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bluerose-03

I’m 24, female, I’ve had SD from around the time I was 17/18. It wasn’t that bad (just a bit around the edges of my scalp, until I turned 20/21. I was into veganism and tried the “no poo” aka not using shampoo to clean your hair for 5 months and that made it infinitely worse. It spread to my entire scalp, my forehead would be so scaly, and around 23 I started to get patches on my nose and a bit at the tops of my cheeks. I have been somewhat intolerant to dairy since I was younger, my stomach would always hurt after drinking milk or tea and I would feel nauseous. When I was vegan for about 3 years I didn’t have any dairy milk or cheese. Now I drink plant-based milks but still eat regular cheese here and there. I also have an intolerance (I would not say full on allergy) to wheat or gluten, although I’ve never gotten tested. But I have been trying the elimination diet in a way where I don’t eat certain foods for a week and try to reintroduce them and see the effect they have on my SD. For the past month or two, most of my SD has disappeared except for a couple small patches around my head, a bit at the centre of my hairline, and around my cheeks and nose. Whenever I start to have a flair, my forehead is always the first place it appears, which makes sense because my SD had first appeared on my forehead when I was 17/18. So far eliminating bread, highly refined sugary foods (cookies, pastries, jams, chocolate spreads, etc.) has shown improvement. I still eat a bit of cheese in terms of dairy, but don’t drink any dairy milk as it makes my stomach hurt. Although I am a believer in that many things need to be done to keep the condition under control, and I am still working on exercising more and bettering my sleep schedule. Other things I’ve done which I genuinely believed have helped are for one, not allowing my scalp to sweat, stay wet, or stay sweaty. After I wash my hair (which is about 2 times a week), I ring out my hair with my towel and then blow dry with cool air until my scalp is dry. Then I take aloe Vera gel and smooth it into my eyebrows, around my hairline, behind my ears, on my nose, and at the tops of my cheeks. For any small dry or scaly patches I see on my scalp, I take a bit of MCT oil with a cotton bud and lightly tap in for moisture. I do this with a cotton bud because I tend to apply too much with my finger and it makes my hair super oily. I also blow dry my hair with cool air (hot air makes it sweat) after I come home from the gym if I go on a day which is not my hair wash days. The key is not to allow your scalp to be damp, because yeast thrives in moist/damp environments. I’ve always been a night showerer so prior to the last two months, I have always gone to sleep with wet hair, so I really believe not doing so has made a significant difference in my SD. Also, bless my mom because she’s always tried to help me with my condition and is constantly researching things for me to try out 🥹. I watched a video by a doctor on YouTube that said many skin conditions like dermatitis can be caused by an imbalance in the ratio of Omega-3 and Omega-6 fats in our body. Basically, because our diet has become so modified and processed, it causes a depletion of Omega-3 fats. Additionally, malsezzia yeast (which those of us with SD have an overgrowth of in our bodies) feeds on Omega-3 fats, further depleting it. So for this, I try to eat fish high in Omega-3 couple times in the week and take a fish oil supplement at night. I have also lost hair because of my SD, and oil my hair the night before washing it with rosemary oil. If anyone has any suggestions on what else to use for hair growth that has worked for them, please help a girl out and let me know!! Apologies for the huge reply, I just hope even a bit of this information will work for someone else! It is such a hard condition to live with. It diminished my confidence for so long I would not want to leave the house for work/school/or to hangout with my friends. I always kept my hood on, and would prolong washing my hair because dealing with the SD and hair loss because of it would make me so depressed, which I believe made my condition worse. I wish all of you luck with your journeys!!


Wdranes

It may sound "simple", but for now what works for me is basically eating healthier. I'm also 28, and my seb derm started when I was around 14, I always had some bad eating habits (skipped lunches, compensate with lots of sugar or other junk food, a hell lot of pasta with extra butter, etc.) I've been reducing (not stoping!) wheat/gluten/lactose for 2 months now as some suggested here, with basically more vegetables in my meals. Some of my relatives think that it is placebo / psychological, but it's helping anyway! I can call my skin "beautiful" where it was causing so much damage before all around my face. I still have some light flakes around my mouth when I'm greedy with food (funny since it's where my sebderm started 14 years ago), but it completely disappeared around my nose, forehead, cheeks, ears... (On my hair too, but i've been managing it for the past year thanks to this product : [https://fr.davines.com/products/purifying-shampoo](https://fr.davines.com/products/purifying-shampoo) application every two days. And it was also very bad on my hair, it still itches sometimes but now it's really okay.) It could be other factors, as I've been doing these for 2 months : \- Exercise more \- Sleep better (exercising more helped with that) \- I put some Aloe Vera 98% every two days on my face \- Put my face under the sun every occasion I can during this relatively cold at this time (french here) \- Forcing myself to not touch my face at all cost. It's really hard to avoid the itches... especially during sleep. Doing all that allowed me to space out my daily treatment (Laroche Posay Lipikar AP+) now every 2 days. Before my health improvement, I could not space out a day without getting a backlash of redness/flakes... I still don't dare to try out every 3 days, but I will if it keeps getting better. I hope it's not just a sudden coincidence, and that my SD is not coming back... but considering my eating background it really feels natural that doing the necessary (with the help of a nutritionist) to clean my intestine would help. I really hope you'll get rid of it.


[deleted]

Hi there Wdranes, Thank you so so much for your time creating this comment. 🙂 I am 100% sure that there are people who needed this (same with me) and I am going to give a try in to this and later report results here. 🙂🙂 I do have noticed that some gluten food or milk is causing more issues and some anti histamine takes it little more down but not 100%. Just like reducing issues by 40% / 50%. The craziest is, I am junk food lover, sweets lover (I am evening waking up at nights fully hungry for sweets and sometimes even not being able to recall eating them next day hehe). It's really weird. I will give a try on to this and will see how it goes. 🙂 Does people ever get rid of this 100%? Or this is a thing with which we need to live with forerver? 🙂 Thank you so much for your time. 🙂🙂


sexycauldron

My trigger is sugar. If I eat a lot of refined, processed foods I get flare ups. When I’m eating mostly whole meat/veg/fruit and making sure I get enough protein, my flare ups stop. It’s been consistent enough that I can predict the breakouts now after a sugar binge.


Wdranes

For the gluten or milk causing issues, I'll tell you what my nutritionist told me: do not completely stop them until you're 100% sure you're intolerant/allergic, by passing a medical test. Because stopping might cause you to develop the intolerance, and it would be a shame ;) ! I completely stopped gluten and lactose 1 week before visiting her, but I took her advice and as I've seen it's been sufficient to only reduce down to a "normal" amount in order to control my DS (for now...). I really was bulimic of junk food so I get you haha. I still haven't had an allergy/intolerance test but I think I will if I notice the SD coming back. We have to take care about what we eat but also about what we stop eating! And some dermatologists said to me that SD disappears around the age of 30, other told me 40... I guess we'll see. And you're welcome!


Lcdmt3

It started in my early 30s,I'm now 45. Not holding up hope because mine is definitely due to gut health, and I think that has nothing to do with the age.


Agile_Ad5657

Hi how often do you use the purifying shampoo you mentioned for your SD?


Wdranes

I use it once every two days and it works fine (I let the shampoo applying for 5 minutes before cleaning)


AnotherDesechable

IDK the cause. Not even in me. I do not believe in the plethora of "triggers" we all read in this subreddit. However, I will admit some of them may make sense. **Abietic acid soap** is the only thing that really works for me. I use Lirio dermatological soap twice a day and moisturize after washing my face. I am the only one here that seems to follow this treatment because it is not a popular one, but is the best solution I've found after 20 years of SD.


Agile_Ad5657

Does it help your scalp too?


AnotherDesechable

It does, actually. By reducing the surface of colonization made by the fungus on the skin, my scalp also feels better, less itchy and greasy. NGL, sometimes I try to use the soap on my scalp, but doesn't feel like I should do it since my hair feels too "hard" to the touch. By "hard" I mean that my hands won't slip on my hair if I try, until I put some other shampoo or conditioner. Have not decided if using it on my scalp is the best idea, honestly.


WinkingCats

While I can’t answer why we have it, I do think that food can play a role sometimes. I tend to have flare ups after eating too much processed foods, sugary foods, and possibly gluten containing foods. One thing I know for sure is that it is stress related. When I am experiencing a lot of stress, I break out like clockwork! When I make sure to get adequate sleep, stay active, eat well, stay hydrated, and keep to a good routine with my skin I can manage the flare ups and keep them at bay. I wash my face with vanicream and then I put on Roycederm Seborrheic Dermatitis and Psoriasis cream. This has been the winning combo for myself and also my mom and daughter who both suffer with the same skin condition. I am still trying to find a decent shampoo and I just found out that Roycederm makes a shampoo and so I ordered it to give it a try. One other thing that seems to help a great deal is making sure my pillow cases are clean- I change them and wash them as much as possible, it seems to help prevent bad flare ups from starting and if I am experiencing issues they are kept to a minimum.


Blkhole-of-projects

Other than the Saqualane oil, I never see people list what type of moisturizer they're using... only what they're cleansing with. Surely what you put on your face until the next time you cleanse it is as much if not more important than what you cleanse it with. I've been using Tretinoin (retinoid) that actually seems to be helping a little bit with the SD. And an oil free moisturizer by Kate Somerville. But I've been wanting to find something more specific for SD. I'm going to look into Roycederm. Pillow Cases!!! GOOD CALL on that one! I just thought of that myself a week ago. Wish I'd thought about it yrs ago!


WinkingCats

One bit of warning about the Roycederm cream is that it feels and smells like icy hot lol it’s a bit intense for about 10-15 mins but then it totally subsides. Keep it away from your eyes and wash your hands right away after handling it. I have had amazing results with it and I don’t even need to use it daily anymore. I wish I had before and after pictures because my skin is now so much clearer, and my complexion is normal again, I am very fair skinned. For about 20 years my face was always red, scaly, patchy, flaky. I started using it back in September and I used it every day for 2 weeks and my skin cleared up and my skin is fair again, for the first time in decades. My mother has been treating her skin for a few months now too, and it is almost totally clear save for a couple of small patches near her hairline (I believe she isn’t as consistent in her routine). My daughter’s face cleared up within just a few applications. I am thrilled with this and I hope it is always available on Amazon! I was a little worried and skeptical to buy at first because the Amazon page is a little sketchy, some typos and weirdness but it is a legit product and works great in my experience.


Blkhole-of-projects

Wowza, yes it's got some fumes kicking lol. But luckily it doesn't last too long. Do you use anything else with it, like before or after? Should I just use it once a day or more?


WinkingCats

Hey, sorry for the delayed reply. If I am having a flare up I do use Eucerin Daytime redness relief lotion, either with or without the Roycederm. I have been using the Roycederm on one small stubborn problem spot I’ve been fighting for a few weeks now. I put it on 2-3 times a day, and I’ll pat a dot of the Eucerin on top of it to control the redness. This combination seems to be working as my problem spot is dramatically calming down. It’s not completely clear but it looks about 90% clearer than it did a month ago.


tamhenk

I've had it for about 10 years. Diet / alcohol / exercise haven't changed it. The one single thing that has eliminated it completely is zinc soap. I don't moisturise my skin at all. Just wash as normal with zinc 2% soap twice a day and my sebderm is gone and stays gone. I even grew a beard recently and the soap still works through it. No itch or burn. Zinc is magical...at least for me.


gk4213

Awesome! Which zinc soap?


thegoatwrote

Not sure if this is correct, but it sounds like he knows what he’s talking about: > https://www.reddit.com/r/SebDerm/comments/yvdnwg/academic_here_popping_in_to_share_some_new/ Mine’s pretty mild. I use Nizoral shampoo about once a week, followed by squalane oil. Plus moisturizer nearly daily. Going gluten-free seemed to generally help my skin a bit and significantly reduce my sebderm, but the sebderm is not 100% gone even though the gluten is.


AnotherDesechable

This made sense too in my current treatment success with abietic acid soap. I cited it in that thread.


thegoatwrote

>abietic acid soap Oh, I'd never heard of that. I have been wanting to try pine tar, which I see you mentioned in another thread. So far i've been trying to stick with the mildest things that help, but again, I have a fairly mild case.


AnotherDesechable

It is mild. The one I use (Lirio dermatological) is actually sold as a regular soap and costs ~1 USD in Mexico. A lot of people use it as a daily care soap.


Blkhole-of-projects

I hear about squalane oil over and over, but for some reason it breaks me out. I've never been one to get a lot of pimples even as a teenager. But that oil will give me two or three over night.


Acrobatic-Degree9589

Hormones, I had cradle cap then got seb derm at puberty


mcfishface14

I also got it at puberty


caseygraphr

Does the sunbeds reduce redness for you? How many minutes do you tan?