Hair Diseases

Alopecia means baldness. Usually we have about 300,000 hairs on our heads, and we lose anything up to 300 hairs each day. Each hair grows at a rate of around about a centimetre a month, a phase in the life of the hair called anagen. After about three years of life the hair falls out, [...]

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Fleas and ticks, normally resident on animals, are happy to feed on humans where their bites cause itchy raised papules which may become secondary infected. A number may transmit other diseases such as a Lyme disease or Rocky Mountain spotted fever. While those carried by domestic animals are usually responsible only for the bites that [...]

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What is Flaky Itchy Scalp? – This is not the same as dandruff. It is basically dead skin that flakes off of the scalp and appears on the shoulders. In addition, the scalp is red and itchy and tender to touch, whilst the hair appears dull. Flaky Itchy Scalp Causes – There are many reasons [...]

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Infestation means the presence of a living parasite either on the body (such as head lice), or within the body (such as scabies in the skin or tapeworms in the gut). Skin infestations most commonly occur with scabies, caused by the mite sarcoptes scabei. The pregnant female mite burrows into the skin, laying eggs as [...]

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What is Dandruff? – Also known as seborrhoeic dermatitis and is not to be confused with a flaky scalp, this condition is when the skin becomes scaly on the scalp and starts to shed at an increased rate. There is also an increase in sebum from the sebaceous glands. The scales become oily and fall [...]

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Lice are parasites that live on blood, which they suck through piercing mouthparts. There are different lice which infest humans: the head louse which affect the scalp, causing itching. The female lays eggs attached to hairs, and the empty egg has a white shell, commonly known as a nit, which can be seen attached to [...]

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