A high performance liquid chromatography（HPLC） and mass spectrometry method was established for the determination and confirmation of hydroxypyridinone in dandruff shampoo．The samples were extracted with acetonitrile，then separated on a Waters Atlantis Hilic（4.6 mm × 250 mm × 5 μm） column with a mixed solution of 95% acetonitrile and 5% 400 mmol/L oxalic acid as the mobile phase，and detected by HPLC．Mass spectrometry confirmation on hydroxypyridone in positive multiple reaction monitoring（MRM） mode after derivatization of hydroxypyridone with dimethyl sulfate．Results showed that there were good linear relationships for the analytes in the range of 1.0－100.0 mg/L，with correlation coefficients（,r,） of 0.999．The limits of detection（LODs） and limits of quantitation（LOQs） for hydroxypyridone were 8.0 μg/g and 20.0 μg/g，respectively．The spiked recoveries ranged from 91.8% to 96.7%，with RSDs of 1.3%－3.7%．The method is rapid，efficient and accurate，and it could be applied to the determination of hydroxypyridone in shampoo and zinc pyrithione．In this paper，a series of comparisons were carried out by liquid chromatography and infrared spectroscopy with respect to hydroxypyridone and its tautomer，2-hydroxypyridine-N-oxide．In addition，the possible source of hydroxypyridinone，a prohibited raw material in shampoo，was clarified.