Here鈥檚 a head-scratcher. Could the species of bacteria living on your scalp determine whether you get dandruff?
Back in 1874, French microbiologist Louis-Charles Malassez suggested that a type of scalp-loving fungus 鈥� now known as Malassezia 鈥� is to blame for dandruff. This has been prevailing wisdom among many ever since, despite a between the amount of Malassezia living on people鈥檚 scalps and the presence and severity of dandruff.
But now researchers have bacteria in their cross hairs. of Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China and his colleagues have found that the presence of dandruff is more closely linked to excess growth of Staphylococcus bacteria.
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Head ecology
The researchers swabbed the scalps of 363 adults with and without dandruff, and used DNA sequencing to compare their fungal and bacterial profiles.
Surprisingly, the compositions of scalp fungi in the two groups were almost identical. In both cases, the Malassezia restricta strain comprised about 90 per cent of total scalp fungus.
But bacteria revealed a different story. People with dandruff had higher amounts of Staphylococcus, and much less of a different type of bacteria 鈥� Propionibacterium 鈥� than those who didn鈥檛. Their findings suggest that the microbial balance on your head may determine whether you have dandruff.
Bacterial cure?
The scalps of dandruff sufferers also had less water on their surface, and smaller amounts of oily sebum secretions. But we don鈥檛 yet know which came first 鈥� does excess Staphylococcus lead to a dry scalp and dandruff, or do these conditions encourage Staphylococcus growth in the first place?
鈥淭hat鈥檚 the bit that鈥檚 hard to unravel,鈥� says of the University of Sydney, Australia. 鈥淭here are probably lots of different factors at play.鈥�
Finding out could lead to better treatments. Today, the most widely used dandruff remedy , which has , but is also known to kill .
Xu says his team will now investigate methods for balancing Propionibacterium and Staphylococcus levels on the human scalp, which they hope might be a way to reduce dandruff.
Hudson agrees that this is an avenue worth exploring, but cautions that it may not be that simple. 鈥淢erely altering the concentration of one species of bacteria compared to another may not be therapeutic, because there could be other organisms that are also important,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 definitely a good start.鈥�
Journal reference: Scientific Reports, DOI:
