Your hair hurts, your scalp hurts, and it is not your creativeness — hair ache is actual, say medical doctors. Fortunately, the ache is often benign and simple to repair, however you will want to determine what’s inflicting the ouch earlier than you’ll be able to banish it. Right here, specialists shed some mild on why hair hurts, why scalps really feel sore, and what you are able to do about it.

Meet the specialists:

• Debra Jaliman, MD, is a board-certified dermatologist in New York Metropolis.
• Lars Skjoth is a product developer and founding father of Harklinikken.
• Brian Mitchell Grosberg, MD, is a board-certified neurologist and director of Hartford Healthcare Headache Middle in Hartford, Connecticut.

On this story:

Why does my hair damage?

What precisely is occurring when your hair feels prefer it’s hurting? Hair ache begins within the scalp, so it would really feel like your hair hurts proper on the root. “Irritation coming from blood vessels within the scalp floods the nerves within the hair follicles and causes them to ache,” says Debra Jaliman, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in New York Metropolis. “The ache within the follicle is indistinguishable from the strand, so it really seems like your hair is hurting.” Causes of this irritation embody the next.

What are some causes of hair and scalp ache?

Tight hairstyles

Tight hairstyles can pull and even injury follicles, resulting in hair ache, says Lars Skjoth, a product developer and founding father of Harklinikken, a Denmark-based model that focuses on merchandise to assist hair loss and thinning. He suggests carrying tight hairstyles not more than a pair instances per week, and once you do, to not depart them in all day and evening.

In case your hair or scalp damage and also you are likely to put on tight hairstyles, “take note of this type of hair ache — it may be a warning about coming hair loss,” cautions Skjoth. Dr. Jaliman agrees and says there’s an official time period for it, “traction alopecia,” which is gradual hair loss that may be attributable to injury to hair follicles from tight hairstyles. She recommends that sufferers susceptible to hair ache use tender material hair ties, like Slip Scrunchies, put on unfastened kinds as a substitute of something that pulls on the scalp, and chorus from sleeping with hair tied up or setting hair in a single day.

Product buildup

Dry shampoo may cause hair ache when it is overused, says Dr. Jaliman. Utilizing it to increase the lifetime of a blowout or purchase an additional wash-free day now and again is okay. However utilizing dry shampoo as a daily substitute for laundry your hair may cause residue to cake into follicles. “Most individuals use manner an excessive amount of and spray all of it within the scalp as a substitute of on the strands, too,” says Dr. Jaliman. Micro organism can then thrive, particularly in the event that they combine with sweat, probably inflicting irritation, itching, and ache.

Overwashing

Shampooing your hair too typically can throw off your scalp’s pH steadiness — and that may be one other reason for painful hair. Every day cleaning can dry out the scalp and should even induce a flaking situation like seborrheic dermatitis, which is a power state of irritation, explains Dr. Jaliman. If it’s a must to wash your hair day by day or when you have a delicate scalp, she recommends utilizing a mild child shampoo, like Mustela 2 in 1 Hair and Physique Wash, which incorporates glycerin and avocado extract.

Mustela 2 in 1 Hair and Physique Wash

Frequent hair coloring

That is one thing Dr. Jaliman is aware of about firsthand. “I had untimely graying very younger, and after so a few years of coloring, I developed an intolerance and my hair would damage at any time when I obtained a touch-up,” says Dr. Jaliman. Now she has her colorist combine a Candy’N Low packet into the dye to vary the pH stage to raised swimsuit the scalp with out affecting the colour, and he or she now not feels the burning throughout a colour sensation. This works nicely with dye, however not bleach which may additionally irritation, particularly when it is left on too lengthy, says Dr. Jaliman. She has prescribed topical steroids to calm sufferers’ scalps when they’re sore after bleaching.

Migraines

Hair ache is definitely extra widespread for individuals who get frequent migraines due to a phenomenon referred to as allodynia that impacts as much as two thirds of migraine victims, based on Brian Mitchell Grosberg, MD, a board-certified neurologist and director of Hartford Healthcare Headache Middle in Hartford, Connecticut. With allodynia, usually nonpainful stimuli — like brushing your hair, carrying a hat or a unfastened ponytail, and feeling water wash over your hair within the bathe — change into painful. Mendacity down in your facet throughout a migraine could make the scalp really feel particularly sore and tender, too. “It’s the results of the repeated firing of nerve cells within the mind which can be concerned within the technique of migraine,” says Dr. Grosberg. Tight hairstyles can definitely be a primary contributing step to migraines, although hair that hurts may occur individually, as a part of a migraine assault that’s introduced on by different triggers.

Knowledge has proven that one of the best probability of giving migraine victims aid with triptans — a category of migraine-specific drugs — is taking them early within the assault, earlier than the method of allodynia turns into established, says Grosberg. And in case your hair hurts once you get a migraine, it’s best to inform your physician as a result of it’s a danger issue for creating extra frequent assaults, he provides. Grosberg advises working with a headache specialist (yow will discover one by looking the Migraine Analysis Basis) who can create a therapy tailor-made for the kind of migraines you’re having.

How are you going to relieve hair and scalp ache?

Whether or not your hair ache is attributable to styling, cleaning, or migraines, Dr. Jaliman recommends giving your hair a break — from tight kinds, from coloring, even from shampooing for a day or two — as typically as doable.