u/MajesticFairyDust

Hiii so I just got highlights but she put way more than I wanted. Im thinking of getting lowlights to reduce the amount of highlights. I just got a consultation and the hairstylist said that she can do lowlights but to keep in mind that the lowlights could fade overtime. She said she would use number 3 on my hair. I have naturally black hair and really don't want my hair to fade into brown or fade warm. Does this always happen with lowlights? Should I go to a different stylist, would they be able to use a more permanent color?

Hiii so I just got highlights but she put way more than I wanted. Im thinking of getting lowlights to reduce the amount of highlights. I just got a consultation and the hairstylist said that she can do lowlights but to keep in mind that the lowlights could fade overtime. She said she would use number 3 on my hair. I have naturally black hair and really don't want my hair to fade into brown or fade red/warm. Does this always happen with lowlights? Should I go to a different stylist, would they be able to use a more permanent color?

Hiii so I just got highlights but she put way more than I wanted. Im thinking of getting lowlights to reduce the amount of highlights. I just got a consultation and the hairstylist said that she can do lowlights but to keep in mind that the lowlights could fade overtime. She said she would use number 3 on my hair. I have naturally black hair and really don't want my hair to fade into brown or fade warm. Does this always happen with lowlights? Should I go to a different stylist, would they be able to use a more permanent color?

I usually get nasal vestibulitis but I haven't had that much but recently I started getting what seems like staph on my lips. Its starts off looking like clusters of tiny bumps and then later it crusts over. I stopped using my old lip balm and started a new one that I apply with a cutip so as to not contaminate it. I also repeatedly sanitized my toothbrush with rubbing alcohol and mouthwash (idk if this is sufficient). I use sls free toothpaste. I have no allergies but nickel and dustmites. The only thing is we hand wash our dishes instead of using the dishwasher so maybe things aren't getting thoroughly cleaned. Ive tried mupirocin but it just keeps coming back (and yes ive tried mupirocin decolonization in the past). Anyone else had staph on their lips? It burns and stings :(

Do hydrafacials work on stubborn closed comedones or are manual extractions the most effective?

I absolutely loved Percy Jackson as a kid and am trying to get back into reading. It doesn't have to be greek mythology related or anything. I just want something that gives me that same exhilarating feeling I felt when reading Percy Jackson. Any recs?

I've been taking omega 3, iron, vit d, and a kids multivitamin regularly for 6 months with no change in my skin. My vit b12 and folate are normal. Ate there any other vitamins that have helped y'all?

Hiii ive had dandruff my whole and life and seemed to develop sebderm in my teens. Ive also developed extremely persistent impetigo on my face. Ive tried sulfur cleansers, antidandruff shampoos, ketoconazole cream, mct oil (when i tried i only left it for a little bit and then washed it off cuz i hated the oily feeling), zoryve, distilled water, and even fluconozole for the seb derm. Ive tried mupirocin (​​on lesions as well as in the nose for decolonization), cln wash, povidone iodine, and three different antibiotics (they weren't really based on a culture and sensitivity so maybe they are not the right ones?) for the staph. The only thing that has helped a little is zoryve probably because it is anti inflammatory. I also take supplements like omega 3, vit d, magnesium, and am on spiro which reduces oil production. Has anyone else experienced this or does anyone have advice?

Hiii I've had reoccuring impetigo/nasal vestibultis for over two years now. For the past year or so it has been reoccuring every single week plus it takes time to heal and go away. It makes it hard to leave my house and takes a massive toll on my self esteem/mental health. Before I had this issue I had acne which has cleared up thanks to spiro and tazarotene. I also have sebderm. Ive had the impetigo/nasal vestibulitis for maybe a year or so before I finally got proper treatment due to misdiagnosis. Its usually contained to my nose area but sometimes can appear on other parts of my face. Ive tried elidel, mupirocin (tried using this in the nose to decolonize multiple times), doxy, cephalexin, sulfur cleanser, clindamycin lotion, ketoconazole cream, zoryve, fluconozole, amoxicillin, iodine, cln face wash, and bacillus subtillus hu58 probiotics. Out of this only the zoryve and iodine have made a difference. Zoryve has made it so even if i get nasal vestibulitis it (usually) doesn't ooze/crust, where as before i would ooze everytime i got a flare. This is likely because zoryve is anti inflammatory. Ive gotten a patch test and learned that im allergic to dustmites, nickel, and adhesive tape. Allergist said that these cannot cause my skin symtoms. Ive asked a derm if it could be excema and they said no. Ive tried to see if there are triggers but it doesn’t seem that there is. Ive gotten a pcr which said that I had 0.5% staph lugundesis, haemolyticus, and saprophyticus. The rest was 49.7% c acnes and 49.7% malasezia. The staph had no resistance genes but keep in mind that they only test for a certain set of genes and biofilms can make the bacteria more resistant. The pcr tested for viral infections as well so I believe this rules out hsv. I got a culture too which showed rare gram postive cocci on the gram stain but only grew c acnes on the culture. This might be because there wasn't enough bacteria to grow. Im not sure why there is such a low amount of staph on these tests but could be because my lensions were dry and crusty rather and oozing liquid. Or maybe the bacteria is just super strong. I live with family and none of them have this issue even though some have worse health/hygiene than me. When i asked about my immune system the derm said if your white blood cells are fine ur probably fine. I also don't get sick much but i also don't rlly leave the house lol. I also try to stay as clean as possible. My third derm said there was nothing else she could do and told me to see an infectious diease doctor. I went and she prescribed linezolid however i am very hesitant to take it is as ive taken so many antibiotics already. She said i don't need to throw away mascara, moisturizer, or other cosmetics but im curious what you guys think. What has made it hard for me to pursue another culture is that zoryve has made it so my lesions don't ooze which would probably lead to an inaccurate culture if i pursued one. Even if there is ooze its so tiny. Im thinking to stop the zoryve even if ill be miserable and wait to get an oozy lesion so i can culture it. Other weird things in the past two years are reoccuring pink eye (dr said i had a scratch on my eye because they were dry, eyes have been much better since taking omega 3), and random hives. Any thoughts or help? Its been a very rough few years and running out of things to try.

https://preview.redd.it/gy2t4vjw4keh1.jpg?width=1026&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b565d8383f51622abbdaf7cab0f16a46f70e8347

The ones above are before zoryve

This is a more recent photo. Sorry for the bad quality, the better ones were taken on someone else's phone.

Currently using zoryve 0.15% and it has definitely helped calm my skin but would love some more reduction of my sebderm. I saw that theres a 0.3% and was wondering if would this help even more or will the results just be the same? Does anyone have experience with this?

My derm said she's not comfortable prescribing other antibiotics so I should go see an infectious disease doctor. I saw one today and she told me my option is to go on linezoid whenever I have a flare. I said I'd want to try a culture and sensitivity before that as ive tried so many antibiotics that haven't worked. She says but you don't have a lesion. I had a lesion a few days ago but it went away and its very hard to get drs appointments that fast. I asked if she could do a swab in my nose, which my previous derm has done before without issue. She said no we don't do that because it'll show bacteria in the respiratory system, not skin. Okay maybe thats fair. I showed her my pcr and my culture. Pcr showed three different strains of coagulase negative staph, i informed her that the derm swabbed both a lesion and the inside of my nose. Then I showed her my culture that I had done at an urgent care where he swabbed just my lesion, not the inside of my nose. The culture said "rare gram positive cocci" and also said scant growth of cutibacterium acnes. She said oh that just says acne. Then I pointed out the "rare gram positive cocci" part. She said yeah acne is gram positive, good thing your not colonized with staph. Im in my head im like yeah cutibacterium acnes is gram positive but its not a cocci? Staph is a cocci and acne is a rod shaped bacterium. I felt crazy. Also so i can put mupirocin up my nose to kill bacteria but u can't swab the bacteria in my nose? All I want is a culture and sensitivity so that I know the right antibiotic. I don't wanna keep throwing random things at it, ive tried three different ones already! Im beating myself up so hard for not contacting the urgent care doctor and requesting him to ask the lab to do a sensitivity test on the staph but I had no idea what "rare gram positive cocci" meant at the time and just assumed there was no staph cuz it didn't explicitly say staph. One thing she said was to dilute hibiclens and use it on my face. Which maybe I should try but I already use cln wash and will this just mess up whatever microbiome I have left? She also said i dont need to throwaway away makeup like mascara but should clean brushes if I use them (I don't use brushes anyways). I keep going to these new doctors and all I want is a culture and sensitivity but they won't give it to me! What the hell do i do now. Maybe its my fault, this doctor didn't have many reviews but she was the fastest appointment and i didn't want to wait. Never going to go to an infectious disease doctor again tho. Not going again to my 3rd and most recent derm cuz she said no to a culturs and sensitivity cuz i alr have the pcr. She doesn't understand that the pcr only tests for certain resistance genes and even then thats not the only way bacteria can be resistant to antibiotics (biofilms, etc). These lab techs on reddit agreed with me. Should i just go to my second derm again? She was sweet and listened to me but just didn't seem super knowledgeable. Should i take the linezoid for funsies? Am i actually crazy? So soul-crushingly exhausted.

Hiii guys I've been on spiro for over a year and its been a godsend for my acne. Ive had no side effects like weight gain or anything but my periods are all over the place. One time i had a light period for a whole month, another time I had no period for a couple months. Right now I've been having a period every other week and its annoying. My periods were almost perfectly regular before starting spiro. One mistake I made is I didn't know you had to take it with food so im trying to be better about that now. I also don't take it at the same time everyday. I take it anywhere between 8 pm and 2 am because my sleep schedule is so messed up lol. Can that contribute? My derm has told me i could get on bc but I really don't wanna be on more meds than I already am. Any thoughts?

For context, I have gotten a pcr that shows I have coagulase negative staph. One time I got a culture at an urgent care in hope of getting a susceptibility test to determine the best antibiotic for me. The report came back with light growth of "skin flora". I was stumped at the time because I was expecting staph. Fast forward to today, I looked it up and apparently labcorp (lab my swab was sent to) considers coagulase negative staph to be in the "skin flora" category. Here's the link, you'll have to scroll to the very bottom. Even though this group of bacteria is typically not harmful it has shown to be pathogenic for some, including me!

Has anyone tried swabbing someone else's bacteria and putting it in your nose? No one in my family has this issue but me so I wonder if they have better bacteria in their nose. Or maybe they have the same bacteria but their immune system is better at keeping it at bay? Sorry if this is gross lol.

Nasal decolonization with mupirocin and iodine has never worked for me so im wondering if its worth trying fucidin before I try another oral antibiotic.

For context I have staph on my face (usually contained to the mouth/nose area). I want a lobe piercing but am scared it'll get infected and ill have even more to deal with. Has anyone successfully gotten one without any infection? Would y'all caution against it?

Is a pcr that tests for resistance genes or a culture and sensitivity test more useful when determining what antibiotic is appropriate, especially after multiple unsuccessful rounds.

Has anyone gotten rid of staph on their face, besides using the typical oral/topic antibiotics (have alr tried)? Does anyone have experience in particular with coagulase negative staph?

Hiii I've had reoccuring impetigo for two years now. I'm currently my third derm. My first derm said it was normal and just perioral dermatitis and acne. None of her treatments worked. Side note she put me on doxy for acne but it didn't help impetigo. The second derm immediately said that it was a staph infection and put me on cephalexin. That didnt work so she did a pcr (not a culture) which only showed acne n malasezia. We did a second test in case and she said it was the same thing and said we could try accutane. I​ declined. Because she said there was no staph I assumed I had some weird disease that couldn't be treated. After talking to other doctors they said it was prob came out negative cuz I did them after antibiotics. Now with my third derm she asked me for my swab results from my previous derm so I obtained them and saw that the second one actually did have staph on it albeit it wasn't a lot. I​ also saw that it wasn't the typical staph aureus and was actually a few strains of coagulase negative staph (staph haemolyticus, saprophyticus, lugdunensis). So this derm puts me on fluconozole for a month to help with my seb derm and tells me to use mupirocin in my nose for one week a month for three months. Ive already tried mupirocin in my nose before this twice, once on my own and the other at the suggestion of my second derm. At my one month follow up I tell her it hasn't gotten better. I really wanted to ask her for a culture sensitivity test (from my understanding this is where they grow bacteria in a petri dish and use antibiotics on them to see which one its most sensitive to). The pcr test i had gotten previously tested for resistance genes but not sensitivity. As per the pcr, doxy n cephalexin should've worked because its not resistant. I think it didn't work because the bacteria is not very sensitive to it. When i asked her she said pcr is the best n said it shows sensitivity (it doesn't, it shows resistance genes). The pharmacist recommendation on the pcr said to use amoxicillin which is what my derm then prescribed me. I have already been on cephalexin and doxycycline and and hesitant to try an antibiotics if it just comes back again. I dont want to end up trying a bunch of antibiotics, i want to try the right one. I feel like sensitivity/susceptibility would show what actually works versus predicting what could work. Ive gotten two cultures at urgent cares but they either say normal skin flora or one said rare gram positive cocci (so only a tiny amount). I think the samples might've been bad cuz I rarely ooze and crust now (mostly get red and inflamed). Im not sure what to do. Should I just take the amoxicillin? Even if I get another culture from an urgent care the staph might not show up. Sry for the long read. Any thoughts?