Here’s 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 – now known as Malassezia – is to blame for dandruff. This has been prevailing wisdom among many ever since, despite a lack of correlation between the amount of Malassezia living on people’s scalps and the presence and severity of dandruff.
But now researchers have bacteria in their cross hairs. Zhijue Xu 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.
