Have You Ever Wondered Why Bald Men Often Have Shiny Scalps?

Have you ever noticed that people who have lost their hair, particularly to male pattern baldness, tend to have shiny scalps? It looks as though they have had their heads varnished with a waxy polish. Yet if you observe a babies bald head it does not have that shiny layer on the surface. And the skin on a bald mans arms isn't shiny. So why does the scalp become shiny?

Why do bald adults tend to have shiny scalps?

The skin secretes an oil known as sebum. This protects the skin from air born microscopic invaders. Sebum secretes in greatest abundance on the forehead, inside the ear and on the scalp - where the skins pores are largest.

Sebum is good for the hair. It's like a natural conditioner. However, if the scalp is not washed well and sebum is allowed to build up and combine with other materials such as dead skin cells (dandruff) and other things like gel and hair spray, it can harden and form a dense, embedded layer of 'plaque'.

So, maybe people with no hair are bald because of the shiny scalp?

Well, actually there are more important causes of hair loss, such as 'DHT', a by-product of testosterone, which kills hair follicles. However there is some cause for concern over the sebum-based plaque.

Hairs shed naturally over a period of time. In fact on average approximately 50 - 75 hairs shed from the human head every day. Someone who is suffering hair loss may lose more like 100 hairs a day. Hair shedding is normal and is the body's natural way of growing hair. However, if your scalp is covered in a dense layer of sebum-based plaque, which fills in the pores, your scalp is going to have a hard time growing new hair.

Effectively what happens in some peoples scalps (usually people who have high sebum levels), is the plaque acts like a barrier preventing the hairs from growing after the old ones have naturally shed.

How do you stop this sebum based plaque build-up?

In order to stop hair loss caused by sebum-based plaque you need to remove the layer of sebum-based plaque from your scalp and prevent it from building up again by normalising your skins sebum excretion levels and caring for your scalp properly.