It’s really only bad on the top of my head, and has gotten way worse with being on accutane.
Derm says it’s seb derm but I’m confused because accutane is used to treat it. Ketaconzole does nothing for it.
Helpppp please give me product recommendations
Hi, please can someone help. So basically iv been put on isotretinoin for seb derm, 20mg everyday. First 2 weeks my seb derm flared. Then reduced. What i noticed is my oil has reduced signifcicantly which is great! But where my seb derm use to flare it gets irritated, its that because its dried out? Also i use nizoral every other day (past few days everyday) would that be the reasom my barrier is triggered an flaring the seb derm? Its like tiny itchy bumps on forehead and T ZONE, can someone help please
Hello, I'm back after a month, so here's an update: SeboPsoriasis
MCT Oil did wonders for me! It made my flakes softer and kept my scalp (and ears!) feeling hydrated. I still have a picking problem, though. I just can't let it go. 😭 I'm still on the lookout for a good fidget toy to keep me preoccupied.
I'm constantly on the lookout for food triggers. I found out that spicy food doesn't cause flare-ups, and that's a good thing because I looooove spicy food! ☺️ My triggers seem to be Coca-Cola (even the Zero Sugar one) and oily food. I recently had a gout flare-up, and I stopped taking my DM2 medications while I was taking NSAIDs for it. I noticed that having uncontrolled blood sugar was a major cause of my flare-ups.
Here's what I include in my daily routine:
- Vitamin D 10,000 IU
- Probiotic tablet
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin B12
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As for my scalp routine:
- During the first month, I religiously applied MCT Oil C8 every night and washed it off the following morning.
- Mon/Wed/Fri/Sun: I wash with baby shampoo, followed by coal tar shampoo.
- Tue/Thu/Sat: I wash with Selsun Gold 2.5%.
- I apply a thin layer of MCT Oil C8 to the driest areas, which are my temples and on/behind my ears.
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Routine when I have a major flare-up:
- If there's a major flare-up, I resort to Clobetasol in the mornings only.
- At night, I apply Salicylic Acid 10%, let it sit for a few hours, then follow it with MCT Oil C8 and let it marinate. 😅
- A few hours later, I wash with lukewarm water and only use conditioner. I let the conditioner sit for 5 minutes, then scrub with my scalp massager. No other shampoo applied, just the conditioner ☺️
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I rarely use Salicylic Acid because it's so concentrated and stings like a mf hahaha 😅
I still have a long way to go...
I'm stressed out about this. I haven't been back to a derma since my initial appointment. I'm still hoping that I don't have psoriasis. 😔 I obsess over it, and it's taking a toll on my mental health. I'm too young to potentially have this autoimmune disease. 🥺
I know that gut health and keeping my blood sugar controlled are part of what I need to focus on to get this better. I just wish I could get over this faster.
Let me know your thoughts and any other tips, especially for dealing with picking. ☺️
Hello. I went to the beach yesterday and found this in my scalp after a few hours. It felt wet yesterday and if i tapped on it with a paper towel it came out slight orangy.
What could be?
Thank you.
It was completely manageable up until about 3 months ago when it started popping up ALL OVER my body. Pretty sure stress and alcohol caused the flair up. I look like a clown at work. Luckily the only thing I have going for me is that I just broke up with my gf which has been the most stress in my life.
I’ve always had it on my scalp, chest and upper lip and sometimes the chin. And I could shave and it would clear up after a couple of days. But never on the eyebrows, under the eyes, and especially on the body until now. Been trying to find a pcp so I can see a dermatologist but either they are not accepting new patients or if they are, they don’t accept my insurance.
Edit: if it's not clear from title, I've been symptom free (see 3rd picture), and was sharing my success with what worked. So far.
Tried mct oil, steroids, ketaconazole creams, many useless amazon products and was at my wits end. Nizoral keeps my scalp under control but on my face always struggled and often looked like the first 2 pics for 3 weeks of every month. Sucked.
Got put onto pimecrolimus (not cheap) which I used twice daily for 2 months, which nuked it off my face completely in addition to shampooing. Now run it twice a week, and if I feel like I'm getting a flare potentially I use twice daily again til it's gone.
I've been using pimecrolimus/elidel for 2 years and the last flare up was 8 months ago on holiday, and before that must've been months without too.
This stuff genuinely saved my life as I was so down when i was struggling with it and could hardly look anyone in the eye.
I also made adjustments to my diet and went in on gut health and cutting out UPF which I believe helped a lot. Also no longer drink beer. Only vodka and lemonade lol and stuff like that. And rarely. Quit smoking also.
23 years old for reference, suffered from 17-21 on face. Scalp from 12.
I am at a complete loss for what I’m supposed to do. I have had this rash on my neck for multiple years now and it ebbs and flows in its severity. Sometimes it’s just a little bit irritated and sometimes it’s full-blown flared up. But over the last year, I’ve had what I think is seb derm on my scalp. I got a water filter and used some medicated shampoos and I feel like the front of my scalp is now very dry but not waxy and yellow. But the shampoo would send my face into a full flare. I’ve also been dealing with these weird patches on my face. I’ll attach a picture. So now what I’m dealing with is an extremely irritated neck, extremely dry, scalp, irritated ears, and occasional flares on my face, and I do not know what to do. I’m not gonna use medicated shampoo because it makes my face flare. I’ve tried Protopic and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. I cut out gluten completely and I think that’s helped a little bit, but not that much. Please help me.
I’ve been suffering from SD with hair loss for around a year now. I tried every product (MCT C8 Oil, Nizoral, T/Gel, Coal Tar, etc) and saw little progress my scalp was still flaky and I had loads of hair coming out. As I got private healthcare recently I was able to go see a professional dermatologist for the first time about my issue. They couldn’t really find an answer to control the SD and hair loss so just prescribed me a steroid and told me to get a blood test and check if my ferritin was low as that could be causing the hair loss and stopping the SD recovery (they said it should be 77ug/L+ for healthy hair). So I got a blood test and got my results back and sure enough my ferritin was at 25ug/L which suggests the potential cause of my hair and SD being so bad. I decided to look back at old blood tests and saw that when I was first getting SD and it was very bad my ferritin levels were at 16ug/L which is borderline depletion for my iron levels. And since then i have been taking iron supplements which explains why it’s gone up to 25. i’m not gonna fully focus on recovering my Ferritin levels back up to 70+ so i can try growing my hair back and reducing the severity of my SD if hopefully that is the cause.
Has anyone been in a situation like this and can suggest how to boost Ferritin/Iron levels back to the healthy hair growth levels?
Been on the scalp lotion for 4 weeks, I use it every other day. It has helped a lot with itching, but somwhere around week 2/3 my flakes have gotten way more than before I started. The itchiness is still less than before I started, but it's slowly returning again, I can feel it. Anyone else ever had the same experience? I use ketoconazole shampoo about 1 to 2 times a week, but not sure if it is still helping.
Hi,
So about a month ago, I noticed something like cradle cap on my 9yo daughters head. It rapidly became worse, spreading across her whole scalp, and on patches of her face.
At first I thought psoriasis, but I think it might be this.
I’ve tried everything, seen 3 doctors. She’s been on antibiotics, antifungal, and I was given ketacomb, but it can’t be used long term. I’ve tried everything in these pictures, I’ve tried coconut oil. I comb the flakes out nightly.
Drs all kind of said they don’t know, and referred to a dermatologist. I’ve managed to get one for 3 weeks away.
In the meantime, I’m still trying everything I can, but I’m overwhelmed and it seems to spread further across her face. And anything that works only does for a day or so, and it comes back aggressively.
She is also sooo itchy, and is shedding the flakes non stop. I’m nervous bc she’s at a delicate pre puberty age, and a kid making the wrong comment at school could shatter her self esteem.
Can anyone offer some insight? does this look like seb derm??
Im in Australia for reference.
At the start keto made my seb derm disappear and now im having it so bad. Like last 10 days so bad.
Hey hey — I could go into a whole thing about what all my scalp has been through — but the redness is just really upsetting me. It doesn’t hurt but it’s obviously so inflamed… anyway just wanted to see if anyone had advice.
I have this rash on my forehead and into my scalp that's been an issue for a year now and I just never thought to get it checked because I thought it was just dandruff. It flaked off in a scaly patch and I initially thought it might be psoriasis but I wasn't entirely sure until I went to a derm to get it checked. I had a little improvement using a hydrocortisone ointment but in my follow up we discussed my family history of autoimmune skin conditions so I got it biopsied and it came back as seb derm. I feel so stupid having not considered it, looking back now I was getting flakes in my eyebrows and I just passed it off as dandruff or my skincare pilling. Hindsight is 20/20 I guess
I'm waiting on my next follow up, but I'm needing advice on long term management from people who've had more experience with this than me. I want to try using an MCT oil like I see being mentioned here a lot, and I found one I think fits the description in the wiki page. Besides that, what are your favorite strategies of managing flare ups an preventing issues in the future? I have a Ketoconazole 2% prescription that's really helping, but I don't want to rely long term on the Pimecrolimus and corticosteroid I've been prescribed to manage my current flare up.
I really appreciate any advice or comments!
My scalp routine is to crush raw garlic in my garlic press directly into my palm and rub it onto my head. I do this twice a day without washing it off.
I do it in the am and after I shower after work.
Warning it burns at first ..
At night i put a drop or two of an mct8 oil and oil of oregano mixture on my scalp to add hydration.
I'm down to applying just garlic once every three or four days just for maintenance now.
Been to two dermatologists already. Anyone had the same issue especially with eyebrow?
I was prescribed ketaconozole shampoo and I am making it soapy on my hands and putting it on directly while waiting 3-5 min.
Recently it’s been getting extremely dry and flaky, does that mean it’s working or this just dry skin?
hey all. I [18 m] was recently diagnosed with seb derm.
For the past year or so, my hair has been getting noticeably thinner all around, scalp is easier to see through, and flaking like crazy.
I have no idea what’s causing this. I mean it should be balding right? but according to my doctor, she says it’s seb derm and that it can cause localized thinning.
She prescribed me nizoral 2% and Ive used that for a few weeks. it seems to get rid of the flakes but leaves red spots and then the flakes just reform a day later.
Again, I decide to go to a derm this time. she pulls out this little microscope thingy and checks the sides of my hair which felt thinner, and says that my hair is so thick and that it’s not thinning at all.
The most annoying part of this is I’m left with more questions than answers and will probably have to accept that I won’t be able to do anything to stop it.
This is genuinely so fucked. I feel like sometimes I feel great and tell myself “well, she said I’m not thinning so it’s gotta be true” and sometimes I go “holy shit it’s so over”
Feels even worse that I have to put up with this and I know nothing is going to work. Ive lurked this sub for a while and most of the people that seem to solve this problem are women, and most men don’t ever seem to solve this problem.
I feel so hopeless, is there any men that actually solved this and stopped thinning or was it just balding and the derm and doctor were just making me feel better?
Been dealing with this since I finished a prolonged course of antibiotics (7 weeks). Itchy and very tight mostly and sometimes also painful. Really scared and not sure what to do. Saw a doctor in person ans she said contact derm, took the antihistamine she prescribed and the skin got better a bit and cannot tolerate the eye drying side effects. Saw a second doctor online and she said seb derm and got keto cream but now not sure which doctor is right. Don’t wanna use keto cream if it’s actually some sort of contact derm as first doc said. Seeing an actual derm doctor in a few days. Help please, what does this look like? I tried vanicream cetaphil simple etc nothing works. Everything makes my face red and react at the moment. Any recommendation on most gentle cleanser and moisturizer ever? Thanks so much.
I damaged my skin barrier back in 2024, which all started when i wanted to remove the blackheads on my nose and remove the tan i got from cycling abit too much. The first 3 months were perfect until i decided to add a toner called the hatomugi skin conditioner which slowly destroyed my skin and i was stupid and thought pain was gain and added products ontop of it as i needed a solution to the problems the toner created. And it got so bad that i flared up with hives every time my body heats up from my face down.
In jan of 2025 i went to my first derm which gave me a cleanser moisturizer and hydrocortisone steroid. Within 4 uses in 2 weeks my skin felt super super super thin and super tight. I immediately stopped and started to only use the moisturizer she gave, which was when my first seborrheic dermatitis symptoms appeared and slowly slowly became what the picture ontop was.
I went to another dermatologist in september of the same year and he gave me a cleanser moisturizer and a anti fungal cream. This removed all the thick scales but left me with a paste build up and could only be removed when it was wet for a 5min ish period.
When applying moisturizers most felt neutral ish when applied but my skin seemed to heat up after like 30min to an hour of application and go back down.
Since then ive stopped using all topicals and only a cleanser as everything ive tried caused the same reaction.
Ive taken accutane which reduced alot of my seb derm build up and greasiness but the symptoms are the basically the same. Tightness on my cheeks burning etc etc.
When i dont exfoliate/gently scrap off this build up the seb derm build up seems to dry up abit and flake more and the burning stops. However my skin becomes abit itchy. When scraping most of it off my skin becomes more irritable and burns and becomes alot oilier.
Current diet consist of: abit of rice, chicken, salmon, brocolli, chia seed drink, brocolli, eggs and oats
Supplement stack: zinc, omega 3, quercetin, vitamin c
First pic was when it was at its worst second is right now where my barrier is still very damaged and the seb derm is a weird paste that can be scraped off(effects my whole face but concentrated in oilier areas)
Third pic is right beforee the first derm visit
Want to try pyrithione zinc shampoo, itraconazole, honey.
Have tried mct oil it burns my arms abit so i aint trying that stuff on my face.
Gave up on moisturizers as ive been irritated hy them too much when they had minimal ingredients etc etc
Pls help😭😭 im trying my best to be positive but cant help but being depressed when my mind is not occupied.
My treatment has begun relatively recently, but this is definitely a pattern for me: right before some patch gets better, it gets worse. Red, flakey, itchy, stinging, the whole deal - like it won't go down without a fight. Then after a day or two, the area is significantly less inflamed.
Overall, I'm still dealing with a lot of plaque but there's definitely been improvement... But only after it lights up 🚨
I asked my derm if this is a known thing, and she said no. Has anyone else here had this experience?
I'm newly diagnosed but have been living with it for years.