What would be your answer if I ask you where do the scalp belong? is it to your skin? or to your hair?. Well, our scalp is part of our face skin but has a very strong influence on the health of our hair. However, because it’s not seen as is behind our hair, we often forget to take good care of it, which can lead it to become sensitive. In this blog post, we will talk about the physiology of our scalp, what sensitive scalp means and how to establish a right routine to take care of it.
Physiology of our scalp
Since our scalp is part of our skin, is normal that it inherit our skin type. If we have oily skin, our hair will probably be oily. If we have very dry skin, the same will happen with our hair. The scalp has sebaceous glands that produce an oily substance called sebum which is delivered to the surface through the hair follicles. When this gland produces too much oil it becomes greasy and if there’s not enough of it, hair gets dry and rough without shine or softness.
Like the rest of the skin, the scalp has an outer layer known as the skin barrier, that defends it against external factors. Trough this layer two main skin functions are accomplished which are cell turnover and TEWL, which respectively allow the elimination of dead cells and maintain humidity at appropriate levels.
Scalps are usually acidic which means that its pH should be maintain between 4.5 and 5.5. A higher pH could lead to an imbalance of its immune system and allow the proliferation of unwanted bacteria or fungi.
How to recognize the health of our scalp?
When our scalp is healthy, our hair is healthy too. I would say this is the most important way to recognize it. However, there are some symptoms that allow us to recognize if our scalp is out of balance. Some of the most common and frequent warning signs for an unhealthy scalp can be:
- hair loss and dryness.
- Itchiness
- hair thinning
Now, when the skin barrier’s function is weak, the immune system can degrade and allow the proliferation of certain microorganisms which lead to an exponential increase in skin cells and hair follicles, producing a kind of scale in the hair. These scales are dead cells that are shed and is what we know as dandruff.
The best way to know all about your scalp is by getting yourself checked out at a dermatologist who will provide medical advice diagnosis. In the meantime, you should take care of the factors that might can cause a deterioration in the skin of this body area.
What does having scalp sensitivity mean?
When talking about scalp sensitivity, it is important you understand what it is.
Having a sensitive scalp means that the skin on your head is sensitive to touch, chemicals and changes in weather. This condition occurs because the skin immune system overreacts to certain stimuli causing specific symptoms and skin discomfort. If you have a sensitive skin, is more likely that the skin on your head is also sensitive.
One of the most common diseases related to sensitive scalp is atopic dermatitis which is a chronic inflammatory skin condition that happens when your skin becomes irritated by certain triggers, usually environmental or chemical and develops a burning and itching sensation.
Sensitive skin condition can be triggered at different times by different factors both external and internal. We will talk about this later. In any case, advice diagnosis or treatment should be prescribed by your dermatologist.
How to identify if you have a sensitive scalp?
Some of the symptoms can include:
- A burning and itchy sensation
- Redness and pain
- White flakes or scales on your scalp and/or hair strands.
- Hair loss
Common causes for an unhealthy scalp
Now that we know what it means for you to have a sensitive or unbalanced scalp, it is important to talk about the common causes that triggers it.
As previously mentioned, these factors can be internal or external:
Internal Factors
- Hormonal changes: Puberty is a common age when hormones can impact skin health. We talk about this more in deep in a previous blog. Pregnancy or menopause can also unbalance estrogen levels which can increase scalp sensitivity.
- Stress levels: Stress is in general one of the most important beauty enemies. It affects hormone levels, creates inflammation in body and cells, triggers the immune response, affects you sleep routine and impacts the way you eat. It’s not strange that the health of your hair and scalp can be affected by elevated stress levels.
- Diet: there are certain foods you should avoid if you want to keep your scalp healthy, specially if you have sensitive skin. Sugar, fried foods and refined carbohydrates, affect insulin levels, which in turn impacts the sebaceous glands activity.
- Age: as we age, sebum production decreases which have different consequences for our skin health. On one side, sebum performs an antimicrobial activity which defend our scalp from external threats. Also, increases the ability to retain moisture. Therefore, the decrease in the sebum levels, exposes us to a decrease in humidity levels and immune protection.
- Bare scalp: people with no hair can be exposed to irritation or sunburns which could cause a lot of pain. Hair and sunscreen provides skin with protection, which would be non-existent in naked heads.
External Factors
- Allergic reactions: Shampoo is on one of the main skincare products that can trigger allergies and skin sensitivity. Certain ingredients used in shampoos and conditioners, can create dryness in scalp which can lead to dermatitis. In our blog about sensitive skin, we went deeper on the difference of an allergy versus a contact dermatitis case.
- Weather changes: The lack of humidity in cold weathers can lead to dryness on the skin and make it more sensitive to contact. This happens because of skin is not able to absorb enough of moisture to maintain healthy humidity levels.
- Sun: UV rays create an oxidative stress on cells, which is in turn triggers inflammation. In general, the hair and scalp are more sensitive to sun exposure because they lack melanin protection from UV rays.
- Pollution: This is also an important beauty enemy. Pollution not just increases the oxidative but exposes our skin to undesired external microorganisms that can affect our barrier health.
How to establish a skincare routine for scalp?
Now that we know the physiology and aspects to take care to avoid undesired conditions in your scalp, is time to talk about how to take care of it to get the best results. For that we suggest you follow the following tips:
Tip 1. Shampooing: Wash your hair every other day
The use shampoo is absolutely necessary for keeping away symptoms like itchy scalps. However, abusing of shampoo can reduce moisture and cause dryness and dermatitis.
Shampoos main ingredient is called surfactant. This ingredient is responsible for dissolving sebum, hair dirt and external threat that your hair may have. However, surfactants can be harsh on scalp as well, and take away more sebum than necessary leaving us unprotected or in risk of dehydration.
Here are my recommendations:
- Get a natural shampoo with mild surfactants. Sometimes it will not foam as you are used to, but it will provide cleaning without harsh. Chose a natural brand with which you resonate
- If you have a sensitive scalp wash your hair every other day with gentle cleansers. Washing your hair too often can lead to striping the hair of its natural oils that keep it protected from damage.
- If you change your shampoo, be aware if you feel your scalp itching or flaky. You could be having a mild dermatitis detonated by the contact with any ingredient
- Try with fragrance free products. fragrances can trigger allergies or contact dermatitis
Tip 2: Use a protective serum
This is one of my most loved habits and I want to share it with you. The night before or a couple hours before shampooing time, I treat my scalp, applying a protective serum, full of fatty acids and rich extracts which bring amazing nourishment to it. When I wash off my shampoo, all these lipids go to the ends leaving my hair so smooth and silky that is unbelievable.
Tip 3: Exfoliate
Yes. Exfoliate. Did you know that there are scalp exfoliators?. Just as I recommend for your face skin, once a week exfoliation helps reduce dead cells and avoid hair follicles clogging.
Tip 4: Avoid triggers
Protect yourself from future damage. This can be done by avoiding certain practices, products or stimuli:
- If scalp sensitivity is a problem for you, avoid over-processing and hair coloring since these can trigger an immune reaction
- Avoid sun exposure or polluted environments and apply hair sunscreen every time you expose
Tip 5: Take care of your diet
Diet can have a heavy influence on your skin, including your scalp. Avoid foods that are high in sugar or super processed, as an excess in these could increase sebum secretion, clogging of hair follicles and hair loss.
Tip 6: Keep in mind your scalp is acidic
The regular pH in our scalp varies from 4.5 to 5.5. Keeping the acidic nature of it, will avoid irritation, itchy, flakes or any of the symptoms we have described before.
Which natural ingredients can support my scalp?
Every time you search hair products, keep in mind that it will be food for your skin. You cannot avoid the exposure to environmental factors such as sun or weather conditions, but you are the one who takes the decisions on how to protect yourself by using the right products.
Below my favorite ingredients that I search in the label of every product I buy for my skin or my scalp:
Vegetal oils with high linoleic acid content
Linoleic acid is an essential unsaturated fatty acid, which plays an important role keeping safe our skin barrier. These are present in our skin but also in vegetal oils whose composition are rich in these fatty acid.
Most common oils rich in linoleic acid are:
- Avocado oil
- Argan oil
- Baobab oil
- Evening primorose oil
- Sunflower oil
- Rosehip oil
- Pomegranate oil
- Wine grape oil
Salicylic Acid
This is a great exfoliator ingredient, which can get rid of dead cells and flaky scalp. Check our blog on exfoliation if you want to have more details about it.
Witch Hazel Water
This amazing ingredient helps to keep sebum balance and acidic nature in our scalp. When our scalp turns alkaline, is because of the release of an enzyme which decrease urea levels (urease). Witch hazel has hamamelitannin wich is a compound that acts against the urease enzyme. You can read more about this here.
I hope you enjoyed this blog post on how to understand and treat your scalp for optimal hair health. Next time you chose your hair products, I hope you include your scalp treatments as well (lol).
Let me know if there are any other topics you would like to see covered, or questions for which you need answers on the comments below! Also, take a look at some of my other blogs on natural skin care that might be helpful. Thanks for reading!
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About Me
Beatriz Morales
What would be your answer if I ask you where do the scalp belong? is it to your skin? or to your hair?. Well, our scalp is part of our face skin but has a very strong influence on the health of our hair. However, because it’s not seen as is behind our hair, we often forget to take good care of it, which can lead it to become sensitive. In this blog post, we will talk about the physiology of our scalp, what sensitive scalp means and how to establish a right routine to take care of it.
Physiology of our scalp
Since our scalp is part of our skin, is normal that it inherit our skin type. If we have oily skin, our hair will probably be oily. If we have very dry skin, the same will happen with our hair. The scalp has sebaceous glands that produce an oily substance called sebum which is delivered to the surface through the hair follicles. When this gland produces too much oil it becomes greasy and if there’s not enough of it, hair gets dry and rough without shine or softness.
Like the rest of the skin, the scalp has an outer layer known as the skin barrier, that defends it against external factors. Trough this layer two main skin functions are accomplished which are cell turnover and TEWL, which respectively allow the elimination of dead cells and maintain humidity at appropriate levels.
Scalps are usually acidic which means that its pH should be maintain between 4.5 and 5.5. A higher pH could lead to an imbalance of its immune system and allow the proliferation of unwanted bacteria or fungi.
How to recognize the health of our scalp?
When our scalp is healthy, our hair is healthy too. I would say this is the most important way to recognize it. However, there are some symptoms that allow us to recognize if our scalp is out of balance. Some of the most common and frequent warning signs for an unhealthy scalp can be:
- hair loss and dryness.
- Itchiness
- hair thinning
Now, when the skin barrier’s function is weak, the immune system can degrade and allow the proliferation of certain microorganisms which lead to an exponential increase in skin cells and hair follicles, producing a kind of scale in the hair. These scales are dead cells that are shed and is what we know as dandruff.
The best way to know all about your scalp is by getting yourself checked out at a dermatologist who will provide medical advice diagnosis. In the meantime, you should take care of the factors that might can cause a deterioration in the skin of this body area.
What does having scalp sensitivity mean?
When talking about scalp sensitivity, it is important you understand what it is.
Having a sensitive scalp means that the skin on your head is sensitive to touch, chemicals and changes in weather. This condition occurs because the skin immune system overreacts to certain stimuli causing specific symptoms and skin discomfort. If you have a sensitive skin, is more likely that the skin on your head is also sensitive.
One of the most common diseases related to sensitive scalp is atopic dermatitis which is a chronic inflammatory skin condition that happens when your skin becomes irritated by certain triggers, usually environmental or chemical and develops a burning and itching sensation.
Sensitive skin condition can be triggered at different times by different factors both external and internal. We will talk about this later. In any case, advice diagnosis or treatment should be prescribed by your dermatologist.
How to identify if you have a sensitive scalp?
Some of the symptoms can include:
- A burning and itchy sensation
- Redness and pain
- White flakes or scales on your scalp and/or hair strands.
- Hair loss
Common causes for an unhealthy scalp
Now that we know what it means for you to have a sensitive or unbalanced scalp, it is important to talk about the common causes that triggers it.
As previously mentioned, these factors can be internal or external:
Internal Factors
- Hormonal changes: Puberty is a common age when hormones can impact skin health. We talk about this more in deep in a previous blog. Pregnancy or menopause can also unbalance estrogen levels which can increase scalp sensitivity.
- Stress levels: Stress is in general one of the most important beauty enemies. It affects hormone levels, creates inflammation in body and cells, triggers the immune response, affects you sleep routine and impacts the way you eat. It’s not strange that the health of your hair and scalp can be affected by elevated stress levels.
- Diet: there are certain foods you should avoid if you want to keep your scalp healthy, specially if you have sensitive skin. Sugar, fried foods and refined carbohydrates, affect insulin levels, which in turn impacts the sebaceous glands activity.
- Age: as we age, sebum production decreases which have different consequences for our skin health. On one side, sebum performs an antimicrobial activity which defend our scalp from external threats. Also, increases the ability to retain moisture. Therefore, the decrease in the sebum levels, exposes us to a decrease in humidity levels and immune protection.
- Bare scalp: people with no hair can be exposed to irritation or sunburns which could cause a lot of pain. Hair and sunscreen provides skin with protection, which would be non-existent in naked heads.
External Factors
- Allergic reactions: Shampoo is on one of the main skincare products that can trigger allergies and skin sensitivity. Certain ingredients used in shampoos and conditioners, can create dryness in scalp which can lead to dermatitis. In our blog about sensitive skin, we went deeper on the difference of an allergy versus a contact dermatitis case.
- Weather changes: The lack of humidity in cold weathers can lead to dryness on the skin and make it more sensitive to contact. This happens because of skin is not able to absorb enough of moisture to maintain healthy humidity levels.
- Sun: UV rays create an oxidative stress on cells, which is in turn triggers inflammation. In general, the hair and scalp are more sensitive to sun exposure because they lack melanin protection from UV rays.
- Pollution: This is also an important beauty enemy. Pollution not just increases the oxidative but exposes our skin to undesired external microorganisms that can affect our barrier health.
How to establish a skincare routine for scalp?
Now that we know the physiology and aspects to take care to avoid undesired conditions in your scalp, is time to talk about how to take care of it to get the best results. For that we suggest you follow the following tips:
Tip 1. Shampooing: Wash your hair every other day
The use shampoo is absolutely necessary for keeping away symptoms like itchy scalps. However, abusing of shampoo can reduce moisture and cause dryness and dermatitis.
Shampoos main ingredient is called surfactant. This ingredient is responsible for dissolving sebum, hair dirt and external threat that your hair may have. However, surfactants can be harsh on scalp as well, and take away more sebum than necessary leaving us unprotected or in risk of dehydration.
Here are my recommendations:
- Get a natural shampoo with mild surfactants. Sometimes it will not foam as you are used to, but it will provide cleaning without harsh. Chose a natural brand with which you resonate
- If you have a sensitive scalp wash your hair every other day with gentle cleansers. Washing your hair too often can lead to striping the hair of its natural oils that keep it protected from damage.
- If you change your shampoo, be aware if you feel your scalp itching or flaky. You could be having a mild dermatitis detonated by the contact with any ingredient
- Try with fragrance free products. fragrances can trigger allergies or contact dermatitis
Tip 2: Use a protective serum
This is one of my most loved habits and I want to share it with you. The night before or a couple hours before shampooing time, I treat my scalp, applying a protective serum, full of fatty acids and rich extracts which bring amazing nourishment to it. When I wash off my shampoo, all these lipids go to the ends leaving my hair so smooth and silky that is unbelievable.
Tip 3: Exfoliate
Yes. Exfoliate. Did you know that there are scalp exfoliators?. Just as I recommend for your face skin, once a week exfoliation helps reduce dead cells and avoid hair follicles clogging.
Tip 4: Avoid triggers
Protect yourself from future damage. This can be done by avoiding certain practices, products or stimuli:
- If scalp sensitivity is a problem for you, avoid over-processing and hair coloring since these can trigger an immune reaction
- Avoid sun exposure or polluted environments and apply hair sunscreen every time you expose
Tip 5: Take care of your diet
Diet can have a heavy influence on your skin, including your scalp. Avoid foods that are high in sugar or super processed, as an excess in these could increase sebum secretion, clogging of hair follicles and hair loss.
Tip 6: Keep in mind your scalp is acidic
The regular pH in our scalp varies from 4.5 to 5.5. Keeping the acidic nature of it, will avoid irritation, itchy, flakes or any of the symptoms we have described before.
Which natural ingredients can support my scalp?
Every time you search hair products, keep in mind that it will be food for your skin. You cannot avoid the exposure to environmental factors such as sun or weather conditions, but you are the one who takes the decisions on how to protect yourself by using the right products.
Below my favorite ingredients that I search in the label of every product I buy for my skin or my scalp:
Vegetal oils with high linoleic acid content
Linoleic acid is an essential unsaturated fatty acid, which plays an important role keeping safe our skin barrier. These are present in our skin but also in vegetal oils whose composition are rich in these fatty acid.
Most common oils rich in linoleic acid are:
- Avocado oil
- Argan oil
- Baobab oil
- Evening primorose oil
- Sunflower oil
- Rosehip oil
- Pomegranate oil
- Wine grape oil
Salicylic Acid
This is a great exfoliator ingredient, which can get rid of dead cells and flaky scalp. Check our blog on exfoliation if you want to have more details about it.
Witch Hazel Water
This amazing ingredient helps to keep sebum balance and acidic nature in our scalp. When our scalp turns alkaline, is because of the release of an enzyme which decrease urea levels (urease). Witch hazel has hamamelitannin wich is a compound that acts against the urease enzyme. You can read more about this here.
I hope you enjoyed this blog post on how to understand and treat your scalp for optimal hair health. Next time you chose your hair products, I hope you include your scalp treatments as well (lol).
Let me know if there are any other topics you would like to see covered, or questions for which you need answers on the comments below! Also, take a look at some of my other blogs on natural skin care that might be helpful. Thanks for reading!
Subscribe to Our Blog!
About Me
