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What is the difference?
dry scalp vs dandruff: the difference
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Scratching your head whilst thinking about dandruff? Let us break this down for you.
Malassezia is a fungal yeast that lives in the tiny cavities that grow hairs (all over our body) known as follicles. They like to live here due to the secretion of sebum in our glands.
Our sebum is composed of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. The saturated fatty acids neatly pack together whilst the unsaturated fatty acids create an imbalance in the structure.
Malassezia consumes saturated fats and leaves the unsaturated fats behind.
These leftover unsaturated fats soak into the skin and open the barrier. This results in water escaping from the scalp. The body reacts to the breach by rapidly increasing the number of skin cells to help repair the damaged barrier. This also gives dandruff its itch.
Due to the skin cells defensively proliferating, the epidermis cells do not mature properly. Instead, they leave pools of grease around the follicles that cause the visible flakiness we see when we have dandruff.
And that's it! That is the process of dandruff. Want to learn more about your dandruff? Check out our blog post Dry scalp or Dandruff? on the curl blog! We hope you enjoyed our simplified version about the process of dandruff. Whilst you're here, you must either have a scalp condition of some sort or maybe you just want to help maintain a healthy scalp? Why not check out our soothing scalp saviours in our Soothe Me range!
Any questions? Comments? Feedback? Feel free to send us an email at hello@floracurl.com
Naturally Yours,
The Team at Flora & Curl
