Scooter riders should regularly clean their helmets, especially in summer, to prevent dirt and sweat from accumulating and causing scalp problems, such as hair loss and permanent baldness, a dermatologist has warned.
Poor hygiene practices by helmet wearers often lead to scalp problems, such as bacterial folliculitis, tinea capitis and seborrheic dermatitis, Lu Pei-hsuan (呂佩璇) at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital said on Aug 31.
The first step to maintain good scalp care is proper hair washing, as shampoo residues can easily cause dandruff and itchy scalps, while improper scratching will cause inflammation, Lu said.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
The best way to wash your hair is to pour shampoo about the size of a NT$10 coin on the palm of the hand, rub it with a little warm water to create foam, and gently rub it on the scalp with your fingertips, and rinse with warm water, she said.
When using conditioners or other products, it is important to avoid direct scalp contact by applying them more than 3cm away from the roots of your hair, otherwise they can cause extra oil production, she said.
Many people put their helmets on wet hair, causing the scalp to get stuffy and become a hotbed of bacteria and mold, she said, adding that a helmet should only be put on fully dry hair.
People with scalp inflammation should refrain from using hair spray or other styling products, and those with overly active sebaceous glands can wash their hair more than once a day, she said.
Some oral medications, such as isotretinoin, can treat excessive oil production, but the fundamental treatment is keeping a healthy lifestyle, because such problems are likely to reoccur once patients discontinue their medication, she said.
Riders should choose a helmet that has a removable and washable inner lining, and clean it with laundry detergent at least once a week, she said.
Putting tissue or a piece cloth on the inner edge of a helmet can also improve scalp health, she said.
People with scalp disorders should have sufficient sleep and a regular lifestyle, and avoid greasy food, spices and alcoholic beverages, she said.
People with serious scalp conditions can use medicinal shampoo about two or three times a week, based on their doctor’s instructions, she said, adding that if the conditions are mild, normal or anti-dandruff shampoo will do.
‘HUMILIATING’: Aletheia University students called on the school to apologize for limiting former professor Chang Liang-tse’s access to its Taiwan literature archive The Aletheia University Student Association yesterday called on the university to apologize to retired professor Chang Liang-tse (張良澤) after it prevented him from accessing the Taiwanese literature archive at its Tainan campus by changing the lock on the building. Last month, the university changed the lock on the building without warning, barring Chang’s access to the archive that he had “singlehandedly established,” Chung Yen-wei (鍾延威), the son of the late writer Chung Chao-cheng (鍾肇政), wrote on Facebook on Friday. The university in 1997 created the first department of Taiwanese literature in the nation, and Chang, now 82, was the department’s first-ever chairman,
ALLEVIATING FEARS: The CECC would only announce public places where it is difficult to identify everyone there at the same time as the couple, minister Chen said The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday announced six places where two locally infected COVID-19 cases had visited between Thursday last week and Sunday, urging people who had been at the places at the same time to monitor their health. The couple, cases 838, a doctor, and 839, his nurse girlfriend, were reported by the center on Tuesday. The doctor had treated a patient with COVID-19 last week before he began suffering symptoms on Friday, while the nurse began suffering symptoms on Saturday. They work in the same hospital in northern Taiwan, but the nurse had not worked with COVID-19 patients, so
SECOND RULING: Israeli-American Oren Shlomo Mayer refused to sign a court transcript, complained about the court translator and said the trial had been unfair The High Court yesterday upheld New Taipei City District Court’s verdicts on four men convicted last year in connection with the 2018 murder and dismemberment of a Canadian citizen on the banks of the Sindian River (新店溪). It found American-Israeli Oren Shlomo Mayer and American Ewart Odane Bent guilty of homicide and the abandonment and destruction of a corpse, with Mayer sentenced to life in prison and Bent given a term of 12 years and six months, for the death of Sanjay Ryan Ramgahan, whose body parts were found in a riverside park under Zhongzheng Bridge in New Taipei’s Yonghe
A lawyer and a prosecutor yesterday castigated what they called a lenient ruling by the High Court on Luo Wen-shan (羅文山), whose prison sentence was reduced to two years, which he does not need to serve, after he was convicted for receiving illegal political donations from China to meddle in Taiwan’s elections. Investigators found that Luo, who retired from the army with the rank of lieutenant general, had accepted NT$8.38 million (US$294,604 at the current exchange rate) under the guise of political contributions from Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference member Xu Zhiming (許智明) and people in Hong Kong from 2008 to
RSS