Diseases of the scalp provoke the appearance of internal discomfort in a person. After all, their development leads to hair loss, early and rapid baldness, to the occurrence of hard-to-remove dandruff and dermatological pathologies.
Sometimes people themselves are looking for various ways to restore curls. However, as a rule, all these efforts do not lead to the desired result. At the same time, the problem that has arisen is exacerbated even more.
In order to get rid of diseases of the scalp and hair, you will need to contact a trichologist in any case. This specialist will identify the main reason for the deterioration of the patient’s health and select the necessary course of therapy.
Causes of disease
Very often, the occurrence of dermatological diseases is facilitated by a violation in the blood supply to the hair follicles, as well as dysfunction of the glands of the sebaceous secretion. Similar malfunctions in the body occur in the presence of a variety of factors, namely because of:
- heredity, determining the type of functioning and structure of skin elements;
- hormonal imbalance (especially estrogen and androgen) and pathologies of the endocrine glands;
- unstable functioning of vegetative NS;
- often arising stressful situations, as well as long-term psycho-emotional stresses;
- individual ailments, such as epilepsy, schizophrenia and manic-depressive state;
- metabolic disorders of the body, a lack of trace elements (magnesium, zinc, selenium), vitamins E, A and poor nutrition;
- decreased immunity;
- systemic autoimmune pathologies of connective tissue, as well as ailments of internal organs and systems;
- fungal infections and due to the acute form of diseases caused by pathogenic microorganisms;
- poor quality products designed for hair and scalp care or their improper use, as well as frequent use of a hair dryer;
- excessive exposure to humans of electromagnetic radiation of various types, as well as in connection with the presence in the air of an increased content of suspended chemical elements.
Depending on the type of skin disease , scalp should also be treated. Also, the treatment of the pathology that occurs in a particular patient will depend on the nature of its course. The identification of concomitant ailments will also influence the implementation of necessary measures.
Types of pathology
All diseases of the scalp (photos and names of the most common ones will be presented below) are divided into four types. Among them:
- Infectious and fungal. The first of these is pediculosis. It develops in case of infection of people with head lice. Among the ailments, microsporia and trichophytosis are distinguished.
- Pathologies caused by disturbances in the functioning of the sebaceous glands. The most common ailments of this type are dandruff and seborrhea.
- Pathological loss of curls. There are many reasons for excessive hair loss. That is why in order to restore the beauty of the hairstyle, you will need, first of all, to determine the main one.
- Damage to the hair shaft. The cause of such pathologies can be thermal, chemical and mechanical external influences.
Depending on what type of illness the patient will belong to, a trichologist may refer him to a consultation with other specialists. With a joint approach to finding out the causes of scalp disease and to eliminating them, the likelihood of restoring the strength of curls increases significantly. This fact must be taken into account at the beginning of the fight against the disease.
Let us consider in more detail various diseases of the scalp, photos and names of these ailments.
Pediculosis
We will begin the examination of various types of scalp diseases with this, which has an infectious nature. The development of head lice is promoted by lice, which are transmitted by contact-household ways. Most often, such scalp diseases occur in children who attend groups. Bites of these parasites cause severe itching and are accompanied by soreness. When combing the skin, secondary infections join the pediculosis. The result of the disease is the formation of scars on the scalp.
In the case of a running disease, the patient appears in the foci of pathology purulent crusts. Due to the laying of eggs by parasites and the released pus, individual locks of hair in such a patient stick together.
Among the common symptoms of a scalp disease of this nature, an increase in the size of regional lymph nodes is distinguished. In addition, there is damage to the hair shaft, which provokes the attachment to the curls of a huge amount of nits.
Pediculosis treatment is carried out using special topical preparations. Nits and adult insects should be periodically removed mechanically.
Microsporia
This pathology refers to fungal diseases of the scalp. Microsporia, or microsporosis, can be infected from people or from animals (the latter is much less common). Most of all, the disease affects children. From them in the future, the fungi of the microsporum are transmitted to all other members of the family. Moreover, the rate of spread of this disease of the scalp is one of the highest.
The main symptom of this pathology is the formation of rounded areas in the scalp with clearly defined boundaries. In these areas, the skin begins to peel off. The fragility of the hair increases, they break off, leaving only a few millimeters from the root. Similar phenomena are accompanied by itching. These "stumps" soon begin to become covered with a grayish coating, which in its appearance is similar to mold.
Inflammatory changes in the affected areas of this infectious disease of the scalp are practically absent. Further sections of the pathology are covered with purulent crusts.
Trichophytosis
The second name for this fungal disease of the scalp is ringworm. Its transmission is possible when a person comes into contact with infected cats or dogs. The cause of the pathology can also be the things of people already affected by the disease.
Such a disease of the scalp, as trichophytosis, is superficial. This type of ailment most often affects adolescent children. There are also deep ringworm. It is usually observed in young people.
Symptoms of the superficial form of the disease are small rounded zones in which hair breaks off at different heights from the surface of the skin. The appearance of such foci, which reach 3 cm in diameter, is certainly accompanied by peeling of the epithelium and itching. In addition, an infected person has symptoms of intoxication, swelling and soreness of the lymph nodes, as well as allergic rashes. On the contour of the foci of pathology, sometimes there are bubbles and crusts with purulent contents. In some patients, at the same time, deformation of the nail plates is observed.
It should be borne in mind that the treatment of fungal diseases of the scalp should be carried out as soon as possible. Otherwise, the lesions will begin to develop at high speed.
Scab
The causative agents of this disease of the scalp (photo below) parasitize only on humans.
The second name for the scab is “favus”. It is given pathology by the name of the fungus that can form on the head, as well as on other parts of the body, a kind of yellowish crusts with a depressed middle. In the center of these foci, as a rule, single hair grows. If treatment of a disease of the scalp of a given species for a certain time is not carried out, then individual crusts begin to merge with each other. This leads to the appearance of extensive lesion areas. In the most advanced cases, epidermal cells atrophy under such crusts. This leads to the development of persistent baldness.
This disease of the scalp and hair leads to the fact that curls lose their strength and shine, are pulled out without much effort, and in appearance they begin to resemble tow.
Most often, the inhabitants of the southern regions suffer from scab. Moreover, the majority of sick people are women and children. The causative agent of this pathology is resistant to changes in the environment and is able to exist for a long time in furniture, in carpets and in dust of residential premises. Infection is possible with direct human contact with objects on which the fungus is located.
Seborrhea
We proceed to consider the descriptions and names of diseases of the scalp caused by impaired function of the glands of the sebaceous secretion. Seborrhea is on the list of the most common ones. This is an inflammatory pathology. It occurs in connection with increased secretion of sebum, which has a modified composition.
The main symptoms characteristic of seborrhea are expressed in itching of the head, as well as in redness and peeling of the skin. With advanced cases, there is a loss of curls with a high probability of developing baldness.
The ailment has its own varieties. So, seborrhea is dry and also oily. Treatment (a photo of a scalp disease is presented below) in each case should be selected individually by a dermatologist or trichologist.
The disease recedes when conducting local and systemic antifungal therapy with simultaneous correction of the daily diet, as well as due to the exclusion of factors that caused its development.
Seborrheic dermatitis
The disease is chronic, having an inflammatory nature. It develops due to the excessive reproduction of a lipophilic yeast-like fungus. The course of the disease is similar to dermatitis, in which clearly limited spots of inflammatory foci are formed on the scalp. These zones, having a red color, gradually merge. Over time, a yellowish crust forms on such spots caused by the rejection of epidermal cells.
The areas of seborrheic dermatitis, in addition to the scalp, are the upper body and face. The symptom that occurs before the appearance of foci of inflammation is dandruff. It begins to form in large quantities.
Seborrheic dermatitis is one of the causes of baldness. Hair growth can be restored only if persistent remission of the disease. The main therapy of the pathology is to follow a special hypoallergenic diet, as well as to use some physiotherapy and taking antimycotic drugs prescribed by your doctor.
Eczema
The initial manifestations of this pathology are associated with the growth of fungal colonies belonging to the genus Pitirosporum. Sometimes the cause of the disease is staphylococcus affecting the skin. However, eczema on the head is not always caused by the influence of pathogenic microorganisms. Sometimes it develops with allergic reactions to certain external stimuli, as well as chronic diseases of the kidneys and liver, digestive organs, as well as the endocrine and nervous systems.
The main symptoms of eczema are rashes of a rounded shape that look like papules, plaques, or spots. The appearance of such foci is accompanied by burning, itching and soreness.
Eczema that occurs on the scalp can occur in parallel with seborrhea. Moreover, in addition to round rashes, it is accompanied by increased dryness of the skin and curls.
This disease is not contagious. His treatment is carried out after a complete examination of the patient and the identification of violations in the functioning of internal organs.
Dandruff
This term refers to desquamation of the epithelium layer located in the scalp. As a result of this process, yellowish or white flakes arise.
The resulting dandruff causes itching in humans. In this case, the curls become dull and dry or acquire excessive fat content.
Often the cause of dandruff is fungal infections. It is observed in patients suffering from seborrhea, as well as in those people who have recently been subjected to serious psycho-emotional stress. Dandruff occurs with hypovitaminosis, as well as in the presence of intestinal and gastric pathologies in the patient.
It provokes the appearance of white scales and improper hair care. It should be noted that dandruff is observed in varying degrees of severity in almost 70% of the world's inhabitants.
Treatment in this case should be gentle care for curls. A person needs to prevent possible external influences of an aggressive nature and conduct a course of therapy with drugs prescribed by a trichologist. It should be borne in mind that dandruff is one of the causes of hair loss.
Alopecia
Too active hair loss is provoked by various negative factors. They can be both damage to the follicles, and internal diseases of the body. In elderly people, this phenomenon is caused by age-related changes.
Alopecia is understood as progressive hair loss, which leads to complete or partial baldness. This pathology is of three types: diffuse, focal and androgenic.
The disease catches up with both men and women. And most often it is faced by people over 50 years old. It is worth noting that baldness worsens a person's appearance and is the cause of psychoemotional experiences.
In order to conduct effective treatment of alopecia, you will need to find out the root cause of the active loss of curls. Sometimes a trichologist prescribes for the patient a lifelong use of certain external agents that help restore the density of hair.
Trichoclasia
Consider diseases of the scalp caused by injury to the hair shaft. It is worth noting that a similar phenomenon is observed quite often. It can be provoked by perm, dyeing curls, as well as the use of pads and thermal irons. Such effects do not always lead to excessive hair loss, but, as a rule, it is they that cause damage to the ends of the hair, their dryness, brittleness and loss of elasticity.
However, the reasons may lie in other factors. So, for example, the disease, which is called the term "trichoclasia", is caused by infections that a woman suffered during pregnancy. Pathology has two types:
- Nodal Symptoms of this form of trichoclasia are grayish-white nodules that occur, as a rule, on the lower third of the hair shaft. These formations are at an unequal distance from each other. Near the nodules, the curls easily break off, and at their ends, one can consider the delamination of the hair shaft.
- Acquired. This ailment is proximal, manifesting itself in the absence of curl growth, as well as distal, when bizarre nodules appear at the end of the hair. The first variant of the disease is most often found in African American children. At the slightest sipping, the curls of such patients break off. To restore the structure of hair with this form of trichoclasia is possible due to proper hair care. The second variant of the anomaly affects only small areas on the head. In men, the beard most often suffers. In this case, the hair rods break off at the places of their deformation.
Trichokinesis
The second name for this scalp disease is the term “twisted hair”. An anomaly occurs when a child reaches two years of age. Hair becomes coarse, stiff, of different lengths and almost devoid of natural shine. Sometimes in children, foci of baldness become noticeable. Some parts of the damaged hair shaft are flattened and have grooves. Moreover, each of them bends at different angles around its own axis.
It is impossible for a patient suffering from this pathology to comb hair normally. After all, hair is constantly tangled and can even be pulled out.
As a rule, trichokinesis is found in girls. When they reach the age of eight, healthy hair on the head appears much more. Twisted curls in this case become invisible.
Moniletrix
This ailment is noted infrequently. It manifests itself in infants and affects not only the hair on the head, but also the eyelashes, eyebrows, and also some other areas.
The symptom of this disease is the appearance on the rod of a lock of thickening and thinning. The first of them on light strands look darker. Fine hair begins to break off. Curls become unable to grow more than 1.5 cm in length. Congenital changes occurring in the innervation of the skin are also characteristic of moniletrix. They cause deformation of the hair follicles. This disease is accompanied by follicular hyperkeratosis.