seborrheic dermatitis

[Elichan]

Any of you have seborrheic dermatitis? In this time of the year my sb tends to get worse... my scalp itches so much, especially in my temples, dandruff comes out, my hair becomes oily faster... and I can see it's thinner in the affected areas... :(
So... what can I do? Do you put any kind of natural product? I've tried vinegar rinses and it works, but the next day my fine hair looks dirty and dull... :confused:

[Dolly]

My 10 year old son has had SD since he was about a year and a half (right after his hair started getting thicker). We tried everything! The doctor even prescribed some stuff, and that didn't work either. A few months ago, I started him on Neem and Tea Tree shampoo bars from Chagrin Valley, and he is almost completely clear! It is totally amazing!

[Iylivarae]

I also have it, and I am losing a lot of hair (lost about 1/2'' circumference in the past 3months). My doctor prescribed me something with piroctone olamine (at least I think it was this fungicide), and it helped to fight the dandruff and greasiness. But it didn't go away completely, so I am for sure watching this thread!

[bella77]

I have it and tried all the natural courses and nothing worked for me. I have a prescription from my dermatologist- it's a gel called clobetasol. It has worked wonders for me. I used it at night and washed in the morning, I only needed it sparingly and less often as the condition was cleared up. Unfortunately I could use it while I was pregnant and now breastfeeding, but once I am done,I will go right back to using it, it's the only thing that ever cleared my scalp!

[morguebabe]

Watching this thread as well.

[Katze]

going more natural overall has helped mine a LOT. I started with Rhassoul washes, oiling, and vinegar, all of which helped to some extent. Then I found LHC; the information here, especially going more natural/gentle, has really helped a lot. That, plus a better diet (cutting way back on sugar, caffeine, and alcohol, and of course now eating even better now that I'm pregnant) has helped it almost disappear. I do still have occasional flakes, though.

I get eczema on my face and hands as well as SD on my scalp (they are related), and honey washes or treatments (SMT, honey mask for the skin) are the best thing I have ever experienced. Honey is antibacterial, as well as soothing and a humectant - every time I do an SMT my scalp just seems cleaner and happier.

When I was a teenager and this stuff was at its worst I was prescribed all kinds of things. I've tried every dandruff shampoo out there. Nothing. Honey is really the best.

Oh, and I do find brushing makes the crusties worse, as does stretching washes and going no 'poo or sulfate free. My scalp seems to need frequent sulfate washings to get clean.

[Peggy E.]

I have a prescription cream I use for the areas I get on my face, but was pretty much just living with the scalp issues.

My mother has the same thing (surprise! surprise!) and she began using a strong vinegar rinse on her scalp and it really helped her, so she recommended I try it out, too.

Which I did and I've had amazing success! I CO, rinse, then pour on the vinegar/water mixture, making sure I've got the entire scalp saturated; rinse this off with warm, then with cool, water.

Been after this now for the past couple of months and it took a couple of weeks to see a real change. But now there are no "scabbies" or any flaking issues and my scalp no longer itches, nor is my hair greasy!

But it probably doesn't work for everyone. Still, I'd give it a try - it just might!

[Darkhorse1]

Have you been diagnosed with SD? Best to see your doctor before using something here if it isn't SD. I had SD in the fall, but it's gotten better and my hair dresser said I have more dry scalp now. I have oily scalp and have found washing more often (every other day) better than every third day. (this is for my needs of course). I used Nizoral and that was amazing, but the down fall was horrific itching!! The pharmacist said the reason being is that dandruff--the fungus that causes it, lays beneath the scalp, so this is why it itches. I used head and shoulders, but found nizoral worked best. If I could stand the itching afterwards.

I also found cool water rinses helped with the itchies and a zinc based shampoo (head and shoulders) helped with the itching, but I found H&S caused more flakes. I made a poll in the polls forum in regards to what worked/didn't work for SD--might want to take a peak.

Good luck and don't be discouraged. When I had horridly painful SD, I lost handfuls of hair, but it grew back.

[sibylla]

I had it before but since I started with CO/WO it has stopped. My hair has grown back on the temples after massaging my whole scalp for 15 every day.Applying vaseline to the area realy helped too.

[Darkhorse1]

Oh, just to add--cold water/cool water rinses also add great shine to your hair :)

And a side note, if you color your hair, make sure you check the shampoo for SD--don't use Nizoral if you color your hair. It can change the color. says right on the bottle. Head and Shoulders is alleged to be color safe.

[Gypsy]

Vinegar rinses, if still getting peeling flakes, then Giovanni TTTT shampoo, if that doesn't work then a prescription shampoo (that is my last resort).

[Elichan]

mmm... I think i'm going to try again vinegar rinses, and honey looks a good idea... but does it leaves your hair dull or dirty? How do you apply honey to your scalp? do you mix it with other ingredients?
What does SMT means? :confused:

[Iylivarae]

SMT is an abbreviation for Snowymoons Moisture Treatment, and you should find the recipe somewhere in the forum... I think there is a thread in the recipe's section, it might also be that there is an article about SMT.

[Teazel]

My doctor thinks I have SD, and prescribed betamethasone valerate lotion. It's the only thing that helps - I've tried a zillion dandruff shampoos, including Nizoral and zinc-based, and they didn't do a thing.

However, I'm worried about using the lotion long-term, and I'm definitely thinning in the area affected, so I've got an appointment with a dermatologist next month. I hope they can pinpoint just what the problem is.

[autumnsakura]

I have it (*bleck*). So do a lot of people in my family. I have had it come and go in varying intensities. I think it's worse in winter, and when I'm under stress, I definitely am more prone to a flare up. Lately it hasn't been as bad. I've cut back on sugar and whatnot, and started taking supplements to help with fatigue supposedly caused by a yeast, and I actually think these might have helped my scalp too. I now live in a more humid climate than before, which I also think helps. I do have a prescription shampoo and a topical cortisal solution, but I rarely use them, only when it gets really bad. I don't want to have "rebound" breakouts. I think I might have a minor case of SD in my ears, because the insides of my ears seem unusually itchy. Not sure what to do about that. I don't think I can put the prescription solution in my ears. My best solutions have been to de-stress, humidify my environment, watch my diet, and shampoo every other day to every third day (regular 'poo) and as needed with the prescription stuff. Oh, and get out in the sun as much as possible. Not only is this great for your mental health and vitamin D needs, it definitely helps with SD. I'm not sure how, but it does.

[Katze]

mmm... I think i'm going to try again vinegar rinses, and honey looks a good idea... but does it leaves your hair dull or dirty? How do you apply honey to your scalp? do you mix it with other ingredients?
What does SMT means? :confused:

Honey leaves my hair wonderfully soft and shiny, which is great since my hair tends not to be shiny at all. You do have to be careful to rinse it out well!

You can use honey as part of a deep treatment (link to SMT here: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=128)

as a scrub (I use crystallized honey), or mixed with conditioner to enhance it.

[Arctic]

Any of you have seborrheic dermatitis? In this time of the year my sb tends to get worse... my scalp itches so much, especially in my temples, dandruff comes out, my hair becomes oily faster... and I can see it's thinner in the affected areas... :(
So... what can I do? Do you put any kind of natural product? I've tried vinegar rinses and it works, but the next day my fine hair looks dirty and dull... :confused:

I THINK I have it, but it's not diagnozed. All that I've read about SD sounds familiar though (and I've read a lot!).

How did you do the vinegar rinse? Did you dilute it? Did you leave it in or rinsed out?



--- My doctor prescribed me something with piroctone olamine---

I have found Piroctone Olamine has helped my condition considerably! Especially the flaking/ dandruff. Actually I haven't had dandruff sinse I started using shampoo that contains this ingredient excluding couple short standing flare up due to stress.




---Oh, and I do find brushing makes the crusties worse, as does stretching washes and going no 'poo or sulfate free. My scalp seems to need frequent sulfate washings to get clean.

Yes, for me too all kinds of scalp stimulation tends to irritate: massages, brushings, handling... And I also have to wash often, every other day. With sulfate shampoo :) So many "LHC style" treatments are not good for my scalp, but I've found others that are!



---My mother has the same thing (surprise! surprise!) and she began using a strong vinegar rinse on her scalp and it really helped her, so she recommended I try it out, too.

Which I did and I've had amazing success! I CO, rinse, then pour on the vinegar/water mixture, making sure I've got the entire scalp saturated; rinse this off with warm, then with cool, water.---

I agree, vinegar is great product! I have used apple cider vinegar and red wine vinegar and even balsamico vinegar, all worked great!

It was long before I found LHC, I had a short hair back then, and I was browsing the net and came across a site where a guy was saying that vinegar is the best dandruff cure there is, and that it's not a well know because that would make cosmetic companies loose a lot of customers. He said he didn't want to profit himself just to help people who suffer from dandruff.

He recommended pre-wash scalp treatment with strong vinegar. I actually used undiluted applle cider vinegar (like I said I had short hair and it was before LHC but it didn't seem to harm my hair) and applied to my scalp with hair tint brush and left on for something like 15-30 minutes, then washed my hair normally.

At first I thought it didn't have helped, but made it worse because when imy hair dried it was FULL of big flakes. I got scared! But when I brushed/combed they just fell off my hair and I noticed my scalp was clear of dandruff. The vinegar had just made it to loosen.

I have had success with that pre-wash method several times. These days I use after shampoo rinse more. My scalp adores it! I still use propably stronger dilution than most here on LHC. I CWC and usually pour the vinegar in the scalp area when I am ready to rinse my second conditioner from my hair. I keep the length aside with one hand and pour the solutin into scalp with other, so it doens't get into contact with the length. Then rinse.
Occasionally I let the vinegar into the length too, but it does seem a bit drying now that my hair is longer.



---I think it's worse in winter, and when I'm under stress, I definitely am more prone to a flare up. ---

I personally haven't noticed any relation to seasons, but stress? Oh boy! Major trigger!!!


Oh, and when all else have failed, Nizoral (or generic ketoconazole shampoo) has always helped!


ETA: My latest discovery has been aloe vera gel mixed with some essential oils on scalp after wash: calm down even the worst itching, and cares, moisturizes and protects scalp and it's good for hair too! Aloe vera and some essential oils are saed to stimulate hair growth! I have used tea tree (for scalp), lavender, rosemary (for scalp and hair), eucalyptus (for scalp) and ylang ylang (for hair). I like to use one EO at the time. Lavender and rosemary are the best in my experience.

ETA2: When I had a bad flare up (scalp folliculitis, looked like scalp acne) I mixed some salicylic acid gel (ment for acne skin) into my shampoo, it help.

[Elichan]

... I have read often in the LHC forums about sulfate shampoos... what kind or shampoos are they?:confused: can you recommend me? :) I'm actualy using Urtekram for dandruff and it works ok, but my hair becomes oily so fast (olso for the SD :mad:).
Arctic: I mix cider vinegar (aprox 2 or 3 big spoons) whit 1 l of warm water (I prefer water tending to be fresh than warm). I rinse my hair with it AFTER shampoo, then rinse again to wash the vinegar from hair and condition as usual.

[Darkhorse1]

Careful with vinegar rinses--if you have cracked/open areas on your scalp, it smarts.

I'd see your Dr and get to a dermatologist before self-treating. It may be a symptom of a bigger issue, such as a thyroid problem. Good luck!

[morguebabe]

Instead of vinegar can I use something else (I think Citric Acid or SOur Salt).... I think Vinegar made my color run.

[Celticfreefall]

Can anyone tell me if it's okay to do an SMT after a vinegar rinse? I'm going to get some supplies today, and wanted to work on my hair a little.

[Iylivarae]

It most likely won't harm your hair, but in my opinion, it doesn't make that much sense. I'd do the vinegar rinse after washing out the SMT, so the hair becomes shinier. If you do the vinegar rinse before, the acidity of the vinegar doesn't influence the hair any more.

[Celticfreefall]

I'll do the reverse, then. Thank you!

[Sammybunny711]

I have this or psoriasis, whatever, but CO helps a LOT and SMT's as well as cold rinses and finger combing and scalp massage. Vitamins, too.

[Schmoomunitions]

When mine flares up I wash with pine tar soap and it goes away in about 2 days.

[Sunshine69]

I have suffered with SD for decades. Daily shampooing was the only way to keep it under control, and weekly washing with Neutrogena's coal tar shampoo (smelly!).

I've been washing my hair with conditioner only, and that seemed to help control the itchy and scaling. All conditioners don't work for me, but I've found several that I rotate through (Alberto VO5 Extra Body, Suave Vanilla Floral, and Burt's Bees Grapefruit). Another thing that really seems to have helped my scalp is that I eat very minimal sugar and starchy foods. I'm avoiding grains completely and the only sugars I eat are natural sugars found in fruits, vegetables and dairy. Since I made these dietary changes, I can now go up to 3 days without washing my hair and without my scalp becoming oily, itchy and scaly.

I hope you find a way to keep your symptoms under control. I know how painful and annoying living with SD can be. I also suggest that if you try any of the suggestions you receive here, that you only make one change at a time, that way you can be sure whether it's making any difference or not. If you make multiple changes at the same time, you won't know.

[Darkhorse1]

For mild flares, I use a zinc pyrothine shampoo at 2%. If it's really bad, I use nizoral. However, the side effects of the medication in nizoral drives me nuts! The itching makes me wild! Hahah. But, nizoral does work.

I also like using a cool water rinse. It's refreshing to my scalp.

[Elettaria]

Be careful before using high dilutions of vinegar, I've found that it can be a skin irritant even when properly rinsed out.

I've been struggling with seborrhoeic dermatitis on my scalp for years, and recently it's got particularly bad, probably because I have severe ME/CFIDS and haven't been well enough to wash my hair as often as I should of late. The doctor prescribed oral antifungals, which did nothing, and Nizoral shampoo, which helped, but only while I was using it, and I didn't want to be using something with animal ingredients that wasn't particularly good for my hair and smelt awful.

A few weeks ago I was in a herbalist shop and spotted Bioforce Neem Oil (https://www.avogel.co.uk/shop/products/neem/neemoil.php). The ingredients are sweet almond oil, neem oil, rosemary EO, bergamot EO, eucalyptus EO. They won't tell you the proportions, it's a trade secret, but since I hear that neem smells utterly appalling, I think it must be a reasonably low dilution as this smells quite pleasant, though it's still strong enough to overpower the EOs completely. The bottle recommends using it four times a day and just says vaguely "for nail and skin care", although the staff at the shop looked at the literature they'd been given and it was more open about using this as an antifungal for nail bed infections and the like.

After some experimentation, I have found that the best way to use it is to apply it to the scalp four times a day and wash my hair with neem 2-in-1 shampoo/conditioner (http://www.houseofmistry.com/shop/neem-shampoo-conditioner-p-13.html?zenid=8d4526c06f1db00f19b184515e57ea55) every evening. I spent the first couple of weeks applying it less often, and not washing my hair more than once or twice a week due to exhaustion, and it didn't make much difference, not to mention that my hair got horribly oily. The good news is that almond oil washes out of the hair very easily, unlike, say, olive oil, where I always have to put the shampoo on before I wet my hair. There are other neem shampoos out there, this is just the one I happen to like, although I don't like the other neem product (http://www.houseofmistry.com/shop/neemee-2-in-1-shampoo-conditioner-p-12.html) in the Mistry range, as it's much stronger and irritates my scalp. (Mistry shampoos and conditioners are far and away the best I've ever found, excluding that one stronger neem one. They're made entirely of Indian herbs, organic, gentle but effective, low odour, and my hair utterly loves them.) The oil did make my scalp itch for a short while to begin with, but it never lasted too long, and it's stopped doing that now.

I've been doing the oiling 4x day and washing nightly for a week now, and I think my scalp is almost entirely back to normal. I haven't seen a flake in a couple of days, and when I feel my scalp just now, it feels fairly smooth. I'm going to keep going for a few more days, then have a break from the oil, then henna/cassia my roots, which will hopefully give the eczema a damn good seeing to.

(Copied from the neem oil thread, sorry to anyone seeing this twice.)

[Lyttle Lox]

I thought dandruff and seborrheic dermatitis were 2 different things?:confused:
I know I am 99% sure I have it, my father did and no dandruff shampoo or remedy has ever made an effect.
All a doctor(s) has ever told me was that it was not fungal,:mad: but I have never been able to afford to see a dermatologist. I looked at the symptoms of SD and it matches.


I am looking for natural ways to deal with it, as it seems medicated things are harsh on my hair, to varying degrees. The worse and probably least effective were prescription steroid lotions and shampoos, matting and making my hair brittle, coated, but not really helping flakes or itching..

Coal tars and pine tars seemed to reduce flakes, but I would have to let it sit to make much difference, and again harsh on my hair, even if I was very careful.

I dropped that and tried salicylic acid products, but it depended on which product it was whether it was effective, even if it had the same strength of the acid.

After looking online I also tried vinegar rinses, but after looking here, it doesn't seem to be the typical rinse.. I would do more of a vinegar soak. If I just used it as a rinse, I would end up just loosening some of it into my dark, tightly coiled hair, and having a difficult time removing it, so I soaked in it. I would use pure, or barely diluted ACV, pour it over and massage into scalp, cover, and let it sit at least overnight. This would eliminate all the scales, but is very temporary and from what I see here may be too harsh?:eek: Although my hair does not feel abused from it like that of the chemicals, but makes me hesitant to continue.

Personally washing my hair every day or every other has not been such a good idea, I believe it is my hair type.


The most effective, least harmful thing that has worked for me with SD is an otc line called DermaRest, with salicyclic acid based formulas. The best for me is their medicated moisturizer, which works wonders on my face, and I use in my scalp as well, but don't like the build up or stiffness it leaves (may be the mineral oil:(). I don't appreciate the build up it leaves on my face either, but it is minimal and the best thing I've tried so far. They do have a designated scalp product, but I found it not as effective as the moisturizer. So the search continues..


I have just recently started CO washing, SMT, henna, honey lightenings, a hot oil treatment, (not all at once, 1-2 new things a week) and toying with homemade leave ins, trying to switch to natural methods.
My hair has never felt or responded better,:D but my scalp has not been this itchy in a very long time. I am hoping it's just a phase that will pass, but I definitely need a way to deal with the itching.
I have found the honey lightenings, which didn't give me much lightening, to be the :)best moisturizing treatment I've had, even better than the SMT. I would be thrilled to incorporate honey as a leave in somehow, but not sure it can or should be done..?


I hadn't heard that about the sun, but I would think you would not want to without a strong sun block? I know on my face, under the scales are oily, red patches of skin that are more vulnerable to sun damage, and most likely skin cancer. In my mind it seems it should be avoided..:cool:

[Amara]

Maybe you could put a teensy bit of honey in your mister, mixed up with whatever else you put in there? I don't know that I've heard anyone mention doing it. First thought - it'd have to be a REALLY teeny amount not to be sticky and possibly attract bugs! LOL But a teeny amount might be good if used consistently. In fact, I might give it a go for a few days - I'm looking for extra moisture to put in my spritzer for the winter. :)

[Lyttle Lox]

Thanks Amara.. yes insect attraction is my main concern.. I was hoping someone else would have tried it 1st but I guess I should just be my own guinea pig :p