That's interesting to know since I took antibiotics for 3 years on and off, and each time it came back whenever I stopped. But yes I totally agree with you, I absolutely would never waste my time with pills or creams since they have only robbed me of my time and money. It's also interesting that people are finding so many different cures to their acne, and for most of these cures, dermatologists will literally think you're an idiot for thinking that.

Great post! How have you gone the past week?

I'm on week 3 of the diet. I fell off the wagon for a couple days because the diet is HARD! But I got back on it and basically mainly eating eggs and veggies for breakfast, lunch I sometimes eat 3 or 4 chicken tacos with cabbage and avocados (with corn tortillas). Then for dinner I eat a chicken salad from Chipotle (they use grass-fed meats without antibiotics). The salad just has avocados and lettuce

Yes, this diet is so boring but I'm determined to get my skin back. Some days I eat quinoa or brown rice but I'm trying to limit these. There are various candida diets so its hard to know which one to follow. The less carbs the better. I also drink filtered water throughout the day with lemons squeezed into it to make it taste good and also because I read that lemon water is awesome for fighting Candida. So far i haven't noticed any major improvement but it's still too early. Im aiming to do this for at least 4 months. Will update more later on...

If you believe your skin is having problems due to yeast overgrowth, you can try using a topical antifungal. I recently figured out that the skin issues I have been having for most of the past decade (I'm in my late 30s) are likely due to yeast overgrowth. I started using Nizoral dandruff shampoo on my face, and I noticed a difference in my skin in just a few days. I used to have horrible greasy, flaky, and irritated skin, with lots of congestion in my pores that would never budge no matter what I tried. Now about two weeks into using Nizoral my skin feels calm, not greasy, and my pores are the cleanest they have been in ages. I can barely believe it.

Anyway, for those interested in this option, here's how I started using it. Start with a clean, dry face. Take a small amount of Nizoral, about the size of a pea, and add some water to make a nice lather. Apply the lather all over your face and let it dry for at least 10 minutes. (I have been leaving it on for 30 minutes to an hour because I put it on and then go do other stuff and usually forget about it.) Rinse off and pat dry with a clean towel. (I use a washcloth as a towel because I get a fresh one each time I wash my face.) You can moisturize if you need to, but avoid any moisturizers with oil in them, at least until you have cleared off the yeast.

The first few days I did this both in the morning and at night. After the first two times I noticed a lot of stuff flaking off my face. It might have been skin, or it might have been the biofilm of the yeast that was entrenched in my pores and face. Not really sure. Anyway, I used a very runny paste of baking soda and water to help slough it off. It didn't hurt at all.

I've continued to use the Nizoral at least once a day after the first few days, backing off and just using water or a gentle face cleanser if my skin started feeling too dry or irritated. But in general, even though I think of myself as having sensitive skin, I have not had much irritation at all using Nizoral on my face. Kind of shocking actually... I still have a bit of flaking in some areas, but it's not too bad, and definitely not as bad to deal with as what I had going on before!

The other thing I learned from random internet research is that it is easier to control fungus/yeast with alkaline solutions than with acidic solutions. Skin yeast actually prefers a slightly acidic environment, so it is better to cleanse your face with something like gentle soap or a small amount of baking soda in water, than with anything that's on the acid end of the spectrum. (I think this is partly why my yeast problem got so bad, because I was trying to treat my clogged pores with salicylic acid and ACV and stuff like that.) Now I sometimes use very watery baking soda to cleanse my face - it's kind of like soap without the oils. But if you really want to knock the yeast out, you need to use a topical antifungal.

I stopped eating dairy over 6 months ago as a way to help improve my acne problem, and I think it did help a little bit, but it wasn't a cure-all. I was still having a lot of problems. If the Nizoral routine helps keep my skin under control, I will try to add dairy back and see what happens.

I do think diet is important, so kudos to you for working to make your diet healthy! But on the other hand, I know from cutting out dairy that it is hard to make big changes in your diet. I tried something similar to a candida diet for two days last summer and I felt so sick I had to stop (I am mildly hypoglycemic, so it just made me feel horrible!) I am excited about the possibility of controlling my skin issues with a topical solution and then being able to be more relaxed about my diet.

Hope this is helpful...

I spent a year going back and forth between dermatologists and finally have this somewhat under control. My first Doctor put me on antibiotics for what they thought was general folliculitis due to bacteria, this completely flared my pitysporum folliculitis (PF) - exasperating the problem. My new Doctor put me on Itraconazole which cleared up my PF but it would always return and return angry and mean. The area that was the worst for me was my neck, chest, and shoulders. I was always wearing turtle necks, scarves, etc and completely self conscious of my appearance.

So finally I took things into my own hands and after researching various medical studies, holistic studies, etc I decided to pursue the anti-candida diet with various supplements. I did this for 6 weeks of no sugar, carbs, alcohol, and ate a lot of veggies, meat, soup etc. during that time. I made sure to rotate the supplements such as Zytex and Candida Support (off from Amazon) I also invested in some great quality probiotics. Wild Oregano is supposed to be good at fighting both yeast and bacteria so I bought some pharmaceutical grade oil from an amazon vendor that imported it from Greece (applied directly to skin this will give you a chemical burn) I diluted it with Miracle Oil (amazon) and for good measure I put Jasmine in my mixture to mask the unpleasant smell.

The diet, supplements, and skin mixture helped tremendously. I still eat healthy but I am no where near as strict as I was during that 6 weeks. I have small flares from time to time but they appear to be due to hormones changing more than anything else and are very minimal compared to what I had going on over a year ago.

I wish everyone the best of luck! PF sucks and Doctors for some reason do not understand it nor do they invest research into this disease - so unfortunate

I broke out 10 days ago on my face, can't figure out what triggered it. I wasn't taking any medications/anti-biotics, didn't change my makeup or face routine. I've been exercising a lot more lately, but nothing dramatic or out of the norm. Another interesting fact, I broke out only on my face, nothing on my chest/back/etc. I went to the derm immediately and she wanted to do Keflex and Clindamycin cream. I called her back the next day and asked for anti fungals. In the mean time, I used my Head and shoulders shampoo on my face twice, with immediate relief, and started pro biotic pills, drank apple cider vinegar. Unfortunately, I also went in for a routine physical and found out i had a small infection so the other doctor prescribed 7 days of anti biotics. I knew this would be an issue since my derm gave me 3 days of Fluconazole and the Ketoconazole shampoo. So I started on all these pills and picked up the shampoo (to use for my face!!). I only used the Ket shampoo once because it was clearly super harsh, and my face had cleared up quickly. So I kept taking the Fluc pills (and my other anti biotics). Things seemed fine for three full days. Suddenly the rash came back and I was both out of town and out of Fluc pills. I had to go back to using hte Ket shampoo twice a day to keep the rash under control until I returned home to see my derm. It finally dissipated with the shampoo, but my skin was dry, cracked and peeling from the treatment. I was a scaly monster! It was terrible. I must have killed five layers of skin. The derm gave me another week's supply of Fluconazole pills, some samples of Ketoconazole gel, Luliconazole gel and some new cream called Promiseh. I started taking the Fluc pills again on Wed and stopped the Ket shampoo on Tues to give my face a break. Things were clear until Friday night when the itching and rash started again. Cleary the Fluc pills don't make any difference. The topical piece is what keeps my skin bare simply because it has robbed my skin of all moisture. I used the Ket 2% gel last night but woke up with some pistules and rash this morning. Cold compresses help ease the inflammation and redness greatly (ice pack on the face, or ice cubes in a washcloth). I got frustrated and washed my face with Head and Shoulders this morning, seeing immediate relief again! So, I'm going to stick with the pro biotics, apple cider vinegar and HS shampoo. I'll finish up my Fluc pills and keep applying HS shampoo to my face for few days. If it looks like the HS doesn't work, I'll go back to Ketoconazole gel and see what happens. This stuff is hard to kick, especially when I'm not sure why it happened! I have also seen several forums on MSM supplements for candida and ph balance, so I have also picked up MSM and started drinking that today. Will provide update in 1-2 weeks.

MSM is Sulphur. Sulphur is a fungal proliferant.

Not all dermatologist are blind to this now. My last dermatologist as bad as they were had the right idea. I developed something similar. Very rash like acne that would spread like wild fire on my forehead and T zone after taking antibiotics for a couple years. The prescribed me oral and topic Nizoral anti fungal to keep it under control. They said it could be caused by possible candida over growth. The diet helped a bit but was unsustainable and the topical helped but not any more than benzoil peroxide.

My new dermatologist took one look at it and prescribed me nizoral 2% shampoo, she said it was all coming from my scalp, even the breakouts around my chin. Sure enough a week later it cleared up. I still had my normal not rash like acne though. Heres a pic of what it looked like. Not a spoiler haha I just don't know how to hide pics any other way!

Hi all, just wanted to let everybody know that I've started a website about curing pityrosporum folliculitis. It's called [removed].

Hi all... Firstly I just want to say how thankful I am that I found this (and other) thread about PF. I had no idea what I was suffering from because I have had blessed with incredibly clear skin my whole life and then all of the sudden in the last 1.5 years (I'm 25) I've had 3 massive breakouts all over my forehead, temples and chest of small, uniform pustules that kept getting written off as "acne" break outs by dermatologists despite the fact that my skin was clear and acne-free 90% of the time. In addition to the fact that acne meds didn't work, I knew that the explosion of my skin overnight could not simply be "an acne breakout."

I finally put the correlation together that each of the three breakouts happened within 7-9 day's of being on an antibiotic of some sort and when I researched the symptoms+"antibiotic" I found PF. I was in tears of relief to know that others suffered from the same symptoms and that I wasn't crazy to think there was more to my experience than just acne. I did my first two Nizoral treatments for the last two nights and I've seen incredible improvement. I know this isn't a fix all and I'm going to my doctor tomorrow for oral and topical RX medications but I wanted to reach out to the PF community to see if you guys think PF is a diagnosis that I have to fear for the rest of my life or if you guys find that once you identify your triggers (antibiotics, stress, diet, etc.) and get the right medication, you've found that it is easy to manage it and minimize the breakouts. Right now, I have only had PF symptoms in reaction to antibiotics, so I'm hopeful that I can avoid antibiotics or preemptively take my PF meds in the event that I have to take antibiotics, to avoid another breakout. But I have heard lots of people saying that PF is an evolving condition that eventually morphs to combat whatever meds people use and that scares me. I know each case is different but I just want to know if any of you have been able to completely stop your PF breakouts by similar regimes or if I always have to worry about something else triggering a breakout or the PF mutating to beat my meds?

On 1/24/2015 at 8:30 PM, Beemm said:

After a round of antibiotics killed off the good bacteria in my body, I developed malassezia folliculitis aka pityrosporum folliculitis. My once perfect skin turned red and inflamed with a ton of acne bumps all over my forehead. I've tried every topical. They don't work. I spent thousands of hours online and could find nobody who he cured this condition for good.

 

That is until I found this girl's blog:

http://www.healthextremist.com/candida-yeast-causes-acne-personal-experience/

 

This girl tells her story of how she developed this yeast overgrowth acne after antibiotics. I felt like she was describing my story to the T. She had the forehead acne. She went on the candida diet - no yeast, dairy, sugar and pretty much stayed away from high carb foods. She also took natural antifungals and probiotics. The diet is hard and It took 4 months but she has been cured ever since! This was years ago and her skin is still clear.

 

I am so happy I found her blog and I am now on day 4 of the candida diet. I'm so sick of dealing with this skin disease that I'm willing to give up my favorite foods for as long as it takes to get my nice skin back.

 

I just wanted to share this info with all of you. Don't waste your time with prescription drugs or topicals because the disease will keep coming back until you fix the root of the problem. I've had this for 1 year and that's too long. I refuse to have this for another 20 years like some people on this forum.

 

I will update you all once my skin returns to normal.

I know this is a few years later and it would be a miracle to get a reply, but did you ever cure your condition by chance??

On 3/5/2018 at 3:42 PM, Willow_22 said:

On 1/25/2015 at 0:30 PM, Beemm said:

After a round of antibiotics killed off the good bacteria in my body, I developed malassezia folliculitis aka pityrosporum folliculitis. My once perfect skin turned red and inflamed with a ton of acne bumps all over my forehead. I've tried every topical. They don't work. I spent thousands of hours online and could find nobody who he cured this condition for good.

 

That is until I found this girl's blog:

http://www.healthextremist.com/candida-yeast-causes-acne-personal-experience/

 

This girl tells her story of how she developed this yeast overgrowth acne after antibiotics. I felt like she was describing my story to the T. She had the forehead acne. She went on the candida diet - no yeast, dairy, sugar and pretty much stayed away from high carb foods. She also took natural antifungals and probiotics. The diet is hard and It took 4 months but she has been cured ever since! This was years ago and her skin is still clear.

 

I am so happy I found her blog and I am now on day 4 of the candida diet. I'm so sick of dealing with this skin disease that I'm willing to give up my favorite foods for as long as it takes to get my nice skin back.

 

I just wanted to share this info with all of you. Don't waste your time with prescription drugs or topicals because the disease will keep coming back until you fix the root of the problem. I've had this for 1 year and that's too long. I refuse to have this for another 20 years like some people on this forum.

 

I will update you all once my skin returns to normal.

I know this is a few years later and it would be a miracle to get a reply, but did you ever cure your condition by chance??

Usually when people fix stuff they leave so....maybe?