About Hair or Scalp Ringworm

Hair ringworm, sometimes known as scalp ringworm is caused by the fungus tinea capitis. It usually affects children aged 4-14 and in the USA, tinea capitis is thought to occur in 3-8% of the pediatric population; up to one-third of households with contact with an infected person may harbor the disease without showing any symptoms.

You can typically get scalp ringworm from infected beddings, public headrests, combs, hats, or other objects that come in contact with your scalp. The fungus spores that are left on the objects may thrive for some days before they die out. When it comes in contact with your skin, it gets under the skin through the openings on your scalp, and then feed on keratin.

Scalp Ringworm Symptoms

Scalp ringworm is sometimes mistaken as severe dandruff. This is because they have similar initial symptoms like:

Crusty and scaly scalp

Reddened infected areas

Irritated scalp

There is a difference however. Scalp ringworm causes hair thinning. The hair fall will be in round patterns that are the areas of infection. On some occasions, black dots are left behind. If not then the bald area will just appear swollen and red.

In order to get a proper diagnosis, go to your doctor and have it checked. They can usually tell your condition from visual inspection. When they have any doubts, a lab culture may be done to ensure that you do not have any other serious condition.

When you are receiving treatment, there are additional measures that you should practice in order to ensure that you do not get ringworm again. That is, get rid of the carriers. They could be your comb, your pillow cases and other objects. There is no need to throw these away. All you need to do is wash them and make sure that the ringworm fungus is no more. This can be done by using hot water, and other measures that kills the fungus. This will also avoid the spread of ringworm to your family, or anybody you are living with.

Source: “Tinea Capitis: eMedicine Dermatology”. http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1091351-overview. Retrieved 2009-04-19.