Dandruff exists because of how the scalp reacts to a combination of normal biological factors. Everyone has a naturally occurring yeast on their scalp called Malassezia. It is not an infection and it is not something you catch. It lives on all scalps and feeds on the natural oils produced by the skin. As it breaks those oils down, it produces a by-product called oleic acid. Some scalps tolerate this without issue. Others react to it. When that reaction occurs, irritation increases, skin cell turnover speeds up, and flakes become visible. It can also create itch and a feeling of dryness even when oil is present.
That mechanism does not change. What changes is when it shows up and how it presents. In infants, this same process often appears as cradle cap. Later in life it may surface during adolescence, periods of stress, illness, heavy product use, or long term disruption of the scalp environment. For many women, perimenopause becomes another trigger point. Hormonal shifts alter oil composition, scalp sensitivity increases, and routines that once worked suddenly do not. The biology is familiar. The timing is different.
This is why dandruff is not just a condition. It is a pattern that can repeat across life stages when the scalp environment becomes unstable.
This is also where most conversations stop and the anti-dandruff shampoo narrative begins.
Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result has a definition. Most people know it. Yet for more than sixty years, the dominant anti-dandruff shampoo model has followed the same logic. Wash more often. Use chemical actives to suppress symptoms. Keep using it to prevent them from coming back. When it stops working, rotate or escalate. Continued use is framed as success rather than dependency.
If that model truly resolved dandruff, it would not still be affecting people at every stage of life.
At this point, I cannot separate the science from the experience. After living with dandruff for forty-five years, what I find increasingly difficult to accept is seeing qualified and licensed practitioners, doctors and dermatologists, actively promoting (paid ambassadors) on social media as the only solution. These are scientists and specialists in their field, yet the message being reinforced is that lifelong dependency on a single brand or a single methodology, one that has not produced a personalised solution for over six decades, is the answer.
That is disturbing to me. Not because shampoo has no role, but because the narrative driven by these specialist health care providers, leaves no room for questioning why the problem persists at the individual level. It sends a broad stroke message to hundreds of millions of people that if the product stops working, the fault lies with them, not with the approach. That dependence is normal. That curiosity is unnecessary. That reflection is optional.
That is where the ethics of the conversation start to matter.
So the more useful question is not simply what causes dandruff. It is what do you actually want from managing it.
If flakes have just appeared and you want them gone quickly, a targeted, non-shampoo-based approach applied directly to the scalp is often the most efficient option. It avoids unnecessary washing, limits disruption, and deals with the immediate issue without resetting your entire routine.
If your situation is severe or chronic, the choice becomes clearer. You can continue with a system that has existed for decades, offers little insight into why your scalp behaves the way it does, and conditions you to remain dependent on repeated shampoo use. Or you can pause and look at dandruff as a signal. Why is your scalp microbiome, pH, or barrier no longer coping.
That pause is the dividing line.
To make the difference clearer, it helps to see the two approaches side by side.
The shampoo-based model is built around control. It manages symptoms and normalises ongoing use. The underlying assumption is that dandruff must be managed forever.
Victory Serums exists to challenge that assumption. Not by promising miracles, but by breaking the narrative that dependency is the only option. Dandruff is treated as a response to an unstable scalp environment. The focus is on restoring conditions that allow the scalp to regulate itself again. That applies whether the issue shows up as cradle cap in infants, recurring dandruff in adults, new onset flaking during perimenopause or from an imbalanced gut microbiome creating systemic inflammation that could be resolved through health testing and treatment.
This is why Victory Serums does not push a single routine or a fixed endpoint. You choose how you want to manage your dandruff. Short term relief. Longer term investigation. Environmental reset. Observation. Reduction. Victory Serums has products and can connect you to specialised services that support each of those stages.
The difference is where the focus sits.
Our focus is absolute minimal use of our products and ideally none at all. That is not a slogan. It is a design constraint. Products are tools, not a lifestyle.
The industry has spent decades conditioning people to manage dandruff. Victory Serums exists for people who want to understand it, reduce it, and eventually move past it.
You choose your path.
Matt Heron - Victory Serums Founder
