The surprising connection between scalp health and great hair
Shiny healthy hair has always been a priority for stylists and dermatologists, product developers, and sustainably sourced beauty brands.That’s because the health of your hair often reveals a lot about the state of your health overall. “Hair can sometimes give us clues about what’s happening elsewhere in the body because hair growth is very sensitive to changes in nutrition, hormones, and stress,” says Joyce Park, MD,a board-certified dermatologist in Seattle and founder of kerativ, a hair wellness brand. “A good example is that increased shedding can happen after significant stress, illness, rapid weight loss, or nutritional deficiencies.”
The best way to think about this is to watch for a sudden or persistent change in your hair’s quality and quantity. “I often tell patients to think of hair as a reflection of what’s happening in the body, rather than something that exists independently from it,” Dr. Park says. “If you notice a significant or unexplained change in shedding, density, or scalp health, it might be time to talk to a dermatologist.”
In addition, choosing clean beauty products such as ESPA Pink Hair and Scalp Mud or Innersense Organic Beauty Hydrating Cream Hair bath, and selecting formulas suited to your hair’s texture and environment, is key whether you’re dealing with a specific hair challenge or simply looking to maintain healthy hair. “Look at how your strands feel and behave,” Dr. Park says. “Hair should feel manageable and conditioned, not overly dry, brittle, rough, or weighed down.”
Your Scalp Tells a Story
These days, experts are heading straight to the root of what might be causing issues with your hair itself, and healthy scalps are having their moment in the spotlight as experts stress that the skin on the head experiences stress and aging as much as the rest of the body and needs to be tended to equally. “I tell my patients that just like the skin on your face, the scalp needs to be cleansed, protected, and cared for if you want it to function at its best,” says Dr. Park. Happily, she attributes the increased attention being paid to the scalp to an uptick in concerns about hair thinning, shedding, flaking, buildup, and scalp sensitivity. “As these conversations have become more mainstream, people are starting to understand that addressing the scalp isn’t just a trend, it’s an important part of supporting healthier hair over time,” she says. “It’s better to preserve a healthy scalp than it is to reverse damage after it has occurred.”
In fact, supporting the scalp barrier, minimizing inflammation, and maintaining a healthy environment for hair follicles, should be preventative care for all of us, experts say. “In the past, taking care of your scalp has been reactionary—and someone would only seek help when experiencing thinning, dandruff, or buildup,” says Tina Mui, a certified trichologist, owner of Spa Sante and Salon in Pasadena, California, and co-owner and CEO of AWARE, a haircare collection. “Now, there’s this realization that everything starts at the root and that if you don’t take care of your scalp health you won’t get better hair.”
Scalp care is also extremely important for women who require hair restoration and extensions, says Paul Labrecque, creative director, master colorist, and hairstylist at Paul Labrecque Salon & SkincareSpa in New York City. “If the scalp gets too flaky, too dry, and too inflexible, it makes our jobs rougher,” he says. “By contrast, when we keep the scalp healthy, we’re able to better do all the things we need to do.”
“Hair can sometimes give us clues about what’s happening elsewhere in the body because hair growth is very sensitive to changes in nutrition, hormones, and stress.”
—Joyce Park, MD, a board-certified dermatologist, founder of Kerativ
Your Follicles Tell a Story
While few think twice about following an established skincare routine for our face, most of us haven’t been taught how to care for our scalps beyond washing our hair, Dr. Park says. “It’s important to zero in on the scalp because the scalp is exposed to many of the same stressors as the rest of our skin, including UV exposure, inflammation, product buildup, and changes related to hormones and aging,” she says.
This is one of the main reasons Jessica Pantermuehl, a functional nutritional therapy practitioner in Los Angeles and founder of Byrch, developed her own scalp serum, which keeps the scalp soothed and hydrated. “One of my favorite things is to help women decode their symptoms and help them listen to what their body is communicating,” she says.
“Hair is a huge piece of that communication. It’s a big messenger. When we’re low on nutrients or having hormonal shifts, we can absolutely see this showing up on our scalps and in our hair.”
Interestingly, hair and the scalp itself get the least attention from a metabolic standpoint compared to other organs when the body is under-resourced or overly taxed and stressed. “The body triages nutrients to survival organs first,” Pantermuehl says. “Hair is the first place to lose its funding and is one of the last places to get it back. That’s why we need to stay focused on our scalp and hair health.”
Demystifying the Scalp Spa
If you’ve ever wondered what happens during a scalp spa appointment, know this: The entire experience is aimed at being totally relaxing—and restorative. Your treatment begins with a full assessment of your scalp’s overall health. Then, depending on your scalp type, a pre-cleanse oil will be applied to the scalp’s surface. At Mui’s spa in Pasadena, she then stimulates the surface of your scalp with her fingertips using a smooth sandalwood gua sha comb. “The scalp contains 60 acupressure points, and these sandalwood combs have been used for thousands of years in Chinese medicine to activate the hair follicles—each of which has its own blood supply,” she says, suggesting that monthly scalp spa visits would be optimal. “If these aren’t activated, they can’t feed the scalp with blood flow to help the hair grow fully.”
Next, the scalp is deep cleansed to remove buildup from products and pollutants. “The goal is to do a deep cleanse without stripping the hair in order to get a clean canvas,” Mui says. “Then we apply a scalp-safe conditioner and a protective leave-in that protects with UV protection. This is the ritual we’ve created to protect the hair and scalp.”
In the end, any spa treatment that focuses on the scalp will do more than cleanse it. There’s another benefit, too. “There’s also a real emotional layer to a scalp treatment,” says Danielle Fiorentino, founder of Resèt Salon & Head Spa in Red Bank, New Jersey. “It invites you to slow down and reset the nervous system. Your hair will be healthier, and you’ll have a genuine reset in the same moment. Once someone experiences this, it becomes something they’ll build into their routine for good.”
“Now, there’s this realization that everything starts at the root and that if you don’t take care of your scalp health you won’t get better hair.”
—Tina Mui, a certified trichologist, owner of Spa Sante and Salon
