Pakistan: Dandruff afflicts Pakistan's army?

"It is said that Sabouraud can tell your moral character, the amount of your yearly income and what you have eaten for breakfast by looking at the root of one of your hairs."

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: The Guardian | Uk
By Marc Abrahams | December 19, 2011

Researchers take a comprehensive look at the incidence of dandruff among Pakistani soldiers

Researchers take a comprehensive look at the incidence of dandruff among Pakistani soldiers

Public knowledge about dandruff in Pakistan's army comes mainly from a study called Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Regarding Dandruff Among Soldiers, written by Naeem Raza, Amer Ejaz and Muhammad Khurram Ahmed, published in 2007 in the Journal of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Pakistan.

Raza, Ejaz and Ahmed surveyed 800 male soldiers of all ranks, ascertaining each soldier's knowledge about, and personal experience with, dandruff. The survey was "designed keeping in mind the general taboos of our region about dandruff, which included visits to doctors, homeopathic physicians or 'hakims', use of oils, any home-made remedies or commercial products".


If this sampling of soldiers was truly representative, we now know that approximately 65% of Pakistani soldiers have, or have had, dandruff "either permanently or periodically".

"Almost two thirds of the respondents stated to remain tense and embarrassed because of their dandruff." Noting that the "media has played an important role in making people think like that", the study concludes with a recommendation. Healthcare professionals should make a greater effort to educate the populace.

Both the numbers and the reactions are typical of the region and the world, according to a study published three years later in the Indian Journal of Dermatology, called Dandruff: The Most Commercially Exploited Skin Disease.

The Indian report sketches the underlying situation: "Dandruff is a common scalp disorder affecting almost half of the population at the pre-pubertal age and of any gender and ethnicity. No population in any geographical region would have passed through freely without being affected by dandruff at some stage in their life." It helpfully fills in the etymology. "The word dandruff (dandruff, dandriffe) is of Anglo-Saxon origin, a combination of 'tan' meaning 'tetter' and 'drof' meaning 'dirty'."

The Pakistan military report cites a 1990 monograph called The History of Dandruff and Dandruff in History. A Homage to Raymond Sabouraud. That homage was written by Didier Saint-Leger of l'Oréal in Aulnay-sous-Bois, France, and published in the journal Annales de Dermatologie et de Vénéréologie.

Saint Leger explains that Raymond Jacques Adrien Sabouraud, 1864-1938, a French dermatologist, painter and sculptor, is the dominant figure in humanity's effort to understand dandruff.

Saint Leger explains how dandruff figured in Sabouraud's greatness: "In one of his books, written at the beginning of this century, Raymond Sabouraud devotes some 280 pages to the history of dandruff. Their reading illustrates how, from the Greeks to Sabouraud's era, this desquamative disease has been subjected to endless doctrinal and scientific conflicts."

A medical book written during Raymond Sabouraud's lifetime speaks admiringly of the man: "It is said that Sabouraud can tell your moral character, the amount of your yearly income and what you have eaten for breakfast by looking at the root of one of your hairs."

Thanks to Ernst Niebur for bringing this to my attention.

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