Dandruff is characterized by unsightly white flakes that accumulate on your hair, shoulders and clothing, usually accompanied by an itchy scalp. And even though we all recognize dandruff, most people don't know that dandruff is usually the result of a fungus called Pityrosporum ovale (P. ovale). And that it's quite common to virtually everyone.

It all begins with our most abundant renewable resource - our skin. Normally, over the course of our lives, old skin cells are constantly dying, drying up and falling away, only to be replaced by new skin cells. This process takes place so gradually that it is usually undetectable.

Dandruff appears when the rate at which dead skin cells are shed and replaced begins to speed up. While, in most people, all of the skin over the scalp is generally replaced at a rate of once per month, this rate is accelerated to once every 10 to 15 days for people with dandruff, and even further for people with severe dandruff known as seborrheic dermatitis (seborrhea).

Dandruff first starts to appear during the onset of puberty, but usually hits with greater frequency and severity when most people reach their early to mid-twenty's. While regular dandruff will appear on the scalp as white or gray flakes, severe dandruff, or seborrhea, will often include oily flakes that are yellow in colour along with red, scaly and moist patches on the scalp and in other areas around the eyebrows, cheeks, ears and chest.