Seventy Per Cent Indians Have Dandruff: Survey

Mumbai: Facing one of the worst `bad hair days` in the world, around 70 per cent of Indians suffer from dandruff, according to a latest survey.

Nearly 70 per cent of the Indian consumers polled have complained of dandruff in the past 12 months, according to the global survey conducted by the CLEAR Paris Institute run by multinational FMCG company Unilever.

The highest occurrence of dandruff in India is among young adults aged 18 to 30 as they are left embarrassed while brushing off those fallen hair strands from shoulders or having second thoughts slipping on that sexy black dress for the fear of flakes.

This is the first-of-its-kind global scalp analysis survey involving nearly 13,000 participants from Brazil, Mexico, India, China, Russia, Germany, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Worldwide, China and India has the most dandruff sufferers (70 per cent), while Germany is the least affected at 40 per cent.

Caused primarily by a fungus which lives naturally on the scalp, dandruff occurs following excessive shedding of dead skin cells from the scalp when it is too dry or too oily.

Besides stress or a bad diet, dandruff might appear as the scalp turns greasy due to over production of sebum or oil producing flaking on the scalp.

According to the survey results, not everyone in the world agrees that dandruff can be cured but about 7 in 10 Indian consumers believe that dandruff can be completely removed.

Globally nearly everyone surveyed agreed on the need to nourish their scalp but most do not give it top priority.

In India, almost everyone would consider nourishing their scalp to remove or prevent dandruff and majority would consider immunising their scalp for permanent dandruff removal, says the survey.

In India, scalp care is given a very low priority but more than 7 in 10 would still consider the scalp when choosing vitamins or supplements for the body.

If the annoying, itchy and persistent scalp disorder of dandruff is completely removed from the scalp, confidence is the most commonly cited emotive to be felt, followed by attraction.

or this survey, a total of 1,742 people aged between 15-55 years old were interviewed in India.

Dandruff and scalp inflammation are very common problems seen in both men and women in India. While a number of treatment options are available for the same, resistance is often seen to existing long standing treatments resulting in increased symptoms and recurrences," says noted dermatologist Dr Aparna Santhanam.

Hindustan Unilever recently launched the first-ever patented scalp nutrient technology `Nutrium 10` in its anti- dandruff shampoo.