Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Dermatology
Date Submitted: Apr 29, 2024
Date Accepted: Sep 17, 2024
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Tender-headedness: A Google Trends Analysis of Search Interests for Scalp-related concerns
ABSTRACT
Background:
The Internet is a commonly used source for information on hair and scalp care. “Tender-headed” is a socio-cultural term used in Black communities to describe an individual who complains of scalp tenderness, soreness, discomfort, or pain from hair manipulation and hairstyling including combing/brushing, braiding/twisting, parting of the hair, ponytails, or blow-drying.
Objective:
In this Google Trends cross-sectional analysis, we aim to understand how tender-headedness is searched on a major search engine and assess differences between queries related to tender-headedness from January 2013 to December 2022.
Methods:
Search volume index (SVI) was extracted for categories of keyword phrases (KP) used to describe tender-headedness: (1) tenderness (“tender headed,” “tender head”); (2) scalp discomfort (“sore scalp,” “scalp hurts,” “tight scalp”), and (3) both concepts combined ([‘tenderness’ and ‘scalp’] and [“tender scalp,” “scalp tenderness”]).
Results:
Our findings showed that over the ten-year period, the category phrase for scalp discomfort garnered the highest search interest. Moreover, keyword phrases “tenderhead” and “sore scalp” generated the highest online search interest.
Conclusions:
Acknowledging how culturally-specific terms may be used to describe scalp symptoms in Black patients can aid dermatologists differentiate between tenderness induced by scalp manipulation and tenderness associated with an inflammatory alopecia, thus guiding management accordingly.
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