The hormones involved, primarily oestrogen and progesterone, affect the hair growth cycle, the scalp and follicle health, the collagen production, and the natural oils that keep hair and scalp microbiome healthy and balanced.
Burning scalp is often caused by skin conditions, including seborrheic dermatitis, a common skin disease that causes inflamed, scaly, oily skin. Seborrheic dermatitis often appears in the body's oiliest parts, including the scalp. Other than a burning sensation on the scalp, the symptoms are: Skin Lesions.
This is quite a common symptom caused mainly by falling oestrogen, as well as vitamin deficiencies and some other issues. Many women can experience these burning sensations at some point during menopause.
Severe, often intractable burning pruritus of the scalp is a frequent complaint in dermatomyositis. Lichen planopilaris may mimic other autoimmune forms of scarring alopecia.
Our glands interact with each other to produce hormones. A hormonal imbalance can have severe consequences on sebum production. Your body's sebum glands protect the skin and scalp. You may start experiencing hair loss if your sebum glands are affected.
When estrogen levels go down during perimenopause and menopause you may notice dry skin overall, changes in your hair's health and texture, and an itchy scalp.
Occipital neuralgia can cause intense pain that feels like a sharp, jabbing, electric shock in the back of the head and neck. Other symptoms include: Aching, burning, and throbbing pain that typically starts at the base of the head and goes to the scalp. Pain on one or both sides of the head.
Use a cool compress or hair products with a cooling effect – applying cold to the affected area can be soothing and reduce burning and itching. Protect your scalp from burns and heat damage – being out in the sun without UV protection or overusing heat-styling products can dry out your scalp and add to your symptoms.
For many women, menopause also affects the health of their skin and scalp, leading to increased scalp irritation, dryness, eczema and dandruff. Due to the hormonal fluctuations that occur during menopause, the scalp skin becomes thinner, weakening the skin's natural protective barriers.
Mood Swings
Hormonal changes before and during your period can cause irritability, depression, anxiety, and more, or premenstrual syndrome (PMS). If you experience wild mood swings or your symptoms don't seem to coincide with your menstrual cycle, it may be a sign that your hormones are out of sync.
Wondering if it's the menopause causing tingling? It could well be. It is a less common symptom, but a symptom none-the-less. Medically known as 'paresthesis', it's hypothesised that it's the fault of fluctuating oestrogen levels, but other causes should be ruled out.
While nerve issues are a common cause, burning sensations may be due to other conditions affecting either the Central Nervous System (CNS) or the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS): Central Pain Syndrome: Damage to the CNS, which includes the brain and spinal cord, may lead to chronic burning pain.
Scalp pain or tenderness can have a variety of causes including trauma, psoriasis, dermatitis, folliculitis, infections, or even your hairstyle. Underlying conditions like headaches or migraines could also be to blame.
Occipital Neuralgia is a condition in which the occipital nerves, the nerves that run through the scalp, are injured or inflamed. This causes headaches that feel like severe piercing, throbbing or shock-like pain in the upper neck, back of the head or behind the ears.
Scalp dysesthesia is a cutaneous condition characterised by pain and burning sensations without objective physical examination findings. The pain sometimes is described as burning. Often there is an underlying psychosomatic cause, such as stress, depression or anxiety.
Scalp tenderness and sensitivity can include symptoms such as burning, itching, numbness, and stinging. Causes include skin conditions such as psoriasis and sunburn. Alopecia areata, telogen effluvium, and CCCA are hair loss conditions that can cause scalp sensitivity.
People with multiple sclerosis (MS) may experience abnormal sensations, including pain, burning, itching, or numbness. For some, these sensations affect the scalp and cause discomfort.
Skin. Inflammatory conditions often require medication like corticosteroids, which can be taken by mouth or applied topically to the scalp. This medication helps reduce inflammation as well as the tingling, itching, and burning.
Erythromelalgia is a rare condition that primarily affects the feet and, less commonly, the hands (extremities). It is characterized by intense, burning pain of affected extremities, severe redness (erythema) and increased skin temperature that may be episodic or almost continuous in nature.
Therapy of SD is based on high‐potency topical or intralesional corticosteroids, capsaicin and topical anaesthetics, sedative antihistamines, tricyclic antidepressants, transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation, botulinum toxin and vitamin B12.
Most conditions that cause tingling in the head are not serious and may result from tension headaches, sinus, and ear infections. Abnormal or recurring severe pressure may be a sign of some underlying medical problem, such as a brain tumor or aneurysm in rare cases.
Testosterone can be converted into 'di-hydro-testosterone (DHT)' in the scalp, which shrinks hair follicles and inhibits hair growth. This process contributes to a receding hairline and thinning crown as seen in male baldness. Testosterone is vitally important in women, and as a result DHT affects both men and women.
This can provide the perfect environment for the overproduction of the dandruff-producing yeast called Malassezia on the scalp. As a result, many women undergoing menopause will experience increased scalp irritation, dryness, eczema and dandruff.
As oestrogen levels fall, so does collagen formation, which is essential for skin health. Women going through menopause stages frequently have itchy skin that is reported as feeling prickly, crawly, and like pins and needles.