Can I Prevent Dandruff?

What's important is to understand how to manage dandruff. Understand that this is not a truly curable condition but a very treatable condition. And once the understanding is there, then we help patients manage the condition quite nicely.

Regular shampooing is very important because you want to avoid build-up of the skin cells as well as products that you may be using on a daily basis.

Some people may improve with just regular shampoos and shampooing more often. After that, you want to go looking for those specialized, over-the-counter dandruff shampoos, which can have a variety of ingredients.

And you alternate them and that prevents resistance from the pityrosporum yeast. You want to leave them on three to five minutes and then rinse them off.

Not using too many different products in your routine is also important. Exposure to too many different ingredients, cosmetic ingredients and styling products, actually can contribute to irritation, so that in itself can cause more flaking and itching on the scalp.

We think that when you have too many hair products on the scalp that it can actually make more oil production and that in addition to the products, just remaining on the scalp can again lead to that cell build-up, oil build-up, and make dandruff worse.

There are some indications that specifically zinc and the B vitamins may help in dandruff. So you want to eat healthy overall.

Why exactly? We don't know, but that certainly can benefit.

So we know that sun can help inflammation of the skin in some conditions.

Seborrhea, psoriasis, and eczema are all better in the summer, worse in the winter. My approach is moderation. I don't want people to be Team Edward and get no sun, but I also don't want patients to be Team Snooki and go into the tanning bed. So you know, 20 to 30 minutes of sun, three to four times a week, that's acceptable. It's also helpful for getting vitamin D.

We do very well know -- and it's very consistent in both female and male patients -- that stress tremendously contributes to flares of seborrheic dermatitis.

I frequently have patients tell me that they know they went through a stressful time and sure enough the dandruff got worse. So, it's important to manage stress however you can and certainly, don't stress out about your dandruff if you can avoid it.