Seborrhoeic Dermatitis

Skin, nail and hair health
1

Ive been suffering with this condition for about 2 years now.

Im 27 years old and ive found it to be very distressing.

Ive never suffered from any skin conditions ever before in my life and find it bizzar that im suffing from it now. Sometimes it effects what i do as i dont like to be seen out when it gets bad, ive even had time off work this year because of it. I can go a few months with perfect skin then in just a few days it can flare up horribly. I get really depressed and frustrated when it happens.

It mainly effects my nose and the area of skin around my nose, just under my eyes and on my forehead just above my nose.

It comes and goes every month or so but just lately has gotten worse and sometimes takes a few weeks to go down. I use both a shampoo and anti fungal creams but even they do not work as well as id like.

Im wondering if anyone has any tips on what they have found to be a good way of controlling it?

2

i am 20 years old from phillippines , i also suffered from your cases... and it started one year ago until now. my doctor prescribed me a ketoconazole shampoo and a miconozole cream for the affected area specifically located on face ..... i am student and incoming fourth year this semester.......... you i'm so stressed with this horrible illness. if you dont mind, may i ask u if how are u after getting this kind of illness........

3

Hi

I'm similar - I'm 24 now, started with this about 2-3 years ago - affects same area (bridge of nose going on to cheeks and forehead just above nose area). I also have times when it makes me not want to go out as it gets really red and noticeable. I was prescribed a steroid cream from doctor which I found worked brilliantly for about a month and then started having a detrimental effect (maybe my skin got used to it? I still have it and use ocassionally)

I have tried various creams and moisturisers - all of which inflame the condition or make my skin feel tight and irritated. The only two things which I can HIGHLY recommend -

Clarins gentle day cream - for some reason this moisturiser has never irritated my skin and does help soothe it - put on once or twice a day and it generally stays under control - downside - costs £32 for 50ml so quite expensive considering I get through a pot a month

Just discovered -Palmers cocoa butter - this also does not seem to irritate my skin - put on at night and in morning my skin does look better, evens the tone out etc. (I have only just started using this though so as yet to verify long term) - and at £4 a tub is much cheaper!

Please give these a go as they really do help me, unfortunately its one of those conditions which we probably have got to deal with and the best treatment is prevention - try and keep it under control.

I notice the main triggers (as described by doctors) are when I'm stressed, and when it's cold/dry (as it always is in england). The only time I can truly say my face goes back to normal as it used to be is when I go abroad on holiday - for some reason the sun over there clears it right up - so best solution would probably be to emigrate! (if only!)

Hope this helps, I would love to hear back from anyone who may try the above if it also worked/didn't work for them

4

I also have SD and can completely sympathise with anyone who has it. It's embarrassing and really knocks your self-confidence, I keep thinking if only it was on my bum, and then no one would see it!

I think the worst part about it for me is the visual symptoms, the red patches and the flaky bits and also the 'dandruff' like flakes in my hair, although having said that the itching is pretty annoying!

I first noticed my SD when I was working in a job I hated and was very stressed, In fact, one day I went into work and one of my colleagues said \"Oh my god, what has happened to your face?\" She was referring to my SD! I was mortified and spent most of the day hiding!

I have found something that work quite well, (after trying what feels like 300 creams, lotions, and shampoos from my doctor!) I have an aloe Vera plant given to me as a house-warming gift, this is by far the best 'cure' I've found.

They are really easy to grow and because they are part of the Cactus family really difficult to kill! All I do is snap off a little bit of one of the leaves and scoop out the gel like stuff in the middle with my nail and spread it over the effected areas! It's great and I swear to god, next morning no sign of my SD! I normally do this once a night/day and it keeps it at bay. Also, Aloe Vera plant is great for spots, sunburn, mild grazes, splinters and fact pretty much any skin condition!

I've even gave a small plant to my neighbour as her little girl gets nappy rash and my neighbour has thrown away all the creams and stuff from the doctor because it works so well!

Trust nature to get it right!

It's definitely worth a try right? And if it doesn't work you've got a funky looking plant sitting in your window! Win, Win!

I think you should be able to get an Aloe Vera plant in your local Garden Centre, but I'm not sure! And like I said they don't need any special treatment, just water once a week and thats it!

Well, I hope this works for you and it would be great to hear from anyone who has tried Aloe Vera too!

5

I am almost 60 and have had SD all my life. I have used everything prescription and non-prescription to control the symptoms on the scalp, facial skin of nose, eyebrows and hairline as well as inside and

outside my ears. A few years ago, I inquired about laser skin resurfacing around my nose and face to

ease the symptoms. Was told it would help for a short time but the symptoms would return if I didn't find what was causing the allergy. Yes. I was told it was an allergy. So, from that, became a quest to find it.

I soon discovered an allergy to soy and wheat. Especially the wheat. Went off wheat for a couple of

years, just because, and decided to try it one day. After the second day of eating wheat, the back cracks

and inside of my right ear crusted up, the nose folds became inflamed, the hairline broke out

along with hair just dropping out. One by one, all day long. The symptoms clear up if I don't eat

the wheat. I eat it and not eat it to see if this indeed is a culprit. I have been allergic to wheat all my life!

The soy just makes my hair fall out.

The symptoms on the scalp are treated with Ketoconazole shampoo, prescription or non-prescription,

and Desonide for the face and ears. Have been using these products for the last decade because

they're the only ones that are effective. The products are not used everyday anymore or even every other

day if I don't eat the foods or use products on my skin that affect the SD.

Try to become your own advocate by paying attention to what you are ingesting into your body or putting on your skin that affect your SD. Go a week or two without a certain food or product, then eat it or use it

again for a couple of days to see if you get a reaction of any sort. If you do, then more than likely this

means an allergy or a reaction. Try this a few times to be sure. Then work on going longer and longer

without the food or product until your symptoms are under control. It has taken many years to figure this

out. Most of all,try to be patient. I hope this helps.

6

When I was in my late teens (teen boy), I suffered with really bad yellow scaly flakes on my scalp. At first, I didn't go to the doctors about it as I figured it was just something I had to live with (crazy I know). I used to use all kinds of hair gels and hair styling products, which I now realise didn't do me any favours. I tried various off the shelf non-medicated shampoos, Head and Shoulders, etc, but nothing would help. As I reached 20, my hair was thinning quite badly, which I was told by my family that premature hairloss was "in the family". I reached 22 and after struggling with this condition for long enough, I went to the doctors. The doctor said I had a fungal infection and prescribed Nizoral shampoo for 3 times a week for 3-4 weeks. After 2 weeks, the scaling had 90% healed. Within the month, it had completely gone. Unfortunately, it did not magically make my hair grow back although I am almost convinced that this condition caused the hairloss. I have now been shaving my head for 10 years. In the recent years, although the fungal infection has never returned to that extent, my scalp still itches with red dry flakey skin and I also get it around my mouth (beard and mustache).

After reading a lot about the links between SD and food, I've recently set about looking at my diet. I noticed that when I had pizza with a can of coke, I seemed to get a flare up days later. When I went out for a night and drank alcohol, I seemed to have a flare up a few days later. When I cut these out for a while, I didn't notice any huge improvement, but things did improve slightly.

However, recently, I have experimented with coffee and tea. For years, I have had just one small cup of coffee a day (milk and one sugar) and a couple of cups of tea. For a couple of weeks, I cut out coffee completely (not tea), and I had no itching, no red dry patches anywhere. So this week, I went back to drinking coffee as before, and I've had the biggest flare up I've had in weeks! Scalp really itchy, beard area really dry and itchy and red.

I'm not saying this will work for everyone, but there is a link to coffee and SD, so look at how much caffeine you're consuming, and in particular coffee.

7

I have had a lot of the symptoms that people have spoken of. I've had treatments from my doctor and they have been working but I wanted to add to the comment above that coffee ( and I've only usually drunk it once a day as well) seems to exacerbate my dermatitis, particuarly on my scalp. I also found that honey, I used the Manuka honey, seems to help my skin, I've rubbed in a small amount before going to bed. Why I don't know though it supposed to be anti fungal. It seemed soothing, especially as the treatments, though they work have often really irritated my skin.

8

Its better to consult a Dermatologist. May be some laser treatments will cure this. Many new treatments are available in Laser clinic centers to enhance beauty. I  know one famous laser clinic center known as Fairview Cosmetic surgery at Toronto. They are providing excellent treatment for this.

9

Hello, having used this website for information and advice in trying to treat my seborrheic dermatitis,  now that I appear to be on top of it, I wanted to share my experiences.

I am a 34 year old male and developed facial seb derm almost 2 years ago.  I have always had sensitive and at times dry skin but when very visible bright red patches of flaky skin started to appear around my nostrils and at the bridge of my nose by my eyebrows, I new this was something more.  I tried many different brands of moisturiser, but nothing helped, in fact most made it worse and it was really getting me down.

My doctor was not sure on the cause to start with.  He prescribed some emolient creams and these had no effect.  The next time, he suggested it could be seb derm and prescribed nizarol ketoconazole cream.  This helped to moisturise the flaky skin without causing any worse inflammation, however it did not relieve the redness, which was only getting worse.  The next time, he prescribed daktacort cream to be used in short bursts (a few days at a time) in between the nizarol cream.  This worked in reducing the redness (at times completely) for the first 3-4 times I used it, however after that it only made the redness worse. I switched back to just using the nizarol and transferred to a doctor specialising in skin conditions.

Having done a lot of research online by this point, I went to see him and asked to be put on a course of oral anti-fungals.  He agreed and that was the next treatment.  I took sporanox tablets daily for about a month, also continuing with the nizoral cream.  I believe they did help to an extent to reduce the flakiness, but still not the redness and my frustration at it by this point was really getting me down. 

This was 3 months ago.  I went back and from my research, asked to try anti-biotics.  He suggested both that and a continuation of the oral anti fungals for 3 months.  Since then, I have been taking daily lymecycline antibiotics and the anti fungals at weekends.  From about 2 weeks in I started to notice results and now almost at the end of this medication, I can happily say all my seb derm symptoms are gone.  No flaky skin and importantly, no redness or patches. I still continue to use the nizarol cream infrequently to moisturise the affected areas, however the medication seems to have also really improved overall my sensitive and dry skin too. 

In conclusion, I would recommend pushing for antibiotics as soon as possible.  I have suffered no side effects from these and in the time I have suffered with seb derm, this has been the only effective solution to clearing the redness and patches. 

10

It's really interesting to see everyone else's experiences with SD. For me, the most helpful thing has been doublebase emolient cream which I got from the GP, it's really gentle and doesn't irritate the SD on my face at all but soothes it. Unfortunately the most annoying thing about my SD is my hair loss sad but nothing has worked on that yet!

11

Try to use Extra virgin olive oil on hair. And only shampoo once a fortnight! This is what I have been doing and its working

12

Yeast and caffeine seems to be the biggest culprits, although yet to be proven. Lots of wheat products use yeast i.e. cakes, pastries, doughnuts etc. Try to avoid them for a week or so and see if that helps.  Also, try to increase antifungal consumption in its natural form i.e. more garlic , turmeric and ginger in your meals. Drink lots of water. Goodluck!

13

Does anyone know if this condition can be cured or is it for life, also has anyone ever sufferred fom this condition and then it just vanished never to return. I hate having SD

14

I'm a 38 year old male.  My SD was getting slowly worse over the years and had spread to my cheeks, inner ears, sideburns, chin, and finally eyebrows before I'd had enough. It was driving me crazy.  I tried a lot of methods, most of which are outlined by others here. I did an elimination diet for a month and nothing seemed to be the trigger, including oils, fats, nuts, etc.

The only thing that has worked for me is Ketoconazole 2% shampoo. I use it every other day or so on the affected areas of my face, hair, etc.  From researching, apparently this kills off alot of the yeast (possibly Malassezia) that cause the reaction and inflammation. For me it's taken the flare-ups from almost constant down to almost non-existent. 

15

Hi, i know where you are coming from i suffer from SD as well and it is horrible. I have had it a few years now and when i get a flare up on my face i feel like i dont want to leave the house. What have you found works best on your face?

16

I have been suffering with this condition for 20 years, my face was just like that in the photo in the article above. For several years now I have been controlling it with Selsun Blue. It wasn't perfect but it sure did help. You can imagine, I was horror struck when Selsun Blue was no longer available in the UK. However I stumbled across an article by a doctor on the internet and I now no longer suffer from this condition, my face is now completely clear.

I'm sorry I did not take a note of the web page, and what he said flew in the face of all other advice, but having suffered for so long I opted to give it a try. Basically he said the condition was caused by a yeast fungus which gets out of control in people with oily skin ( I certainly fitted into that category). He suggested controlling the fungus by thoroughly lathering the face with soap to remove the oils carrying the fungus. Now this is not as daft as it sounds. I had been using the mildest soaps, yet would leave the Selsun Blue lather on my face for 3 minutes as suggested. 

So, this is what I did. I had been using cold water to wash my face for some time now and continued just the same, although whether that is necessary I don't know. To ensure that I was thoroughly removing as much fungus as possible I would get a good lather and wash my face (I used Pears soap but again I suspect any soap would have done). After rinsing I would repeat the same process. My skin was so clean my hands would almost stick to my face on the second rinse. I would then apply a moisturiser, although again I don't know if that is necessary, it just seems to make sense.

I now double wash my face morning and night, every single day. I started doing this 5 months ago (July 2014). The improvement was almost instantaneous - days rather than weeks and I have not suffered a single recurrence since (now Jan 2015). That has been a real surprise to me as, in the past, it had always been worst with the onset of Autumn/Winter.

I was initially really reluctant to use so much soap on my face. But my complexion is now fantastic again. It worked for me. After suffering so long I wanted to share my experience in the hope of saving others struggling on with this embarrassing condition. You must decide for yourself whether to give it a try. If you do try it, please remember to post feedback.

Good luck

17

Hello.

I am 19 and have had SD for about three to four years now. When my condition first started to appear I was at school and was bullied because of what I thought was dandroff and this put be off going into school. When the SD started to affect areas aroud my nose and eye brows, I became even more self concous I was a young 15 year old girl with a skin condition I know nothing about or had diagnoised.

Now I use TRESemmé Renewal Hair and Scalp Shampoo (best to get this shampoo and conditioner in either Boots or Savers)which smells amazinng and helps stop the SD affecting my scalp and made my hair look so much better, whereas the shampoo the doctor gave me dried out my hair and smelt so bad. As for my face I do use a cream regually, but also I have found in the last few months since drinking plenty of water and using my nutribullet, I don't need to use the cream so much. 

I hope this helped. Btw if you where make up, I wouldn't recommend using foundation as I found that foundation makes my skin greasy and the SD accorres more fequently.

18

Sounds just like I suffered. I am 35 years old and have suffered with SD for 12 years. Have tried so many different things. I tried my baby's cradle cap shampoo (dentinox) 6 months ago as a face wash and haven't had a flare up since!! It may not be advised to use on face but I figured if it's OK for a new born baby's head I'd give it a go. I would have tried anything. It has worked wonders for me. I also use boots dermalex cream for eczema as a moisturiser but have used that for years, it doesn't irritate but wasn't enough on its own. Just wanted to share in case it helped.

19

Feedback: I have had seborrhoeic-dermatitis for the last 20+years. I was given cortisone cream to use sparingly. It didn't work for me. At times trying to get rid of rash and flaky skin my face would end up almost raw. I then read somewhere that COAL TAR SOAP was good for this condition. I have used the soap, applied with wet cosmetic pads and rinsed off with pads. The flakes came off right away with little to no effort. My face and hairline has never been so clear. This is a cheap and effective solution and really worth a try. Good Luck. 

20

Hi Guys. I don't normally do this kind of thing but after reading some of the posts I felt compelled to help and share my experience of how I CURED my S.D.

I'm a 32 year old Irish Stud (joke). In 2011 I developed a small spot underneath my right eye. Little red patch and would come and go. I took no notice. I returned to Ireland after 6 years in Sydney and in 2012 my S.D. had spread to about a 50cent coin size of bright red flaky skin under both eyes, one on my cheek and another on my chin.

Like you guys I tried everything and anything and couldn't figure out WTF this was. My G.P. gave me steroidal cream (daktocort) twice to apply. No good. I then went to him the third time and he suggested that I should try some Daktocort I said enough of this clown.

A doctor in my neighbouring town was known to be a good dermatologist so I gave him a visit. Told him my whole story and I was ecstatic he gave me a cream that he claimed would sort it out. No good. I discovered a few days later this cream was a generic version of Daktocort. (I'm a clown).

I know it had to be something I’m eating or allergic to so I bit the bullet and booked an appointment with a specialist doctor who deals with allergy and skin conditions. He was expensive (150euros) but I was willing to pay anything to get rid of these blotches on my face!

So I walk into his office. "Hi Sean. You have some allergies do you". Me- "I don’t know. I'm mainly here to fix this", pointing at my facial rash. "Ah yes, that’s no problem, that’s seborrheic dermatitis, we can fix that easy".

I was elated. He did a skin test anyway which turned out to be very helpful as it showed I was actually 80% allergic to Cow’s milk. That would explain why any night I would have a glass of milk with dinner, I would wake up with a hangover the next day. Cow’s milk is for baby calves not humans!!!

I have yet to find what this legend of a man gave me to fix my S.D. on any thread on the interweb! 

NYSTATIN POWDER. It’s a disgusting tasting powder that you mix with a bit of food or water. He explained that I had a fungal imbalance in my gut and that what caused my S.D. Nystatin attacks the fungus in your gut. Your body can’t digest nystatin. It passes through but on the way upsets the fungus.

He also gave me a "gut fermentation" diet to follow for a month. Basically no sugar or simple carbs. Could still eat rice and potatoes which was a bonus being Irish!!!!!!! Also take a probiotic everyday to help my gut bacteria.

I went home and started taking the powder as directed. Tip of a spoon for 3 days, half a spoon for 3 days and work up to a full tea spoon. I never did the diet.

I never to this day took even half a spoon. A small amount of this stuff and within 3-4 days people were giving me compliments on how well I looked. I was completely free of S.D. and dandruff.

Every now and then it would reoccur as I would eat a lot of sugar and I never followed his advice and did the diet for a month to balance my gut flora but the powder did the trick every time.

P.S.

I watched a doc called "fat sick and nearly dead". It's on YouTube. I recommend it. It’s funny and very informative. About a guy with horrible skin conditions, diabetes and weight problems who went on a diet of just fresh veg and fruit juice daily for 3 months. He was cured of all conditions and off all medication after 2 months and lost a shed load of weight. I did this for 10 days before I discovered Nystatin and it was the only thing that cured my S.D. but it is very severe. Who wants to live their life not eating and drinking just green juice?

I'm waffling. I hope this helped someone and would love to hear back.

Good Luck.

X.