Do you ever feel pain when you touch your hair? Many can relate to this experience, with some saying how it feels so uncomfortable and uneasy. The discomfort comes from several reasons, including possible skin diseases, hair care habits, and even lifestyle changes.
The good thing is that it is preventable, and it starts with knowing the cause and the measures you can take to stop hair sensitivity.
This article will discuss what makes your hair hurt and how you can prevent it from happening again.
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Why Does My Head Hurt When I Touch My Hair?
You may have experienced this condition many times already, but you just can’t think of its cause.
The tenderness in your hair occurs when you run your hand through your head, creating a tingling sensation that gets irritating and itchy. This is even more evident when you pull your hair back, making it seem like the pain is coming directly from your strands.
To set things straight, the pain that you feel does not come right from your hair. You experience discomfort from your scalp, specifically in the nerves resting within your hair follicles.
The cause of hurt when you move your hair varies. You need to know what these factors are to come up with the right solution to end the discomfort.
1. Sensitive Skin
The first factor to consider is your scalp’s sensitivity. You have a sensitive scalp if you constantly suffer from dandruff, outbreaks, and rashes. These may be the cause of hurting your hair.
If your scalp frequently deals with rashes and outbreaks, then there may be an underlying condition that your skin deals with.
A common skin disorder is dermatitis, which results in dryness, redness, inflammation, and scalp swelling. If you have dandruff, then you have seborrheic dermatitis. Dandruff build-up results in flakiness and extreme sebum on the scalp. All these diseases contribute to your scalp’s sensitivity which results in hurting your hair.
2. Hair Styling Habits
Another common factor to consider is your styling habits. If you are a fan of wearing high ponytails or tight buns, then these might be the culprit. Pulling of hair for an extended period puts pressure on your nerve endings.
Your hair follicles get damaged with hairstyles requiring constricted techniques such as tight braids.
Pain in your hair follicles can also cause conditions that affect the neurological system. Your nerve endings become irritated with a mere touch of your head, resulting in extreme pain.
3. Sun Exposure
Exposure to the sun’s harmful UV rays does not just affect your arms and legs. Direct exposure to sunlight slows down the growth of your skin cells, causing acne formation on the scalp.
4. Hair Products and Tools
Aside from different hairstyles, the use of various hair products and tools greatly affects your scalp’s health.
Using styling tools and brushes requires extreme heat and may harm your scalp. Aside from pulling your hair while using these tools, the scalp can also get irritated or burned due to high heat settings. Your scalp also gets affected by shampoos and conditioners that contain harmful chemicals.
5. Hair Accessories
If you have a sensitive scalp, any contact with a foreign element can trigger itchiness and pain. For severe cases of dermatitis, contact with objects such as hair accessories can leave the scalp irritated. Hair clips with metals and colored hair extensions can cause discomfort.
6. Migraine
Symptoms of migraine vary from person to person. Sometimes, pain in the head can be a warning sign of a migraine. The scalp becomes hypersensitive to pain, causing a striking sensation when you touch your head.
7. Skin Disease
The signs of skin diseases not only appear in common body areas such as arms and legs. The symptoms of skin conditions are also visible on the scalp.
Skin diseases such as dermatitis and psoriasis often build signs of inflammation, redness, and irritation in the scalp, causing sensitivity and tenderness in the head.
8. Infestations
While you may think that what’s causing your hair pain is simply a case of dandruff, another thing to consider is lice. These hair pests can live on your scalp and hair for 30 days and can be a cause of extreme irritation.
Lice are transferable from one person to another and can reproduce inside your hair. They can also cause cracks in your scalp, which results in inflammation and blood oozing.
9. Lifestyle Choices
Did you know that your lifestyle can also affect the health of your scalp? Your ways and habits are a significant factor in your scalp’s condition.
Choice of food. The food you eat can trigger scalp pain. Foods that are rich in vitamins A and E and omega-3 fatty acids can keep your hair and scalp moisturized.
Thus, depriving yourself of food rich in these vitamins also makes your scalp and hair unhealthy. Fill your plate with healthy options such as prunes, eggs, salmon, and carrots to rejuvenate your scalp.
Lack of exercise. A sedentary lifestyle brings your health conditions such as heart disease and diabetes and leaves your scalp and hair unhealthy. Exercise helps in the body’s blood circulation and enriches your hair follicles. If there is no exercise, you can develop excessive sebum, resulting in an itchy scalp.
Stress. Stress can prompt your skin to develop more oil inside your hair follicles. Once your scalp forms excessive oil, yeasts and dandruff can also develop, causing your scalp to get swollen.
Smoking. Bad habits such as smoking can also result in hair loss. Tobacco use is linked to psoriasis, which reduces healthy blood flow on the scalp and slows down hair regrowth.
Can Dirty Hair Cause Scalp Pain?
Dry and greasy hair not only makes you look messy but it can also give you pain in the head.
When you have greasy hair, dirt accumulates in your strands and stays on your scalp. Foreign remnants such as dust and bacteria mix with the oil in your hair follicles, causing problems to your scalp and hair.
You can have dandruff, scalp rashes, and hair breakage if your hair remains unwashed, causing you too much pain when you touch your head.
Risk Factors of Scalp Pain
Aside from having skin conditions and lifestyle choices, scalp tenderness can also develop among people with the following conditions:
Depression and anxiety. These mental states cause hair thinning and shedding, which can affect the scalp’s sensitivity.
Weather. Changing weather affects the scalp’s sensitivity. The scalp tends to get flaky and dry in extremely cold temperatures, resulting in irritation. Likewise, extremely hot temperatures make the scalp itchy as well.
Allergy. Allergens such as nickel exposure from hair clasps can trigger irritation in the scalp, giving you the urge to scratch your head and unknowingly develop abrasions. Insect bites also irritate the scalp.
Asthma. People with severe asthma develop scalp tenderness aside from sneezing and coughing.
Skin Conditions that Cause Scalp Pain
There are many skin conditions that affect the scalp. The scalp is considered the thickest skin in the body, and so it is not an exemption from visible warning signs of skin disease.
Symptoms of many skin conditions also appear on the scalp, resulting in hair pain.
If you experience pain in the hair, you may have any of the following skin conditions.
1. Traction Alopecia
Traction alopecia is a condition that is associated with hair loss. It occurs when you pull your hair tightly, leaving the head slightly bald.
Hairstyles that trigger traction alopecia include tight weaves, ponytails, braids, and cornrows. It also comes with soreness in the scalp and irritation.
Most people who tie their hair for work or leisure, such as ballet dancers, are more prone to getting this disease.
2. Lichen Planus
Lichen planus is a skin disorder that causes patches on the scalp and baldness. Symptoms of this disease start with reddish patches on the scalp, which cause hair loss. Upon losing hair, the spot gets scarred and often turns itchy.
3. Scalp Psoriasis
Psoriasis is a common skin condition that is untreatable. It is an autoimmune disease that triggers excessive growth of new skin cells even before the natural shedding of the body’s skin cells takes place. As new ones grow, it builds up in the skin, causing red patches on the surface.
The redness appears in different body parts, with recurrent flare-ups causing inflammation and extreme pain. Psoriasis also shows discolored spots, flaking, and scales that tend to be sensitive when touched.
Sometimes, the scaley patches also result in bleeding.
According to the American Academy of Dermatology, 50% of people with the condition also develop patches on the scalp, causing the head to experience redness and inflammation.
4. Allodynia
Allodynia is a disease that results in pain reactions in the body. Even as light as the touch of a feather or as gentle as the slight touch of your hair can cause a striking pain.
People with diabetic neuropathy, fibromyalgia, and trigeminal neuralgia are more prone to developing allodynia.
5. Folliculitis
Folliculitis is a disease associated with yeast, dust mites, and bacteria. The condition triggers hair follicles to become red and swollen, causing itchiness and bumps on the scalp. These bumps can develop into painful and bleeding crusts.
6. Seborrheic Dermatitis
Seborrheic dermatitis is a common chronic skin condition that results in stubborn dandruff, redness, and scalp inflammation. If you have oily skin, you are more likely to develop this eczema.
How to Stop Hair and Scalp Pain?
Now that we have tackled the common reasons for pain in the hair and scalp, it’s time to determine ways to stop the discomfort.
Follow these tips to reduce the swelling and irritation you feel when you touch your hair.
1. Let Your Hair Down
Pulling your hair into a tight ponytail, braids, and buns can damage your hair follicles, especially when you do this daily. It not only leads to hair loss or thinning but also breaks your scalp.
Give your hair a break and let it down on days when you don’t need to style it. Your hair follicles can breathe if your hair falls down effortlessly.
Tight hairstyles are still possible but on a lower frequency. Use soft cloth hair ties and not rough elastic bands when having a bun. Rubber bands bring too much pressure on your hair, resulting in the breakage of strands. Moreover, avoid leaving your hair in ponytails when you sleep.
2. Wash Hair Regularly
Give your hair a regular wash to remove the grease and dust that accumulate in your hair. However, take note that frequent washing does not have to be too much—using a mild shampoo once a week is enough.
Frequent washing can damage the pH balance of your hair, which can be another factor for pain. You can also go for shampoos with natural ingredients such as oat, mustard-seeds extract, and avocado extract to retain the pH balance of your scalp.
If you have dermatitis or psoriasis, an anti-dandruff shampoo is highly recommended and must be applied daily to fix the excessive itchiness.
3. Get Sun Protection
The sun can burn your scalp. Keep your head covered when going out and don’t forget to apply for topical protection.
Use an umbrella, hat, or scarf to cover your head. You can also use oils to keep your hair from drying or scalp lotion or sunscreen when you need to get exposed to the sun.
4. Slow Down on Harmful Hair Products
Make an assessment of the hair products you apply on your strands. Do your products contain harmful chemicals that may irritate your scalp? Do you really need to put tons of substances when you style your hair?
Get rid of hair products such as setting sprays and dry shampoos./ The use of dry shampoo is beneficial for greasy hair. However, the product is associated with hair pain when overused.
You can choose 1-2 hair products that are gentle to the scalp, preferably those that are made for babies. As they say, the simpler, the better.
You can include home products that are readily available in your kitchen to reduce symptoms of hair pain.
- Essential oils. Pick hair-friendly oils like peppermint oil and tea tree oil to clean your hair. These oils also break down sebum while keeping your strands moisturized.
- Apple cider vinegar. This kitchen product can break down the oil build-up and restores the pH of your hair and scalp.
- Aloe vera. This wonder plant can serve as a natural alternative to conditioners. It hydrates the hair strands and aids in proper circulation on the scalp.
5. Consult Your Hairstylist
Caring for your hair and scalp does not mean you no longer have to treat yourself to a trip to the salon. Of course, you can still style your hair to look appealing.
What you need is a trusted hairstylist who knows what style suits you best and considers the health of your hair and scalp.
If you need a new look, ask your stylist for the best style that won’t require tight ponytails or buns and won’t need heating tools.
Your stylist knows what works best for you, which does not involve putting too much pressure on your hair follicles.
Safe hair treatment services are also helpful to keep your hair in top shape while maintaining its glow.
6. Seek Treatment for Skin Disease
Immediate treatment for pain in the head can include topical ointments and creams, cool compresses, and pain relievers.
If you still feel hair tenderness even when you have already changed your hair styling habits and lifestyle choices, it’s time to check if you have an undetected skin disease.
Your health provider, specifically a dermatologist, can help you determine if you have a skin condition depending on the symptoms you experience.
While the pain you feel when you touch your hair seems not to be a severe condition, it still pays to seek consultation from a skin health professional to address your concern. A skin condition is often another warning sign of an underlying disease.
Your dermatologist will have to conduct various laboratory examinations to determine the condition and may refer you to other specialists for further evaluation.
Final Thought
The pain that you feel in your head when you touch your hair is an indication that something is wrong. Although it may just be a case of dandruff which you can solve with shampoo, or it is due to long periods of wearing tight ponytails, you still have to listen to what your scalp is saying.
It is better to stop, inspect, and reassess your hair and scalp care routine to determine what’s going on. After all, there is a solution for such striking pain.
You have your stylist to give you hair treatments, your dermatologist to help you find the right product, and your kitchen for easy, home remedies you can try.
Remember, hair care does not only involve your strands and your scalp. It also affects your overall health and wellness.
