Wash Your Hair This Way and Your Scalp Will Get Oily Much More Slowly — With Less Dandruff, Too!

If your scalp becomes oily quickly or dandruff keeps returning, this article explains the role of Malassezia, four practical hair-washing techniques, and shampoo ingredients to consider.

Does anyone else feel this way? If you do not wash your hair for just one day, the top of your head looks so oily the next day that it is unbearable to look at. It is really frustrating!

And some people not only develop scalp oil quickly, but also become very prone to itching. When they scratch, it feels as though more and more dandruff is being picked out.

You wash your hair carefully every time and have tried a number of shampoos, so why do scalp oil and dandruff still refuse to go away?

Oily Scalp and Recurrent Dandruff: the Overlooked Culprit

Malassezia

Generally speaking, non-pathological scalp oil can be related to diet and lifestyle habits or an impaired scalp barrier, but it is also closely related to an often overlooked factor: Malassezia.

Malassezia is a lipophilic fungus. It is present on almost everyone’s scalp and is part of the normal resident microbial community.

It feeds on fatty acids in sebum. When the scalp produces abundant sebum (for example, in humid and hot conditions or under stress), the plentiful oil provides this fungus, which likes to ‘eat oil’, with a rich source of nutrients and promotes its overgrowth.