1. What is scalp keratin/dandruff?
Dandruffs are dead skin cells (which are packed with keratin protein) that build up on your scalp and eventually fall off in flakes. Contrary to common understanding, dandruff actually isn't about your hair or hair hygiene. Instead, it is about the skin on your scalp. The mechanism behind dandruff is because scalp skin cells grow and die off too fast. The cause of this has yet been well established, but it may relate to a fungus feeding on sebum secreted by scalp and irritating scalp skin in the process. Other agents can also contribute to dandruff, for example:
- Dry and cold weather
- Stress and being too tired
- Diseases, such as stroke, Parkinson's disease, and epilepsy
- Skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis
- Wrong hair products
Even though dandruff itself is harmless, but it can be embarrassing and itchy. To assist diagnosis of scalp keratin, up to 5 images can be taken under the PPL light using the Chowis Hair Analyzer. Our algorithm then evaluates the scalp keratin for each image and provides the final scalp keratin level.
2. Chowis scalp keratin grade
The following Chowis scalp keratin grade has been co-developed by Chowis and dermatology experts. For each image, we detect and visualize scalp keratin as white color and provide a quantified Result score. The final score for scalp keratin is computed as the Average of all result scores, and based on the scale shown in Table 1 we then grade scalp keratin into clear, almost clear, mild, moderate and severe.
| Grade | Scale | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Clear | 0 ~ 9 | Clear scalp with little to no scalp dandruff |
| Almost Clear | 10 ~ 20 | Scalp with small amount of dandruff |
| Mild | 21 ~ 54 | Scalp with moderate amount of dandruff |
| Moderate | 55 ~ 85 | Large amount of dandruff spreads the scalp |
| Severe | 86 ~ 99 | Highest level of dandruff presents on scalp |
| Clear |  |  |  |  |
| Almost Clear |  |  |  |  |
| Mild |  |  |  |  |
| Moderate |  |  |  |  |
| Severe |  |  |  |  |