Listerine for Scalp

[Firefox7275]

Any updates on this method ?? I totally forgot about it and I do recall that it worked well.

I think anything that contains an anti-fungal agent is going to be a winner for these kind of scalp issues, I am convinced it is a fungal
condition and those are really hard to ever be totally cured of. The less caustic and drying, all the better of course.

Malassezia is a yeast so yes seborrhoeic dermatitis has a fungal component, however malassezia lives on all of us usually without causing problems so there is no requirement to be 'cured' of anything, yeast will normally be kept in check by other microbes on our scalp and by the environment not being overly hospitable. There is not one single problem to be resolved, SD is believed to be a combination of circumstances, a weakened or faulty skin barrier (this can be genetic or caused by products or both), poor lifestyle choices/ stress/ systemic inflammation (the suffix -ITIS denotes inflammation) which affects sebum composition and/ or immune response. Research suggests those with both SD and acne often have a different balance of fatty acids in their sebum which is believed to contribute to their condition, this can be manipulated with diet.

It is not the yeast itself that causes the symptoms it is the waste products, cleanse the scalp and you do remove both the food source (sebum) and irritant fatty acid laden waste so get temporary relief. However overcleanse the scalp or use a product with an alkaline pH, you thin the skin barrier so irritation becomes more likely, destroy the beneficial microbes that help keep malassezia in check, change the pH of the scalp so that conditions are more hospitable to the yeast, strip the scalp so it is encouraged to pump out more sebum (food) so you get trapped in a cycle. Thus in many cases it's more important for chronic (as opposed to temporary) relief to avoid caustic and drying ingredients than to use an anti fungal because what you ideally want is the body to control the yeast naturally.

Unfortunately most commercial dandruff shampoos utilise sulphate surfactants, my mother's atopic eczema/ seborrhoeic dermatitis reduced by at least half simply by switching to a sulphate free shampoo 'base' not using any yeast suppressing ingredients. The only ketoconazole product I know of that is sulphate free is Regenepure, if I had fairly mild SD I would try Komaza Care Moja shampoo (pH 4.5 with scalp friendly ingredients), later adding a little tea tree oil if that was insufficient. I'd also be using more aloe vera inner leaf gel (proven anti inflammatory, healing) than I do at present.