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Bene
December 20th, 2009, 11:25 PM
Alternate thread titles:

- What the h*ll was this???
- Mystery of the scalp kind.


Ok, hair peeps, your attention for a quick second. I found this picture that I took a few years ago. Can someone tell me what kind of skin condition this is? :confused:


http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y244/bene25/life/68496347269_0_0-1.jpg

Sorry for the blurry pic, it's the only one I have. I had this for a number of years, it didn't spread to the rest of my scalp or anywhere else on my body.


Symptoms:

- Mild to moderate itching
- Large, white, rough spot
- Flakes that would come off in large segments, dime to quarter sized
- Not contagious at all, no one else who shared bed or clothes ever came down with it.
- No pain involved
- Did not spread
- Fugly and gross looking!!!
- Not responsive to every fungal medication known to man, doctors guessed, but were baffled.
- Best guess was "some sort of dermatitis" (which means, "we don't have a clue")


It's been gone for a few years now, kind of went away on its own.


I'm still curious about what it could have been. I'm hoping someone here may have encountered something like this. Not knowing what it was still kind of bugs me to this day.

angelthadiva
December 20th, 2009, 11:29 PM
:grouphug: I have no idea, but a better picture may help :flower:

MAO
December 20th, 2009, 11:41 PM
Eczema? Eczema can be white and scaly. And if you pick off a flake it tends to be reddish underneath. My DH and I both suffer from it and it tends to like to come back in particular areas.....mine tends to be stress related.

Bene
December 20th, 2009, 11:53 PM
:grouphug: I have no idea, but a better picture may help :flower:

I wish I had thought ahead to take a better picture, that's the only one I have.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y244/bene25/life/1261378144.jpg

This is the same area now. No scarring, no hair loss, no sign that anything was ever there.



Eczema? Eczema can be white and scaly. And if you pick off a flake it tends to be reddish underneath. My DH and I both suffer from it and it tends to like to come back in particular areas.....mine tends to be stress related.


Does eczema ever disappear suddenly without any medication? And if it does disappear, does it ever come back?

angelthadiva
December 20th, 2009, 11:59 PM
I have eczema, and it is hard to tell by the pic, sorry, girly! I've had it on my face from time to time, but not in my hair/hairline...Not saying that you can't get it there, but that has not been my experience...I normally breakout in the crook of my arms, behind my knees and occasionally little spots here and there on my legs especially in the cold, winter months. I also had a small, bothersome spot on my pinky finger. I'm prescribed a topical steroid cream that is a low dose; I use it as needed. Bene, if it is bothersome, get seen. If your doc can't determine what it is; ask for a referral to a dermatologist.

You may want to keep track of the products you are using and what the ingredients are. If you are noticing breakouts in cycles; they could be flare ups.

ETA: I wanted to add, that since I see you are NYC; long hot showers, cold winters and skin issues do not get along...At least that's what our dermatologist has said.

orbiting
December 21st, 2009, 12:30 AM
sounds like my fiance. When I met him, his hair had thinned horribly... it was lank and sad and to his waist... scratching his head yielded these patches of dead skin, big ones. It didn't hurt but it did occasionally itch. It stretched down his side burns and into his beard. He did flake like he had dandruff, but this seemed like more.. worse. And it was on his face.

It didn't go away on it's own... first I took care of the worst of the patches with shea butter... then I realized the job was too big. I asked my mom and she said it sounded like eczema and we got him Neutrogena Daily Control 2-in-1. It's for psoriasis/dandruff/eczema/etc... he uses it on his head and his beard. His hair is thick and healthy now, and he has a full BSL hemline. And his beard is fuller and bright copper now :)

So I'm voting eczema, and yes I've encountered it :)

ericthegreat
December 21st, 2009, 01:20 AM
I have 3 educated guesses Bene.

The first is of course some sort of fungal infection. As we all know, there are a kagillion different kinds of fungi and bacteria and whatnot out there, and each of them require different kinds of treatment. Some of them may not even have an official treatment for them yet, or have evolved to become resistant to them due the abuse of those same treatments. Sort of like infectious diseases can become resistant to antibiotics or vaccines when they are overused.

The second guess I have is of course a certain type of dermatitis. Our hormone levels are constantly changing depending on our diet, our lifestyle, even just as we age. An overproduction or an underproduction of these hormones can cause all sorts of things to our body, including increased shedding of our hair or a greasier and itchier scalp, that sort of thing. The fact that you said that your scalp condition lasted for a few years and then unexplainably disappeared on its own also leads me to suspect that it could have been due your changing hormone levels.

And my third guess is something that I face myself, allergies. I have asthma and have a few severe allergic reactions to dust mites, many types of pollen, and a few animals. My allergic reactions include a sudden burning in my throat, my eyes water like a flood, I cough, and my skin sometimes breaks out in hives. However, I also have taken several allergen immunity shots over the years and I have built up a pretty strong tolerance for a few of my allergies which I previously had a much stronger reaction to. I used to be somewhat allergic to eggs, but due to my love of eating scrambled eggs and omelets constantly, they really don't bother me too much anymore. Perhaps Bene, you unknowingly exposed yourself to something you were allergic to. It eventually went away because you either (A) stopped exposing yourself to it or (B) you naturally built yourself a tolerance for that allergen over the years.

I hope any of my theories have helped you Bene. :flower:

may1em
December 21st, 2009, 01:26 AM
Were the flakes somewhat grayish or silvery, and was the skin underneath raw and red?

If so, my guess would be psoriasis, which is an auto-immune condition.