, inducing micro-inflammation around the infundibulum (the upper portion) of the hair follicle.”
This persistent inflammation essentially acts as an emergency brake for your hair cycle, prematurely pushing hair follicles from their active growth phase (anagen) into the shedding phase (telogen), culminating in a condition known as telogen effluvium. The physical trauma of scratching compounds this cellular stress. When you give in to the intense itching, you subject fragile, inflamed follicles to mechanical friction, physically breaking the hair shafts and uprooting strands from their already weakened anchors. In short, it’s not the visible flakes doing the damage, but everything occurring as a consequence of them.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: vogue.in
