The simple answer is that wet hair does not cause dandruff – but that doesn’t mean it’s good to leave your hair wet.
Dandruff is caused by a microbe that’s always present on your scalp whether your hair is wet or dry.
The microbe thrives best in warm, damp environments, so going to bed with wet hair could make it more likely that you’ll experience scalp issues.
So wet hair doesn’t exactly cause dandruff, but it can still cause problems. And those problems don’t stop at your scalp.
The dangers of wet hair
The biggest issue around wet hair is that it is weaker.
Wet hair is more likely to be damaged by heat, as well as mechanical breakage such as when you comb your hair. So, it’s important to dry your hair properly after you’ve washed it:
- First, run your fingers through the hair and squeeze out excess moisture, from scalp to ends
- Use a clean dry towel on the hair at your scalp, blotting as much moisture as possible away
- Press the hair between folds of the towel to remove water from the length of the hair, or simply grasp and squeeze segments in the towel for shorter hair
At this point you can either finish with a gentle blow dry, or wrap your head in the towel for 10-15 minutes to further absorb water, and finish with air drying.
But what about dandruff?
We know that wet hair doesn’t cause dandruff, but what if you do have dandruff, the good news it’s very easy to treat.
Just use a good anti-dandruff shampoo like Head & Shoulders.
It’s proven to work, and there are plenty of different variants from our conditioning Smooth & Silky Shampoo through to our Apple Fresh shampoo.
But whatever scents, conditioners or other ingredients we add, they always have the one key ingredient – our unique form of Pyrithione Zinc (ZPT).
More about the cause of dandruff