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I've had the pleasure of interviewing a lot of celebrities over the years, many of whom most people would say make sense to be featured in a beauty magazine. But every now and then, the opportunity to interview someone I never could have predicted will present itself. Most recently, it was Bill Nye. Anyone familiar with the Science Guy knows he can wax educational about all sorts of scientific topics, so I don't know why it didn't occur to me that he might know a thing or two about dandruff.
When he popped up on my screen for a Zoom chat, it was almost disarming to see Nye in a black lab coat instead of his trademark, industry-standard white one, but it actually made sense. He's teamed up with Head & Shoulders, and a black lab coat shows the utmost confidence that little sprinklings of white won't be visible. His role with the brand, aside from wearing a blue-and-white Head & Shoulders logo bow tie, is to help people better understand what's going on up there when flakes form, not to mention ease people's minds about how common dandruff is.
"The thing about biology is we mammals have been up against dandruff fungus for — pick a number — a million years, certainly a hundred thousand years," he said, referring to the microbe known as Malassezia globosa. "What I found very interesting as I got into this with everybody here at the lab at Head & Shoulders is it affects people of all ancestries on every continent. So that suggests to me that it goes all the way back to our very beginnings as humans."
But aside from his scientific curiosity about dandruff, he can personally relate to the annoyance and embarrassment that can come with its flakes. "When I was in high school, it was very troubling. I thought I was a bad person. I thought I was a dirty, bad head-management guy," he recalls. But he didn't know just how common the scalp issue is. "The thing that surprised me is about half the people in the world are subject to getting dandruff flakes."
Nye says that it's not uncommon for dandruff to start in puberty because "you're really cranking out skin oil." But as Jeni Thomas, PhD, the global science communications director for Procter & Gamble Hair who joined us on the call, explains — and as so many of us know from experience — we don't leave dandruff behind in adolescence.
"It can stick with you throughout your adult years," Dr. Thomas says. "It can come in phases."
Whenever it may occur, the solution is to use a dandruff shampoo containing zinc pyrithione. But Nye urges you to follow it up not with a regular conditioner, but one specifically meant for dandruff. "So if you use anti-dandruff shampoo — OK, that's good. This fungus does not enjoy eating your skin oil combined with zinc. Doesn't dig it," Nye says. "But then, when you condition without the zinc, you're washing away about half of the zinc pyrithione, so you're undoing what you just did. But with conditioners that have that active ingredient in it, you're not undoing it — you're doing it."
Courtesy of brand
Courtesy of brand
Courtesy of brand
And this goes for people with a dry scalp, too. Yes, the greasy flakes of dandruff and dusty flakes of a dry scalp are not the same thing, but they are related. "Dry scalp flakes and dandruff flakes are rooted in the same issue," Dr. Thomas says. "So to Bill's point, I would say, give an anti-dandruff shampoo a try and see if that addresses your dry scalp problem."
What Nye would urge you to not do if you have a dry scalp (or any kind of scalp, for that matter) is to use oil to try to moisturize it. "There may be a perception that if your skin feels dry, you put oil on it," he says. "Well, if you add oil to your scalp, you're just providing more fuel for this fungus. So I recommend against that."
Heidi Prather, MD, a board-certified dermatologist based in Texas, agrees with the recommendation. "Over-treating the scalp with oil-based hair products may exacerbate dandruff," she previously told Allure.
Nye doesn't struggle with dandruff the way he did as teen, which may have something to do with getting older — Dr. Thomas says oil production isn't quite as robust after age 60 — or it may have something to do with his fondness for Head & Shoulders' Clinical Strength line, which, in addition to zinc pyrithione, contains another dandruff-suppressing mineral called selenium disulfide.
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Ultimately, no matter which dandruff formula you choose, it's important to stick to it, even when things are looking less flaky. Dr. Thomas calls it maintenance mode. Nye sees it more like staying ahead of the "competition" — the fungus.
"That fungus is everywhere. The fungus is always around. It's always in the air. It will always find a way to your head," he says. "What you want to do is make it so your head is not inviting."
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