How the hell do you get rid of seborrheic dermatitis?

[BEEF]

I've just registered on this forum and I'll tell you what has cleared my seb up.
Here is quick rundown of events:
In my teens and early twenties I used to cake my hair with gel and other hair products, go to bars and nightclubs, come back drunk and crash. I would often sleep with the hair products on my scalp and shower the next day. I neglected my hair and never thought it would thin out as BOTH sides of the family have great hair. My father has a mop.(Bastard) At 23 years old I became a gym junkie, took protein powders, aminos and creatine. My body was perfect and my hair also. I felt great.
At 25 years my scalp became itchy. 2 stressful events occurred. My scalp became red and inflamed with raised yellowy crusts. Hair receded slightly in front and crown hairs thinned out.
Scratching pulled off flakes with 2 or 3 hairs embedded. At 26 I see a dermatologist and he tells me I have seborrheic dermatitis.
He recommends Nizoral and it only makes the problem flare up more and dries the skin out.
27 years old: Living in Japan - tried assortments of shampoos, apple cider vinegar, helped a bit but the flaking still came back.
Now at 32 years of age I have finally got rid of this curse after seeing a Japanese dermatologist. The first one I saw gave me a Japanese shampoo which targets Malosezzia furfur which worked wonders. The 2nd dermatologist I saw said I could have tinea on the scalp. She checked a swab of skin under a microscope and said there was no sign of it. She gave me a tube of cream to kill tinea anyway and I rubbed it into my scalp. The next day all the red areas crusted up and on the third day my scalp was clear! No more dandruff! No more seborrhea!!
I suspect Seborrhea is related to a mould of some kind. Since my scalp is now fine I am now using emu oil to further revitalize my scalp.

Hope this helps you out.

 

[ghg]

I've used a shampoo with ciclopiroxolamine for a while now and I think it has helped me somewhat. I haven't got the horrible itching for a while now... and I think my scalp is pretty clear of dandruff and seborrhea. Unfortunately I also think that finasteride caused some of these symptoms since the scalp has felt a lot better after I quit finasteride (a little under a week ago).

 

[A_DHT_Driveby]

ghg:

you quit finasteride?!? What prompted this decision? Are you worried about what might now transpire? catch-up loss / shedding?

 

[IBM]

I'm using right now Beta-cade cream on those affected areas with flaking skin and shampooing everyday. I'm getting rid of flaking skin but my scalp itch a lot and is red.

 

[ghg]

ghg:

you quit finasteride?!? What prompted this decision? Are you worried about what might now transpire? catch-up loss / shedding?

Yeah I quit finasteride, isn't it unbelievable?!?!?!?1+

That scam of a drug wasn't doing anything, so no I'm not afraid of a shed. If all the sides go away I'm more than satisfied about quitting.

 

[priam001]

hi i recently registered in this forum. i am 17 and i have SD for about 1 yerar and half. I have tried everything nizarol, selsum ...but nothing works. From the last 6 months i develop SD on my eyebrows. My eyebrowns fall every day as well as my hair, What should i do? Anyone sucessfull with SD??

help

 

[IBM]

Try Betacade. Its a great cream.

 

[ghg]

Try Betacade. Its a great cream.

So it has helped you? I tried googling cedar oil in Finnish pages but it seems it's only used on horses here...

 

[IBM]

Try Betacade. Its a great cream.

So it has helped you? I tried googling cedar oil in Finnish pages but it seems it's only used on horses here...

Yes i got rid of attached flaking skin i had in my scalp and now i'm recovering slowly from the damage. Before Betacade i used Sucadermil which was a sulphur based cream. But it passed validation date and they dont sell it anymore so my derm gave me Betacade which is better and not rubber and tar road smelly.

Damn i lost tons of hair due to SD!

 

[GlasgowCelt]

My doctor also said I have Seb Derm, I was in a severe car crash last year (april) but came out unscatched... others werent so lucky. Since then I have been having recurrent nightmares and panic attacks whereas before that I was always really layed back and chilled out and people would often say if I was "anymore laid back I would fall over", needless to say I also had a fantastic head of great thick black hair, im 25 also, I still have loads of hair but its thinned out horribly.

I was diagnosed with talogen effluvium and a couple of months later seb derm as I completely neglected my hair. But my question is:

Could you link me to a place where you know sells both the cream and the shampoo? or do you know of any other creams that you think will work? coal tar is horrible.

I would genuinly appreciate your input BEEF, you and I seemed to have gone through very similar experiences.

Glad you're over it all, Take care.
TheCelt

 

[dogbreath]

Hi GC,

I don't know where you can buy the shampoo online but here is a link about it:
http://www.mochida.co.jp/english/news/2004/0824.html
The shampoo clears Seb problems but they come back if you don't wash your hair after a while.

I'm pretty sure the cream killed it.
You should be able to get the cream from a dermatologist in your country.
The cream is for tinea of the scalp.
If the dermatologist says you don't have tinea and refuses to give you the cream try and get it by some other means. (chemist, drugstore)

Buy Emu oil once everything has cleared up and rub it on your scalp twice a day.

Go to the gym - Use the treadmill and get fit - boost your heart rate.

 

[GlasgowCelt]

Hi dogbreath,

Cheers but... Are you BEEF?

 

[tiredofloss]

so how the hell do we get rid of this stuff? my skin peels off on my forehead and scalp

ive tried nizoral and it made my hair even worse so i stopped. ive heard of the coal tar shampoos but seriously...puttin coal tar in your hair? doesnt sound healthy to me. theres some head & shoulders seb derm shampoo that comes in a dark blue bottle, is this any good? then theres tgel.

others have said the apple cider vinegar didnt work for them. id try it but cant find it at any stores around here.

which works?

im going to schedule a dermatologist appointment this week

 

[sd4]

try rubbing red wine on your scalp, u dont need to rince it out. i notice my hair become less oily.

 

[pproctor]

has anyone considered it to be psoriasis?

"scalp psoriasis is possible. how can you tell whether its scalp psoriasis or seb derm?"

In scalp psoriasis, the plaques are generally bigger, covered with fine shiney scales and not quite so soft and "greasy" as in seborhheic dermatitis. They also tend to be limited to the margins-- at the hair line in front, around the ears, etc. . Generally, there is not as much itching as in seb derm. Also, psoriasis tends to affect other parts of the body such as the elbows, knees, soles of the feet, etc. The really big tip-off is that when you forcefully pick off a plaque, it bleeds underneath.

While there is some overlap with treatments for seb derm (e.g., "tar", salicylates, etc.), there are other treatments for scalp psoriasis if these fail. Ya might want to see your local dermatologist.

Peter H Proctor, PhD,MD

 

[jimmystanley]

have any of you had your hormone levels checked? DHT, estrogens, DHEA, bio available testosterone.... I had mine done and i found that some were out of wack...

i also have seborrheic derm. I don't mean to say that there is a direct link with me but i have read that hormone inbalances can cause it.

 

[ghg]

The combination of ciclopirox olamine shampoo in rotation with t/gel for greasy hair with piroctone olamine, a natural shampoo without any sodium laureth sulfate or other chemicals and one shampoo with climbazole and po has helped a bunch. I'm using the ciclopirox olamine stuff (the best IMO) once a week and others inbetween in no particular order or frequency. I'm going by the feeling. Anyway, a low-carb low-gi diet is essential if you really want to affect the reasons to your seb. dermatitis problems. I never get the horrible itching nowadays, only slight tingling or little itching but not the horrible itching together with the greasy flakes on the scalp like I did before. Last time I had the horrible itch was around new year when I ate like dirt for a couple of days... back to low-carb, low-gi, high-fat and voila I'm rolling again.

 

[docj077]

You will likely never get rid of seborrheic dermatitis. It's most likely caused by an overgrowth of the yeast Pityrosporum ovale.

1. Find a good dermatologist (good luck with this one)
2. Change your habits so that you can shampoo as often as possible. At least once a day is REQUIRED. Wash your scalp and not just your hair.
3. Get some Sun, but protect your skin with lotion.
4. Try 1% Nizoral. If that doesn't work get a prescription for 2%.
5. Get some low dose (1%) topical hydrocortisone cream or lotion for your flair-ups. Your physician will likely have something that he/she will recommend. For severe flair-ups, they may even prescribe high potency creams short-term.
6. Topical metronidazole and topical terbinafine can be used as a last resort as they've been shown to really improve symptoms.
7. Learn to cope with your stress (this can be a major inciting event) and get on a good diet and exercise regimen. Also, find a good multivitamin as zinc deficiency and vitamin B deficiency are risk factors.

Like Dr. Proctor said, psoriasis and seborrheic dermatitis look very different to the trained eye. He mentioned the Auspitz sign and the distribution with psoriasis, but it is entirely possible to have a sebopsoriatic process, which means that you'd have to treat both conditions in order to really see any benefit. The fingernails really give it away. If there is nail involvement, then it is not seborrheic dermatitis. Your dermatologist should hopefully have some recommendations for you. For most of you, a "good" shampoo will not be enough.

 

[ghg]

To my knowledge things like sugar, yeast and starch "feed" the pityrosporum ovale. I've learned that avoiding those can have a huge effect. Eating loads of fat in different forms has also improved my skin. Extra virgin coconut and olive oils, eggs, walnuts, fatty cheese, fatty meat etc.

 

[asm]

Hey, guys!

Haven't been here for a while. Now, I'm going to share a recipe with you, which nearly totally controls my SD. Although, it's still good to stick with diet, exercises, etc., for the most part, doing just this will make things much better.

The recipe is all about apple vinegar. It should be 6%. Be cautious, cause there are vinegars with higher and very high concentration. And I don't know what will be if the rule of 6% is violated. Although, I think 5%, 7% would be good. It's not a big change compared to 6%. Oh, and I use also natural vinegar. It often has a label if it's natural or not.

So, I take a dish deep enough so that I can put my head wholly into it. :woot: Then I fill it with a vinegar. Afterwards, I lay myself down on the floor on my back putting my head into the dish so that my scalp is totally submerged in vinegar. I hope it's clear.

I lie about 30-40 minutes a day, reading a book. Then wash my head with a shampoo. It doesn't matter which one or whether it contains anti-dandruff agent.

Few earliest times, there was a fear that I may leave all hair in a dish, cause it's an acid. Though I can assure you you won't (cause I didn't), you may feel better and safer, if you start with 5-10 minutes. And then increase the timing, when you feel it's really safe. Besides, I'm not a doctor and we are all different, so you should check how it works for you.

I read here some of you used apple vinegar, to no effect. But applying it on the scalp and leaving it there for some minutes or may be even an hour while it's drying and putting your scalp wholly into vinegar are completely different. If you didn't have a success with the first option, try it my way.

I've been using it for about half a year. Nearly no SD.