u/b4c0nand3gg5

Have been feeling very disheartened over the past year being diagnosed with seborrheic dermatitis and type 2 rosacea. I used to have really pretty skin it was one if the things about myself i was the most confident in. I keep going back and looking at old pics of my face feeling really bad about myself like i'm never going to be that pretty again. I am starting ivermectin next week - derm said the fact i have demodex blepharitis on top of the red bumps strongly points to demodex mites on my skin. I'm hopeful that this will help the appearance of the bumps all over my face, but even if it doesn't, i would like to not be so dependent on the idea of a successful treatment that will magically clear up my skin. Does anyone have any advice on how they were able to accept that your skin just isn't ever going to look the way it did before and be okay with that? Really struggling right now, any words of support or encouragement would be appreciated :(

So i've had chronic dandruff since I was 12, but used to be manageable with head&shoulders. In the past year though it worsened significantly, H&S no longer works, and I went to a dermatologist who prescribed me 2% ketoconazole shampoo which unfortunately hasn't worked for me either. I'm needing to find a new shampoo that is actually able to control the itching and flaking - the flaking isn't severe to the point of being noticeable to others, but it's still flaking everyday even with using zinc pyrithione & ketoconazole shampoos to try to stop it. From months of using these shampoos, my scalp and hair have become incredibly dried out and unhealthy looking - i still condition the lengths and ends but it doesn't seem enough to put life back into my hair from all the harsh shampooing. It's not growing as much as it used to and seems to have thinned or maybe just some shedding has taken place, probably from inflamed scalp. I wash it everyday to try to control the itchy/flakiness though it gets itchy again within an hour or two after showering. I'm unsure if the dandruff is solely due to seborrheic dermatitis or if some of it is also from how dry my scalp has become from all of the washing too. I'm wondering if anyone might know about what to do to restore the health of my hair&scalp while also treating the dandruff? It seems so difficult to strike a balance, especially when the medicated antifungal shampoos don't seem to have any effect for me. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated :)

Hello!!! A few weeks ago i saw a dermatologist to discuss my seborrheic dermatitis which has been pretty resistant to treatment so far. I believe now after doing more research that I might also have some mild form of rosacea which would explain why my face keeps randomly flushing and i'm getting small red bumps that don't QUITE look like pimples on my cheeks and forehead. I didn't realize rosacea might be the culprit at the time, i plan on asking my dermatologist about it at my 3 month followup appointment though.

So when i saw her, she prescribed two things for my sebderm: Zoryve foam & SulfaCleanse. Jury is still out on whether the Zoryve is working for me, but i'm going to give it more time as it's the only topical treatment so far that hasn't irritated my skin. I haven't used the SulfaCleanse at all yet – my skin was extraordinarily dry when i saw the doctor, and i have been struggling to repair my barrier for the past month since this flair-up started (skin feels very tight, gets red when applying my moisturizer & sunscreen, feels generally very sensitive). I didn't want to use such a harsh cleanser on my face while trying to restore my moisture barrier so I thought I would wait for the tightness to go away before using the SulfaClease. However, I'm now wondering if using SulfaCleanse sparingly might actually help with the inflammation and allow my barrier to heal faster, especially considering if i DO have rosacea, SulfaCleanse would help with that as well. So far Zoryve foam has helped a bit with daytime itchiness and made my face a bit less flaky, but I still have flakes everyday, my face itches a lot still at night, and the redness and sensitivity haven't cleared up at all.

So basically i'm wondering if anyone might have some advice on introducing sulfur/sulfacetamide cleanser into my routine without damaging my skin barrier further? (Worth noting that my skin has gone from being super dry when i saw the doctor, to now being very very oily but dehydrated)

I have always struggled a lot with self-esteem issues and insecurites related to my appearance - my whole entire life i've overanalyzed my face and hyperfocused on my perceived flaws. But, for the first 20 years of my life, I had genuinely perfect, beautiful skin. Literally the ONLY thing I ever got compliments from strangers about was my skin, it was the ONE thing i was confident about, not insecure about. About 1 year ago (I'm 21 now) is when I developed this condition, and I've been having a really really hard time accepting that the one thing I liked about myself is just.... gone forever. This condition is chronic, incurable, my skin will never look the way it looked before. I will never have pretty skin again, I will have to deal with this forever. I'm just wondering if anyone has any advice on how to deal with this? It feels like I'm being punished, that the one single thing I liked about myself is the thing that gets taken away from me, and I'm having SUCH a hard time accepting that this is just what my skin is going to look like forever now, it will never be that smooth and clear and healthy again. Did anyone here struggle a lot with the cosmetic aspect of this disease & manage to move past those insecurities, and if so, how?

Last year i damaged my skin barrier pretty severely due to a combination of factors: going out in the sun with no sunscreen for hours everyday in the summer, going on loooong walks in the harsh dry winter air, overwashing my face, taking scalding hot showers, scratching at my face when the itching started (i didn't know i had sebderm until several months after it took hold of my face). I took oral fluconazole, which didn't do anything; i tried ketoconazole cream, which dried my skin out further & exacerbated the issue; I tried pimecrolimus, which didn't do anything; i also tried washing my face with CeraVe anti-dandruff hydrating shampoo (1% zinc pyrithione), which helped reduce the flakes but was still too drying for my skin. For several months my moisturizing routine was La-Roche Posay Toleriane Double Repair Matte Moisturizer in the morning and CetaPhil ceramide serum w/ the La-Roche Posay layered over it in the evening. Several weeks ago I saw a dermatologist for the third time and she prescribed Zoryve foam, which I only finally started using in the past week. It has, in 1 week, helped a lot with the rough texture of my skin as well as reduced the flaking a bit, but it doesn't address the underlying issue of damaged skin barrier/skin dehydration. The moisturizers I was using are obviously not enough to restore my skin barrier and Zoryve is an anti-inflammatory so obviously won't repair it on its own either.

I'm just wondering if anyone has any advice on how to repair destroyed skin barrier? Because I literally had perfect skin before this, and I don't think it's a coincidence that i dehydrated my skin so severely and then suddenly developed this chronic skin condition, and I think if i could just repair my skin barrier, the issue would mostly resolve itself. My skin feels tight, easily susceptible to irritation & transepidermal water loss, and raw. Any tips on how to get that top layer of skin that retains moisture back while simultaneously treating the sebderm directly?