1. What is scalp impurities/scalp porphyrin?
Porphyrins are essential for the function of hemoglobin - a protein in your red blood cells that carries oxygen. However, buildup of porphyrins can affect nerve system and/or scalp skin. In scalp skin, the buildup of porphyrin mostly appear in hair follicles where large amounts of porphyrin-producing skin bacterium reside. Due to increased sensitivity to sunlight and inflammations caused by bacteria porphyrins, a person with excessive scalp porphyrin may experience:
- Sensitivity to the sun and sometimes artificial light, causing burning pain
- Itching, or sudden painful redness and swelling
- Fragile thin scalp skin with changes in scalp color
- Blisters on exposed scalp skin
- Acnes and other inflammatory scalp skin diseases
To assist diagnosis of impurities caused by scalp porphyrin, a scalp image needs to be taken under the UVL light using the Chowis Mobile Analyzer for Hair. Under the UVL light, impurities can be revealed as bright white, orange, and red spots. Our algorithm then evaluates the impurities in the image and provides the grading
2. Chowis scalp impurities grade
The following Chowis impurities grade has been co-developed by Chowis and dermatology experts. For each image, we detect impurities to provide a quantified score. Based on the scale shown in Table 1, we grade scalp impurities into clear, almost clear, mild, moderate and severe.
| Grade | Scale | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Clear | 0 ~ 9 | Clear skin with little to no impurities |
| Almost Clear | 10 ~ 20 | Mild impurities resides in some follicles |
| Mild | 21 ~ 54 | Moderate amount of impurities building up in many follicles |
| Moderate | 55 ~ 85 | Severe buildup of impurities in large amount of follicles |
| Severe | 86 ~ 99 | Very severe buildup of impurities in almost all follicles |
| Clear |  |  |
| Almost Clear |  |  |
| Mild |  |  |
| Moderate |  |  |
| Severe |  |  |