Scalp Health: the scalp explained
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By
mycurlid
Believe it or not, your scalp is one of the most amazing parts of your entire body. It houses the thousands of hair follicles and hair strands you have on your head, and that’s why scalp care is a necessity.
Our scalp is capable of producing its oil, to keep our hair moisturized at the roots for a while but most of the time it needs our help.
This is not popular information but the word “SCALP” is actually an abbreviation of the five layers it comprises of.
- S- Skin,
- C- Connective Tissue,
- E- Epicranial Aponeurosis,
- L- Loose Areola Connective tissue, and
- P- Periosteum.
Before anything else, your scalp is mainly skin, and just like your body’s skin, it needs some good loving. Every hair follicle on your scalp produces its sebum from the sebaceous gland. The amount of sebum produced by our scalp differs from person to person for reasons like the things we eat and how we care for the scalp.
Our scalp is composed of epidermis, dermis, and capillaries for blood flow. The epidermis comprises cells while the dermis is packed with blood vessels that release blood to our entire scalp. These two work as besties to control our scalp functions and activity.
The effect of this composition can be affected due to reasons like moisture, temperature, pH, and level of sebum production. Our scalp is made up of vibrant active cells that perform various functions, like pushing themselves through the hair follicles to promote hair growth. These cells tirelessly work their way up to the top of the scalp and shed when it’s time. It’s the dead cells that combine with excess sebum to block the hair follicles and stunt hair growth when it’s not taken care of.
This is why scalp treatment and regular washing of our scalp are necessary. It’s safe to see this process as exfoliation of the dead skin on our scalp, just like we exfoliate to maintain our bright glowing face. Scalp exfoliation is also a thing.
How does the Scalp work?
Key things about the scalp you didn’t know
Our scalp may be thick but it’s also sensitive. The saying “healthy scalp equals healthy hair” is a fact. If you’re gunning for strong healthy or lengthy hair, then you have to start paying attention to the state of your scalp. Let’s dive into the important facts about the scalp you didn’t know.
- The health of our scalp has a direct impact on the condition of our hair. That’s why when we compromise our scalp environment by using harsh products, it can lead to hair loss, inflammation, and disorders.
- The skin on our scalp is also part of our body’s immune system. It is designed to protect our brain from extreme temperatures and thermoregulate our entire head, it’s truly a shield. The sun’s UV rays are extremely harmful to our scalp, it can hinder our scalp from producing hair lipids(the fatty acid that provides regular scalp moisture). Through hair growth, our scalp provides a buffer to filter out the harmful rays of the sun.
- Using harsh hair products on our hair can affect the pH of our scalp. So, Low or high scalp pH can lead to inflammation and hair loss. Our scalp regulates its pH naturally by producing oils. Products with alkaline frustrate the efforts of our scalp by drying out our natural scalp oil, when this happens our scalp starts to overproduce oil. Excess scalp oil leads to flaky and brittle skin.
- An itchy scalp is a sign of an imbalance in our scalp. Itches occur due to scalp dryness, product build-up blocking the pores of your hair follicles, pollution, and adverse reactions to products.
- To improve the health of your scalp, you can eat healthily. Diets rich in omega 3 fatty acids help boost our scalp health because Omega 3 aids the immune system.
As you go about your day, taking care of other parts of your body, don’t forget your precious scalp. Remember “healthy scalp equals healthy hair”.
