Fungus can do a lot for us — make bread, make beer and cure infections, in the case of penicillin. But when the fungus infects us, well, that’s not nearly as much fun as beer.
From your head to your feet, groin and other parts of your body, fungal infections are an itchy, irritating annoyance that can cause a variety of symptoms. There’s no getting around it — they suck, and can get pretty gross.
Scalp fungus presents an array of unique — and crappy — symptoms too (more on those later), but the good news is that it’s almost always treatable. It’s important to take action quickly if you develop a fungal infection on your scalp to prevent it from spreading to other areas of your body and becoming more severe.
Below, we’ve explained what scalp fungus is and the factors that cause it to develop. We’ve also explained the effects scalp fungal infections can have on your hair, as well as the most effective options for treating and preventing this type of fungal infection, so you can stop feeling like an unpaid Last of Us extra.
What Is Scalp Fungus?
Scalp fungus, or tinea capitis, is a type of fungal infection that affects your skin and hair. It won’t turn you into a zombie, but it can alter your appearance.
Scalp fungus is often referred to as scalp ringworm. Despite its name, there’s no worm involved — instead, this type of infection is caused entirely by contagious fungi.
As with other common fungal infections, it develops when a specific type of fungus starts to grow on the outermost layer of your skin.
A similar type of infection called tinea barbae — which develops on your face, chin and neck — can affect your beard area.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 40 different species of fungi may cause tinea infections that affect your scalp, groin, feet and other parts of your body. Specifically, scalp fungal infections are often caused by fungi in the microsporum and trichophyton genera.
Scalp fungus can cause a variety of symptoms, including:
The severity of these symptoms can vary depending on a number of factors. Sometimes, scalp fungus causes gray, scaly patches of skin to develop across your scalp with a small amount of noticeablehair loss.
In more severe cases, a scalp fungal infection can cause inflammation, lesions and secondary infection with bacteria.
What Causes Scalp Fungus?
So if you’re not dipping your head in some sourdough starter, how does scalp fungus happen?
Like other fungal skin infections, scalp fungus develops when contagious fungi are transmitted onto your scalp and hair from other people, animals or objects.
Fungi can be found in almost every environment. When you come into contact with a fungus, it can spread onto your skin, causing an infection to develop. Often, it only takes a moment for a fungus to make its way onto your body and start growing.
Common sources of this type of fungal infection include:
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People. It’s possible to develop scalp fungus after contact with other people with fungal infections. The fungi that cause this type of infection can spread from other people onto your hands, then move to your head when you touch your scalp or hair.
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Animals. Ringworm infections are common in animals, including dogs, cats and many farm animals. Many fungal infections are especially common in younger animals, such as puppies and kittens.
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Shared items. Items that are shared with other people, such as towels, clothing, combs, hairbrushes and other personal care products, can spread fungal infections.
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The environment. Certain areas, such as damp surfaces in communal locker rooms or showers, are breeding grounds for the fungi that cause scalp ringworm and many other fungal infections.
Most Common Types of Fungus on Your Scalp
Thankfully, the most common types of fungus that hit humans — which if we’re being honest aren’t really that common — don’t cause us to become flesh-hungry mindless drones in an apocalyptic wasteland. Zombie “jock itch” doesn’t exist.
There are, however, two predominant fungi that may mushroom up in your scalp — tinea capitis (also known as ringworm) or candida.
Tinea capitis (Ringworm)
You likely know ringworm: the variety of fungus associated with stray animals, barefoot children who play outdoors and apparently, your scalp.
Scalp ringworm can affect anyone, but it’s most common in children and people with weak immune systems. Like other fungal infections, ringworm tends to spread more often during the warmer periods of the year, so if you’ve got it in December, you’re very special (congrats!).
Candida (Yeast)
A far less common cause of scalp infection, candida is a yeast infection for your dome. Typically, yeast infections are associated with wet, internal areas of the body — you know — vaginas. And while yeast also infects penises, throats, and more, it’s typically not the one you hear about in the scalp.
But a candida scalp infection is really rare, and generally only happens in people who are immunocompromised.
Scalp Fungus and Hair Loss
One thing that real-world human fungi can do, which you probably won’t see as a major plot point in a zombie movie or TV show, is cause some hair loss. If you have a fungal infection on your scalp, you may experience patchy hair loss, with small, round bald patches forming in certain parts of your scalp.
The hair in the affected area may become brittle and break off its roots easily. In some cases, scalp fungus can cause patches of small black dots to develop as strands of hair literally break off at your scalp.
Although most of the hair loss associated with scalp fungus is temporary, scalp fungal infections that cause inflammation (often referred to as kerion) can cause scar tissue to develop. This may lead to a type of permanent hair loss called scarring alopecia.
Because of the risk of permanent hair loss, it’s important to take action quickly if you notice any of the symptoms of the scalp fungal infection we mentioned above.
It’s also important to understand that hair loss caused by fungus is very different from the hair loss caused by male pattern baldness. Although fungal infections can cause hair loss, they don’t have any effect on DHT or other hormones.
Scalp Infection or Fungus: Which Is It?
So how do you determine whether you’ve got a fungus or a viral or bacterial infection on your scalp? As much as you may want to see some really gross side-by-side images right now, the truth is that it can often be hard to determine on your own.
Fungal infections may have clear visual cues, like white growths or ring-like patterns to clue you in, but it’s more than likely (unless you’re a fungal scientist, or maybe a dermatologist) that you’re going to be hard-pressed to identify fungal dandruff or differentiate a scaly scalp from a fungus from that of a scaly scalp due to scarring alopecia.
The best way to tell whether you have a fungal infection — and which fungal infection you have — is to talk to a healthcare provider and let them assess your affected skin.
As a bonus, they’ll be able to start the treatment basically right away — let’s take a look at what treating scalp fungus might look like.
Scalp Fungus Treatment Options
The earlier you take action to treat scalp fungus, the more likely you are to be able to get rid of the infection without suffering from significant hair loss. Acting fast also lowers the risk of the fungal infection spreading to other parts of your body or to other people.
Scalp fungus is treatable using antifungal medications, including:
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Griseofulvin. One of the most common medications used to treat fungal infections of the scalp is griseofulvin, an oral antifungal. You may need to use griseofulvin or another medication for four to eight weeks to properly treat the infection.
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Itraconazole. This antifungal agent can be used as a preventive treatment for people with weakened immune systems, like those with HIV, people undergoing chemotherapy, and people who have gotten organ transplants. But this big gun can work as a treatment for milder situations as well.
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Fluconazole. This antifungal agent is the most reliable treatment for a fungus that beer and bread love, and vaginas and throats hate: yeast.
Since topical antifungal medications can’t penetrate the hair shaft, they typically aren’t used to treat scalp fungus. However, your healthcare provider may also recommend topical antifungal creams if you have inflammation or scalp lesions, or show symptoms of ringworm or another fungal infection elsewhere on your body.
It’s important to continue using your medication for the entire treatment period, even if your skin and hair improve relatively early. Stopping treatment early may increase your risk of recurring fungal infections.
FYI: If you’ve experienced temporary hair loss, minoxidil is also a possible supplemental treatment for that.
Preventing Scalp Fungus & Infections
Once you’ve treated scalp fungus, it’s important to prevent the infection from coming back. Use the following tips to reduce your risk of developing scalp fungus or spreading it to others:
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Wash your hair regularly. It’s important to keep your hair and scalp clean. Try to wash your hair regularly. Your healthcare provider may recommend using an antifungal or other medicated shampoo to prevent reinfection.
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Keep your hair and skin clean and dry. Fungal infections tend to thrive in moist, dirty environments. After you wash your hair, dry your scalp thoroughly to prevent fungi from spreading and multiplying.
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Avoid sharing clothes or personal care items. Avoid sharing towels, clothing, combs or other personal care items with other people. Because these come into contact with your skin, they can easily spread fungal infections.
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Replace your hairbrush and/or comb. The fungi that cause infections can survive on combs, brushes and other products for some time, making it possible to reintroduce the infection after treatment if you reuse these items. When you start treatment for scalp fungus, it’s best to throw away your old comb or hairbrush and replace these items.
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Use hot water to wash your clothes, towels and bedsheets. Make sure to wash all of these items thoroughly to kill fungi and reduce your risk of spreading the fungal infection to your partner.
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Take precautions in locker rooms and public showers. Fungal infections often spread in these areas. Be careful not to touch damp or dirty surfaces, then touch your scalp or hair.
Other fungal infections, such as athlete’s foot, can spread around your body. Make sure to protect yourself by wearing sandals or flip-flops whenever you use a public shower or locker room. -
If you have a pet, take it to the vet. Scalp fungus and other fungal infections are often spread through pets. Even if your pet doesn’t show any signs of infection, it’s important to take it to the vet to have it checked for infectious fungi, including ringworm.
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Wash your hands with soap and water after touching animals. Make sure to wash your hands thoroughly after touching dogs, cats and other animals. This also protects you from bacteria and other non-fungal pathogens.
Scalp Fungus: A Final Word
Just like encountering roving bands of cannibal murderers after the apocalypse, scalp fungus is a common problem that can affect people of all ages and backgrounds. Here are some important things to remember about it:
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While scalp fungus doesn’t cause male pattern baldness, it can affect your hair follicles and cause you to shed hair in certain areas of your scalp.
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When a scalp fungal infection causes inflammation, it can lead to a form of permanent hair loss called scarring alopecia.
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Avoiding scalp fungus is the easiest treatment. Keep your skin and hair clean and dry, be careful when sharing clothing and hats and use good hygiene around animals.
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Medication can treat scalp fungus — if you find yourself with signs of an infection, see a healthcare professional for help.
If you have scalp fungus, talk to a healthcare provider. They’ll prescribe you medication to treat the infection, manage any inflammation and prevent the fungus from coming back.
As long as humanity doesn’t fall to a pandemic-level infection, you’ll have treatment options.
This article originally appeared on Hims.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.
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The Norwood Scale: What are the 7 Stages of Hair Loss?
Hair loss may all look the same to you. It’s either bald spots, a receding hairline, thinning hair or worst, all of the above.
So it might be surprising to find out there’s a scale devoted to determining the level of male pattern baldness. Why would anyone want to measure hair loss?
While balding can be alarming and stressful, it’s not something that happens all at once. Instead of suddenly waking up without any hair, most guys go bald gradually over years and decades.
Unfortunately, many men fail to notice their hair loss — and more importantly, to take action and treat it — until it’s too late.
That’s where the Norwood scale comes in. Below, we’ve explained how the scale works and listed the seven stages you may go through if you’re losing your hair.
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The Norwood Scale (also called the Hamilton-Norwood scale) is a seven stage classification system that’s used to measure and categorize the different stages of male pattern baldness.
Men affected by hair loss typically don’t lose their hair evenly from across their entire scalp. Instead, hair loss caused by male pattern baldness follows a specific pattern — yes, that explains the name — that begins in a specific area.
Originally developed by James Hamilton, the scale was updated by Dr. O’Tar Norwood, a dermatologist and hair transplant surgeon, who revised Hamilton’s classification after he saw different patterns of hair loss in men.
The Norwood hair scale has seven stages that measure the severity and pattern of hair loss.
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Norwood stage 1 involves no significant hair loss or hairline recession, or just a little bit of hair loss.
Many men have a Norwood 1 pattern before experiencing some level of hair loss as they age. Although it’s uncommon, some men maintain a Norwood Type 1 hair pattern for their entire lives.
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A Norwood 2 stage is when you start to notice the loss of hair. At this stage, the early signs of the common M-, V- or U-shaped hairline begin to appear.
Many men notice the first signs of hair loss when their hairline begins to recede around the temples. This might also be called a mature hairline.
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Norwood Type 3 men’s hair loss is much more visible. During this stage, the hairline recedes more and takes on a clear M or V shape.
Some men develop a receding hairline accompanied by small balding areas on the scalp, also called a Norwood 3 hairline.
Men with hair that’s classified as Norwood 3 have visible, obvious hair loss at the temples and the frontal area of the scalp.
Some men with a Norwood Type 3 hairline also experience hair loss at the crown, or vertex. This is referred to as Norwood Type 3 vertex hair loss. Men with more significant hair loss around the frontal area of the scalp may be classified as having a Norwood Type 3A hair loss pattern.
While Type 2 areas of hair loss are usually easy to conceal with the right haircut, Norwood Type 3 hair loss is much more difficult to hide.
(Related: Do Hair Growth Products Work?)
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Norwood 4 hair loss is more severe and obvious. Men with hair loss in this stage have lots of hair loss around the hairline, giving it an obvious bald appearance.
They also have sparse hair, or even no hair, on the vertex scalp, or top of the head.
Many men with stage four hair loss have a thick strip of hair that separates their hairline from the balding area around their crown.
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As hair loss progresses to a Norwood 5, the band of hair separating your hairline and crown becomes smaller and thinner.
In this stage, you’ll have significant, obvious hair loss around your hairline and crown.
Some men develop Norwood Type 5A hair loss, with more significant hair loss on the scalp and less of a separating band between the hairline and crown.
For many men affected by balding, this is when the classic horseshoe pattern of hair loss becomes more visible.
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Norwood Type 6 hair loss is very severe. By this stage, you’ll have lost almost all of the hair that previously made up your hairline and vertex scalp, or crown.
There may still be a band of hair to separate these areas, but it will be sparse and thin.
Although you may still have some hair across your scalp, coverage will be minimal and your scalp will be clearly visible through your hair in all lighting conditions.
By a Norwood 6 stage, the classic horseshoe pattern of hair on the back and sides of your head is easy to see.
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Norwood 7 hair loss is the most severe form of hair loss. By this stage, almost none of the hair on your scalp will be left, aside from a few stray hairs or small areas with relatively mild hair growth.
At this point, the classic horseshoe pattern of hair around the back and sides of your head will be all that’s left. This hair may be relatively fine and lacking in density.
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If you want to be proactive and try to get ahead of your hair loss (or know when to start treatment), you can use this system to track your hair loss.
Your first move when you start noticing hair loss should be to make an appointment with a certified dermatologist or healthcare provider who specializes in hair loss.
But, if you’d rather monitor the situation yourself before calling in the heavy artillery, we recommend taking a series of reference photos to use as a visual baseline and track any changes in your hairline over the next few months or years:
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Take one photo of your hairline. Make sure your face and hairline are well-lit, as it can be hard to see your hairline clearly in a poorly lit or underexposed photo. Tilt your head forward slightly so that your hairline and the top of your head are both visible.
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Next, take a photo of your face profile (the side view of your face) by putting your smartphone on a shelf and using the self-timer to take a photo of yourself. This will show any change in your hairline around the temples.
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Then take a photo of the top of your head by holding your smartphone above you using a selfie stick, then using the front camera. Or ask another person to take your photo. This will show any hair loss on your scalp and crown.
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Finally, take a photo of the back of your head. You can do this using a selfie stick, or by asking someone else to take your photo. This will provide a clear view of any hair loss at the crown of your scalp.
Every two to three months, take a new set of photos and check for any changes. To make sure you keep regular photos of your hair, you can set a reminder for every other month using your phone calendar.
You can compare each set of photos to Norwood scale hair. If your hair has advanced from one stage to the next, it’s a good signal that you’re losing your hair and should think about taking action.
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Before we get into how to treat each type of hair loss on the Norwood hair scale, you should know a bit about the causes of hair loss.
A variety of factors can cause your hair to start thinning or to develop a receding hairline. But one of the top causes is genetics.
Certain people have hair follicles that are more sensitive to the hormone dihydrotestosterone (or DHT, a naturally occurring male steroid hormone that’s converted from testosterone) than others.
For people with hair follicles that are sensitive to DHT, even normal amounts of the hormone can cause hair follicles to shrink and eventually fail to grow, which creates the horseshoe-shaped hair pattern that many bald men have.
This hereditary hair loss — also called androgenetic alopecia or male pattern hair loss — can be more difficult, but not impossible, to treat.
Other reasons why men go bald can include stress, aging, diet, medical conditions and more.
(Related: How to Get Rid of Bald Spots)
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The earlier you take action to treat and prevent hair loss, the more of your hair you’ll usually be able to keep.
If you notice your hair advancing from one Norwood type to the next, or if you notice a receding hairline or other common early signs of balding, take action as soon as possible. If you treat your hair loss while you’re still Norwood 2 or 3, you may be able to keep most or all of your hair.
As hair loss progresses to the later stages, it becomes more difficult to treat effectively, even via surgical procedures such as hair transplantation.
At Norwood 3 or 4 stage you should start looking into hair loss treatment options. The most common treatments are medications known as finasteride and minoxidil, which have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and can slow down or stop further hair loss.
These medications work in different ways. Finasteride (sold under the brand name Propecia) blocks testosterone from being converted into DHT and encourages new hair growth.
Also sold as Rogaine, minoxidil works by moving your hair follicles into a state of active growth and stimulating blood flow to your scalp. Essentially, minoxidil keeps the hair growth cycle going by encouraging new hair growth on your head.
If you have Norwood Type 5 hair loss though, your treatment options are much more limited than they are if you have milder Norwood 4 hair loss.
Medications like minoxidil and finasteride may help to prevent your hair loss from getting worse, but it’s important not to expect miracles from medication when your hair loss is relatively severe.
At Norwood stage 5, hair transplant surgery might be a viable option to add some coverage to your scalp and hairline. Two common hair transplant options are follicular unit extraction (FUE) and follicular unit transplantation (FUT).
Beyond Norwood stages 6 and 7, however, is when hair loss is very difficult to treat and medications might not have much of an impact.
There’s still one option: shave your head and own the fact that you’re bald.
Not only does Mr. Clean look unapologetically masculine, but it’s also a simple way to save money that you’d otherwise spend on haircuts.
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Although not perfect, healthcare professionals and hair transplant surgeons commonly refer to stages of the Norwood scale to diagnose and treat hair loss in men.
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The Norwood hair scale measures male pattern baldness in seven stages to determine the severity and pattern of hair loss.
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Norwood stages 1 and 2 signify early signs of hair loss, with either no signs of balding or the beginnings of a receding hairline and noticeable bald spots.
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Stages 3 through 5 indicate more significant hair loss and recession of the hairline, while almost all your hair is gone in stages 6 and 7 of hair loss.
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Early Norwood stages are receptive to treatment from medications like finasteride and minoxidil. Later stages may require hair transplants, although these aren’t always a guaranteed solution.
This article originally appeared on Hims.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.
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Testosterone and Hair Loss: What’s the Link?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/testosterone-and-hair-loss-whats-the-link/ar-BB1n4IdB
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Featured Image Credit: masamasa3/Istockphoto.
