i've had SD on my face for a month now. last week i finally went to my derm because nothing else was working. he prescribed nizoral cream. i know i've only been using it for about a week, but i'm still anxious about my results. for a couple days it was starting to peel off, but last night it came back full-blown and i'm getting really depressed because i finally cleared my skin up recently and i thought i wouldn't have to deal with this "feeling-too-ugly-to-leave-the-house" nonsense anymore. from what i can tell the peeling helps but as my skin is sensitive i don't want to use any harsh potions to induce peeling.

my doc said i could go back and see him if the nizoral cream didn't work within two weeks, and i'm glad he's willing to help me combat this aggressively, but i've done some googling and i'm getting scared because i'm hearing these horror stories of people having to deal with the same SD patch for years.

i'm currently using nizoral and pine tar soap and also taking acidophilus, biotin, zinc, and vitamin c. anyone else know something i can do? i heard that washing your face with head and shoulders and leaving the lather on for a few minutes helps?

This post has been edited by shipinabottle: Sep 14 2009, 11:19 AM

are you taking vitamin A supplements or Accutane?

no, currently using tazorac & don't wanna overdo it on the vitamin a.

Best treatment I've found so far is a leave-on coal tar gel called Psoriasin. You can get it at drugstore.com ... it's an OTC product.

It cleared a really bad flare-up for me, and has been keeping me clear since then. *crosses fingers*

Also, it's quite gentle on the skin. I hated Nizoral.

FYI before i reply, i tried the head & shoulders thing and i think it gave my skin the boost i needed. i wouldn't do it every day because of the sulphates, but after i used head & shoulders the nizoral was a lot more effective.

LQ- do you leave that stuff on like a mask or is it a lotion? i'm thinking once the nizoral does its job i'd like to use something else for maintenence once or twice a week for a couple of months. i'm fine with the nizoral except for one thing...THE SMELL!!!! i use a generic ketaconazole cream and it smells like onions! gives me a horrible headache from having to smell it all the time.

I rub it in and leave it on. It comes in both a gel form and an ointment. It works super well, but it doesn't smell good either ....

I have seborrheic dermatitis also. I've tried many things incl coal tar and salicylic acid. The only thing that has worked for me is sulfur. Right now I'm using Dr. Joesoef's 10% sulfur soap and it's working miracles. I use this for my face and back. No more crazy itching and my face has cleared up. I also have seborrheic dermatitis on my scalp and for that I use African black soap with some drops of tea tree oil. For conditioner, I use 50/50 apple cider vinegar/water. These things are working better than anything I've ever used before (including prescription medicines). For moisturizer, I use 100% unrefined shea butter for body, face and hair. I've switched to all natural skin/face/hair products and it as worked. I'll never go back to chemical products again.

If you google for Dr. Joesoef's soap, you can e-mail them for a free sample sized soap. Their sample is pretty big and lasts a long time.

best treatment I found that gets rid of it completely is benzoyl peroxide

its a known fact it kills seb derm completely

I had severe sd before 15 then i started to use proactive and thats all bp and it got cleared completely then i went on accutane blah blah blah stopped and sb came back in fulll effect

if you can find a gentle BP it WILLL help your sd alot

just give it a couple weeks

Ive tried all the other sd treatments aswell..nizoral and everything and found BP better and not to mention it helps with acne (but i have sd..not really acne)

i just ordered znp bar though which is made for sd..but I use a really gentle bp wash at night

ceci- i already have some sulfur soap on hand, will give it a shot.

halfpipe- thanks for the suggestion very much, but i'm legitimately allergic to bp.

this SUCKS, yo. i can't leave my house and i've been on and off crying all day. and of course i've been taking my anger out on my family and friends and throwing tantrums left and right. i hate this

Hi. Just wanted to know if the sulfur soap helped you.

I have seborrheic dermatitis too and I don't know what to do. Right now, I've just been leaving it alone - I haven't been using any harsh cleansers or creams. I only wash with Cetaphil and then apply Cetaphil lotion after shower. It seems to keep it from getting worse, but it certainly has not been getting any better. The doctor prescribed be desonide lotion and it seems to work well in the beginning, but it made my skin look funny after a while, so I stopped.

I don't know what to do. I'm tired of going to dermatologists. I wholeheartedly feel that the medication prescribed by the doctors caused me to have this seborrheic dermatitis. I don't want to go back to a dermatologist for another useless medication.

Does seborrheic dermatitis go away? I've had it for 4 months now and it kind of reached a plateau - it doesn't seem to improve.

First acne, now seborrheic dermatitis - only bc i was trying to get rid of acne. I'm tired.

Pretty much the same exact experience I've had, almost down to every detail. One thing I did recently was stopping using anything for a while to see what would happen and while I didn't break out, the dead/dry skin was absolutely excessive. I ended up washing my face with a very gentle scrub and proceeded to scrape the dead skin off with my fingernails. Not the best method but I was desperate and frustrated. This left my skin very red and irritated, so I applied aloe vera gel on it. It was certainly irritated but it was a pretty thorough manual exfoliation and it actually didn't cause any breakouts. I also hate using BHA/AHA on my skin. The next day my skin actually looked great and the texture was back to being smooth with minimal to no flakes. Although my hyperpigmentation/redmarks still looks bad and the damage is still prevalent from the past, I prefer it to having a thick layer of dead/dry skin on my face. It's been like 4-5 days since I did that and I've been using diluted apple cider vinegar and aloe vera juice to moisturize.

I've read that ACV can kill the bacteria/yeast that may occur in seb. derm. My skin is certainly not as flakey as it was, but unfortunately I think it's coming back and the layers are building up again. It looked really good a few days after I did that but it seems to be returning. I'm not sure what to do to get rid of this for good. I believe that product decisions in the past most definitely gave me SD. I never had anything CLOSE to this problem before using harsh products. I'm worried I've permanently damaged my skin. I need some relief and I'm gonna keep doing this regimen with the occasional exfoliation and a good diet see if the ACV can help fend off the SD.

While I don't really condone doing the manual exfoliation method, as it can be somewhat irritating, I realized something. If I could just "level the playing field", meaning getting those layers of dead/dry skin off permanently then I could use a combination of natural products and a good diet and my skin could finally look good again. The problem with the layers of dead/dry skin is that if you use products, they simply don't penetrate deeply because of those layers, in fact they seem to sometimes buildup and leave a film. It's a known fact that dead skin interferes with product absorption. I feel like whenever I thoroughly exfoliate and get my skin on that level playing field, that things like aloe vera/ACV penetrate my skin and work extremely well. After about 2 days of using the ACV/Aloe combo my skin actually looked really good and the flakes were minimal. In fact, I would probably stop using products all together if the dead/dry skin wasn't a problem. I don't even breakout anymore. The problem is, this level playing field only lasts about a week then the dead/dry skin comes back with a vengeance, so those products never fully get a chance to do their thing unless I keep exfoliating and even then it doesn't completely take care of the SD, it's temporary relief. I just miss having my skin be able to exfoliate on it's own, like it did 2-3 years ago. It was fine, I don't know why I started abusing products. Does anyone know a permanent way to kill this bacteria, or whatever the hell it is, that causes this face "dandruff".

I had a few wicked dry patches on my face that I couldn't get rid of, and a friend said it might be seb derm and suggested washing my face with a dandruff shampoo.

We had some Nizoral at my house, so I washed with that. Unfortunately, I had a pretty nasty reaction--my eyes puffed up, and my skin got incredibly red and itchy. My eyes are a little less puffy today (two days later), but I feel like I'm wearing a mask of hardened skin. My face is completely dry and stiff. I can barely open my mouth without cracking the skin at the corners of my lips.

Yes, the original dry patches are gone, but damn it all, this is so much worse. I'm miserable.

I know how you feel about the tight/cracked skin, I've had it for 6 months now. Sometimes moderate-severe and sometimes mild-moderate, but it's always there. It's taking its toll on me and I really miss my skin functioning properly.

The other ingredients in the shampoo may have irritated your skin. There are ketoconazole creams out there that are made more for the face rather than the hair/scalp line. I am tempted to try an anti-fungal prescription but I'm hesitant. I'm experimenting with things like tea tree oil and ACV on cleansed and exfoliated skin. They have anti-fungal properties but aren't synthetic like ketoconazole and pyrithione zinc. I'm not quite there yet but I see some improvement after using ACV. I may mix very small/diluted amounts of tea tree into my mixture just to see if it helps kill the bacteria that's causing the dryness.

Hmm. I might have to give ACV a try. I've skimmed over so many threads about it in the time that I've been a member of this site, but I've never tried it, since The Regimen has kept my acne under control.

The dry patches only started about a month or so ago, though, so maybe it's time to try adding it in.

it has, thanks! i make a lather with the soap and then just barely touch my face, just enough to cover my face with the lather, leave it there for 1 min and rinse.

and i think i got SD from using an old face sunscreen...i put it on and then that day it started...probably bc my skin couldn't handle it bc i'm on tazorac.

i went to my derm today and have a extracting,she said i have seb dermatitis, and she prescribed me vitamin e cream 2x a day for moisturizing..i have very itchy skin around my eyes..

I had bad seb derm and was using Hydrocortisone cream 1% for 6 months. But it was making my skin worse whenever i was not using it. I found a few studies showing that acetic acid acts as a yeast inhibitor (of which seb derm is suspected to be caused by the malassezia yeast). This is why ACV works. I have just started using ACV (and dropped everything else to test its effects in isolation) for a week now, and it has significantly reduced redness, pustules by around 85% (and zero flaking). The only thing i'm concerned about now is long term ACV use?

OMG it recently cleared up around my eyes but that's the worst!!!! it looks horrible.

and FYI my derm now has me using elidel cream. it's not an antifungal, it's just a super intense moisturizer. it works okay. i have good days and bad days.

i'm going to try ACV starting tomorrow. i used it before on acne - and I didn't really notice anything great - but I didn't have this problem!