Dandruff is the shedding of dead skin cells from the scalp. As skin cells die, a small amount of flaking is normal; about 487,000 cells/cm2 get released normally after detergent treatment. Some people, however, experience an unusually large amount of flaking either chronically or as a result of certain triggers, up to 800,000 cells/cm2, which can also be accompanied by redness and irritation.
Dandruff is a common scalp disorder affecting almost half of the population at the post-pubertal age and of any sex and ethnicity. It often causes itching. It has been well established that keratinocytes play a key role in the expression and generation of immunological reactions during dandruff formation. The severity of dandruff may fluctuate with season as it often worsens in winter. Dandruff is rare before puberty, peaks in the teens and early twenties, and declines with age thereafter. Most cases of dandruff can be easily treated with specialized shampoos. There is, however, no true cure.
Dandruff is an album by Ivor Cutler, originally released in 1974. It was the first of three LPs that Cutler released through Virgin Records in the mid-1970s; Cutler had signed to the label after an appearance on Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom, which Virgin had released earlier that year. Many of the album's 45 tracks are simple poems or brief short stories— including seven poems composed and read by Phyllis King, but there are also a number of musical pieces including the calypso-inspired "I Believe in Bugs", which became particularly well loved among Cutler's compositions. The LP was also the first to feature episodes from Cutler's Life in a Scotch Sitting Room series of autobiographical stories, which resulted in 1978's Life in a Scotch Sitting Room, Vol. 2.
All tracks written by Ivor Cutler except where noted.