Sebaceous Cysts

[BellCat]

Am I the only one who has these on my scalp :(?? Anyone have any tips on getting rid of them?I'm going to start putting tea tree oil on them. Also tonight I'm going to try a Rosemary Rinse to see if that helps over time!

[LawyerGirl]

One of my coworkers had one of these on the side of his face. He had surgery to have it removed. Whatever you do, do NOT search for this on youtube.

[BellCat]

One of my coworkers had one of these on the side of his face. He had surgery to have it removed. Whatever you do, do NOT search for this on youtube.
lol I know i've had friends put youtube videos of giant things being popped and having to run away quickly :/ mine are on my scalp

[Tiina]

Some products caused this for me. I think it can be because of imbalance in the acid or moisture level of the scalp. Usually shampoos which were too drying caused me scalp pimples but CO also did the same if I used coney (coating) conditioner.

[Vorvolaka]

I get them because I have wonky hormones which affects, among other things, oil production causing my pores to block. I think my doc said that the only way to really remove them is through surgery because they form little pouches which fill up with gunk. Even if you get rid of the gunk, the pouch is still there.

[pinchbeck]

Did the dermatologist diagnose this for you? If so, what was the recommendation for treatment.

[BellCat]

nope my doctor looked at them and diagnosed them. He said if they get sore he'll pop them (ewwww :P)

[dolcebeatrix]

I am prone to these and have gone in a couple of times to get them removed. I've been told by my doctors that they are not harmful except for really getting annoying if they are in a weird spot or if when you brush your hair it's uncomfortable. My don't get too big, just annoying, but I know that some folks have gotten really big nasty ones! YUCK!

I just made an appointment with the dermatologist at my clinic, he checked them out and scheduled an appointment to remove them. They just numb the spot, make a small incision and pop out the sack of guck. A couple of stitches close it up and then you get them removed a week or two later. I'm a teacher, so my insurance covered it.

I don't know of any natural remedies for these- let me know if anything works for you!

[lunalovegood]

I've had them a few times (I think, I self-diagnosed via Google) and used heat to get rid of them. It's suggested as a remedy on the Wikipedia page. I drink a lot of hot drinks, so instead of using a heat pad I held my warm mug against the skin for a few minutes after I'd finished my drink. I had one on my jawline near my ear that disappeared without bursting, one on my leg that burst, and then a very nasty one on my leg that went extremely swollen and sore before bursting. For that reason, I don't know whether this is an advisable method, but it did at least get rid of them. In all three cases, they weren't budging before I did the heat thing.

[aenflex]

Vitamin A maybe????

[Unnamed]

If they're what I have (mum's are diagnosed as pilar cysts), then they're often inherited. And the only real 'treatment' that I'm aware is to have them removed--including the sac (otherwise they'll come back).

I only have one so far (for about 7 or 8 years now?), but mum has a bunch (good dozen or more?). Mum finds things with tea tree oil in them make hers less sore/painful/red. She can't stand the smell of TTO, though! I've put TTO on mine periodically since I first noticed it (since it works so well on my acne) but no change. The only bad thing about mine (other than having it!) is that it has this super course/wirey, kinky (4-something) hair growing out of it that snags on combs. :rolleyes:

No tips for preventing them or getting rid of them by other means. I'm another in the 'love to know' group. :oops:

[Dani]

Straight lavender essential oil might help quite a bit with this. It can kill bacteria and heal it up. Lavender eo works better for me to clear up spots of any sort than anything else I've ever used. I just dab a tiny bit of it onto a spot once or twice and that's it. If I feel like treating my whole face, I'll gently scrub my face with a warm wet washcloth, then put two drops of jojoba oil on my palm and add one drop of lavender eo, for treating and moisturizing. It's ridiculously awesome, and smells a million times better than tea tree oil. Of course you can always make a spray of distilled water and lavender eo and spray that on your scalp (and hair, and face, and clothes, and body and furniture, etc., etc... :p), whenever you feel like it, and your scalp will love you and so will your nose. :D

[BellCat]

Straight lavender essential oil might help quite a bit with this. It can kill bacteria and heal it up. Lavender eo works better for me to clear up spots of any sort than anything else I've ever used. I just dab a tiny bit of it onto a spot once or twice and that's it. If I feel like treating my whole face, I'll gently scrub my face with a warm wet washcloth, then put two drops of jojoba oil on my palm and add one drop of lavender eo, for treating and moisturizing. It's ridiculously awesome, and smells a million times better than tea tree oil. Of course you can always make a spray of distilled water and lavender eo and spray that on your scalp (and hair, and face, and clothes, and body and furniture, etc., etc... :p), whenever you feel like it, and your scalp will love you and so will your nose. :D
ooh i like the sound of the spray! I used to drop some lavender onto my pillow before i went to sleep ^.^ so nice!!! it would be great if it helped the cysts too :P

[nytquill]

I have a sort of sebaceous cyst-slash-abcess, it's essentially permanent although the infection comes and goes...I won't go into detail because it's kind of gross and TMI (I don't mind, but some of you might! :lol: ). But anyways I've learned that magnesium sulfate (epsom salt) is great for drawing out infection and inflammation, though I don't know you'd want to put any on your hair. In some places you can get a tube of paste that has mag sulph in it or you can just by the big bag of epsom salt and mix some with a little water to make your own.

Heat is also good for drawing, damp heat moreso than dry heat. I often just dampen a washcloth, zap it in the microwave a few seconds (it gets HOT and fast so be careful with this) and reheat as needed.

Mine is caused by, among other things, an accumulation of dirt, skin, loose hair, etc. So keeping the area clean and exfoliated is a must. Though of course you only exfoliate when it's not infected so as not to bother it.

You also DON'T want to squeeze and prod these things...yes if you can pop it you will relieve some of the pressure which is nice, but it doesn't actually get the infection out so in the end you're just making it worse. Best is to get them to come to a head on their own (using heat) or to lance them (pop them with something sharp and sterile) and then let them alone, don't try to push at them to make them drain more or faster. Best thing is to have a doctor do the lancing but that can be expensive depending on where you live.

[Superfine]

I have 2 on my head. They have been slowly growing for nearly 20+ years. A Dr. at a health fair said "no problem". They are beginning to annoy me though because my hair is fine & not very thick. If they get bigger they will poke through my pulled back hair. Ugh! They have never hurt or been infected. I think they were caused by using combs to pull up my hair on the sides, damaging the root of the hair. I have read this could cause one to grow. Anyway, I've also found (but am searching for) no home remedy. Avoiding surgery. The lavender oil sounds promising. Will try it. Thanks.

[pinchbeck]

You also DON'T want to squeeze and prod these things...yes if you can pop it you will relieve some of the pressure which is nice, but it doesn't actually get the infection out so in the end you're just making it worse. Best is to get them to come to a head on their own (using heat) or to lance them (pop them with something sharp and sterile) and then let them alone, don't try to push at them to make them drain more or faster. Best thing is to have a doctor do the lancing but that can be expensive depending on where you live.I second this! Dr. Oz had a great prop to demonstate how to lance a pimple and he stated popping them damages tissue.

[musicallberrii]

I had a sebaceous cyst for about 3 years(not on my scalp but on my side) and saw a doctor about it. He told me they are often caused by of one of two things: a blocked hair follicle or stress. Since yours in on your scalp, it might be blocked hair follicles causing it.. makes sense to me. But I would encourage you to keep a journal of when you are feeling stressed, etc, and try eliminating stress from your life if you are the type of person who has to deal with a lot of it (who doesn't have to deal with stress really though? :P). I got rid of as much of the stress as possible, along with taking a vitamin supplement daily, and my cyst has been gone for 2 years now =) You would be surprised how much of a toll stress can take on aspects of your physical health!

[Kleis]

I get them because I have wonky hormones which affects, among other things, oil production causing my pores to block. I think my doc said that the only way to really remove them is through surgery because they form little pouches which fill up with gunk. Even if you get rid of the gunk, the pouch is still there.

This is absolutely correct. You can pop, lance, drain, empty out the cyst over and over again and it will just fill back up again, perhaps getting infected. I just had my five-year-old sebaceous cyst surgically removed. There would have been no way to get that pouch out of there without an incision. It's a simple, quick procedure. I wish I'd had mine removed as soon as I figured out what it was, instead of waiting this long.

[Arya]

wikipedia says heating them melts the hard gook so it can be reabsorbed by your body? *shrug*

[LittleOak]

I had a sebaceous cyst removed from my head last month. I had it for about 5 years
and as it was getting bigger and becoming more uncomfortable so the doctor said that
I could have minor surgery to get it removed (mine was about the size of a large garden pea) and it always got caught on my comb/brush).

My doctor said that only at my size or larger could they guarantee a successful removal. The little op went well and I am recovering okay, just a little bit of flakiness in the area and best of all I have not lost any hair :happydance:.

During the time I had the cyst I found no long-term means to relieve the feeling of
pressure I experienced on the scalp.I did try several different essential oils and I found
diluted peppermint (diluted in grapeseed oil) to be soothing but eventually I realised it
would have to go because it became uncomfortable and I couldn't part my hair down
the middle because the cyst would show though so I became quite self conscious.

I hope you can find a way to treat your cysts naturally. I was a little concerned that
your doctor said he/she would pop them :confused: As some of the other members
have pointed out, this would not remove the cyst and it could increase the likelihood of
you developing an infection :(

[BellCat]

When he said pop it he said something about draining it etc :/ he's a bit of a crazy doc :P

[nytquill]

No, that's normal. Some of them DO heal just with being lanced and allowed to drain (provided the open wound is properly seen to). And that is less invasive than surgery so especially if the cyst is small the doc will usually try lancing it first and then go to surgery if that doesn't work.

It also depends on the situation. If your cyst is flared up and infected really bad the first thing they do is lance it, to relieve some of the inflammation. Normally they won't operate on a cyst that's already infected and inflamed until it has calmed down. They sometimes offer antibiotics to help with this too.

For example in my case to have any chance at this thing being permanently gone I will need surgery, but there was a time it was so swollen and painful I could barely get out of bed, and when I went to the doctor they immediately lanced and drained it for me. It wasn't a permanent solution but it allowed me to go on about my daily life (once it was healed). And for some people whose cysts are less, um, entrenched than mine is, that actually is all the body needs to be able to expel whatever is in there and heal the cyst up. It depends how long you've had it and how much the skin inside the cyst has changed in reaction to the infection. At some point the skin becomes different from normal skin and forms that permanent pouch, then you have to surgically remove it. But if you catch it before that happens and it's still normal skin but with an infection overtop of it, sometimes it will heal itself up once the infection is cleared away.