I'm a 21 year old female and I've had Seborrheic Dermatitis for about a year now. I first started noticing it because the part of my scalp around my bangs above my forehead would get itchy and whenever I scratched it these big, gross dry flakes would fall all over the place. I didn't pay much attention to it until months later I woke up and noticed these two itchy bumps behind one of my ears right by my hair line. I then started realizing that I had quite a few dry, flaky patches all over my hair line, some worse than others. Sometimes it would get so dry and flaky that when I scratched, my scalp would bleed. I was starting to get embarassed about it so I saw a dermatoligist and then the health physician at school. Both said I had Seborrheic Dermatitis and that I needed to use a shampoo with ketocenoconozole and salicylic acid. So I bought a million different shampoos....all the typical ones recommended...head and shoulders, t-gel with coal tar, nizoral both 1 and 2%, tea trea shampoo, a natural pine tar shampoo, and the list goes on. None of these things, no matter how well I followed directions worked. The health physician at school gave me a prescription for a mild steroid solution which I was scared to death of. She convinced me it was ok to use for a short period of time. I tried it for two weeks and it went away, but as soon as i stopped using it, the flakes came back even worse! I wasn't about to use the steroid again because I read so many horrible side effects and diseases that could be accumulated from using such a horrible drug. Why would they make such a frightening thing legal? I started looking up natural remedies, which I should have just done in the first place. I found this website, and tried about 6 different ways of using ACV on my scalp. I tried the spray bottle with part ACV, part peroxide, part water--this didn't work so well. I tried using a dropper and dropping it on the parts of my scalp--this didn't work so well either. I tried pouring capfuls of straight ACV on my head before shampooing, after shampooing, between shampooing....and tried leaving it on for 10 minutes, 1 hour, half an hour....just to see what the best method was. Although this got rid of many flakes, there were still some, and it still drove me crazy. Finally, I tried shampooing my hair with an all natural jojoba treatment shampoo, then conditioning with the jojoba treatment conditioner, and combing off the flakes very carefully with the conditioner in, on my scalp. I rinsed my hair, and poured capfuls of a mixture of a 70% organic (braggs brand) Apple Cider Vinegar, a dash of hydrogen peroxide, and a little bit of distilled water all over my scalp and hair. I put my hair up in a towel for about an hour and hung out smelling bad in my house :) After an hour, I showered and washed it all out, then I combed my hair and put organic ACV on a Q-tip and rubbed it into the specific flaky, inflamed areas, and left it on all night. Now, this sounds crazy, but after trying everying, I woke up this morning, and I am like 95% flake free. The really bad inflamed, dry flaky spots have improved like 60% and look better than they ever have. After trying everything, I was shocked to see that just trying different methods led me to discover a very natural, very safe solution to a very annoying problem. I will let you know if it comes back. Good luck and stay healthy everyone. We will find a way to rid ourselves of this miserable problem!
I've had moderately severe seborrheic dermitis of my face, scalp since puberty, and in the 15 years since then, I have seen 4 dermatologists and tried every OTC dandruff/sd shampoo and every prescription cream, corticosteroids, etc. My facial skin was always red, inflamed or recovering from a flare up, or about to have another one. I really believed that I would always have to deal with this. On your site, I read about treating my skin with a cottonball of ACV. I tried it, it stung the skin until it dried. But immediately there seemed to be a benefit. After 3 days, my skin looked noticeably better and was soft and the inflammation went away. My skin completely quit flaking. I do treat it with a cottonball of ACV at least once a day it has successfully treated my problem since the first day I used it, 6/11/07, about 5 months straight! I've NEVER had anything work like this. It is almost unbelievable. My theory is the ACV kills the microscopic fungus that likes my chemistry on my skin. If I skip ACV for several days, I notice my skin slowly starts to get red and flaky again. ACV stings the most over the "flared up" areas, barely at all on healthy skin. I can't say enough about how thrilled I am about ACV for SD
Seborrheic Dermatitis- Having tried all natural products available from health food stores, potions prescribed by Chinese Dr, Naturopath & Homeopath over the past 8 years, I gave ACV a go. It's been 1 month now I still have dry patches on face & hand but the severe pussing and coarse skin lesions have disappeared. Ted also wrote a response 1/22/06 giving 6 main causes for this dermatitis, I took this info to my Kinesiologist/homeo and we found I was lacking in Nitric Oxide, he is now looking for appropriate suppliment- any ideas??
I wrote earlier this year about Apple Cider Vinegar on my scalp, it is very helpful. One thing that I wanted to share with readers also that I hope will help is a product that is sold in the African American hair care section of many grocery stores. The product is called Sulpher 8 Medicated. It is a balm that really helps the dry skin around my hairline. It has a cooling effect like menthol. It does have a slight odor but it is not over powering.It has brought me a great amount of relief.
