Dan­druff flakes may in­di­cate a dry scalp or an­oth­er skin con­di­tion. Take these steps to keep your scalp healthy and flake-free. If your black shirt is cov­ered in white flakes and it's not snow­ing out­side, your scalp is prob­a­bly to blame. This symp­tom, com­mon­ly known as dan­druff, can be due to a va­ri­ety of con­di­tions, from a sim­ple dry scalp to a form of eczema or even pso­ri­a­sis.

Un­der­stand­ing Dan­druff

Dan­druff flakes are ac­tu­al­ly dead skin cells that nat­u­ral­ly fall off the scalp-more so if you scratch.

Many peo­ple think that a dry scalp is syn­ony­mous with dan­druff, but ei­ther a dry scalp or an over­ly-oily scalp can cause ex­cess cells to clump and fall off, form­ing dan­druff flakes. A num­ber of skin con­di­tions and oth­er caus­es can make your scalp flaky.

Some fac­tors that can in­crease the risk of dan­druff in­clude: hered­i­ty, hor­mon­al changes (like pu­ber­ty), ex­cess al­co­hol con­sump­tion, eat­ing high-sug­ar, spicy, or high-salt foods, lack of nu­tri­ents like fat­ty acids and vi­t­a­min B, weath­er changes and stress.­

Com­mon dan­druff caus­es-and treat­ments

• Dry scalp

Dry skin on the scalp can cause scaly flakes. Dan­druff due to a dry scalp can be treat­ed with in­ex­pen­sive, med­icat­ed dan­druff sham­poos sold in drug­stores.

Look for prod­ucts that con­tain pyrithione zinc, sal­i­cylic acid, tar, se­le­ni­um sul­fide, or ke­to­cona­zole. Use dan­druff sham­poo a few times a week to keep flakes away.

A gen­tle scalp mas­sage and a good rinse can al­so help to pre­vent dan­druff. Re­mem­ber that your scalp can be sen­si­tive to dry­ing hair prod­ucts, so take care with your hair and watch what you put on it.

• Se­b­or­rhe­ic der­mati­tis

A greasy, oily scalp is a re­sult of in­creased pro­duc­tion of se­bum or oil from se­ba­ceous glands around the hair fol­li­cles. An oily scalp can lead to oth­er dan­druff-pro­duc­ing con­di­tions, no­tably se­b­or­rhe­ic der­mati­tis, the name for eczema that af­fects the scalp.

This skin prob­lem re­sults from in­flam­ma­tion of the oily ar­eas, caus­ing scaly, yel­low­ish patch­es to form on the scalp and then flake off.

Se­b­or­rhe­ic der­mati­tis can be due to stress, oily skin and cer­tain med­ical con­di­tions. Sea­son­al changes and a fam­i­ly his­to­ry can al­so play a role.

To help pre­vent se­b­or­rhe­ic der­mati­tis out­breaks, keep skin, scalp, and hair clean with fre­quent sham­poo­ing. Med­icat­ed dan­druff sham­poos can help treat the con­di­tion. Sul­fur, se­le­ni­um, zinc, or coal tar-based treat­ments are de­signed for se­ri­ous cas­es.

• Scalp pso­ri­a­sis

This in­flam­ma­to­ry skin con­di­tion gives the scalp a sil­very, pow­dery ap­pear­ance. Scalp pso­ri­a­sis of­ten caus­es thick scales and large, white flakes, and may cause itch­ing. Pso­ri­a­sis oc­curs for un­known rea­sons, but is thought to be an au­toim­mune con­di­tion.

Al­though you can't pre­vent or cure pso­ri­a­sis, var­i­ous med­ical treat­ments, like coal tar, light ther­a­py, and top­i­cal cor­ti­cos­teroid use can help man­age pso­ri­a­sis symp­toms.

Ir­ri­tant or al­ler­gic con­tact der­mati­tis. You can have an al­ler­gic or ir­ri­tant re­ac­tion to a sham­poo, styling gel, or oth­er hair prod­uct.

Us­ing a prod­uct with an in­gre­di­ent you're al­ler­gic to or one that sim­ply ir­ri­tates the scalp can re­sult in in­flam­ma­tion and dry, flaky skin.

Dis­con­tin­u­ing the prod­uct that caus­es a re­ac­tion may be all it takes to stop the re­ac­tion and the dan­druff flakes.

How do you know for sure what con­di­tion is caus­ing your dan­druff? On­ly a der­ma­tol­o­gist can un­cov­er the re­al cause and pre­scribe the best course of ac­tion.

This is es­pe­cial­ly im­por­tant when a med­ical con­di­tion like eczema or pso­ri­a­sis is to blame.

If drug­store dan­druff sham­poos and con­di­tion­ers aren't help­ing, get a firm di­ag­no­sis and ad­vice on treat­ment from a spe­cial­ist-and say good­bye to your flakes.

(www.every­day­health.com)