Effective Natural Remedies for Seborrheic Dermatitis Relief

When my brother tried to commit suicide in Feb. 2006, my scalp suddenly became extremely sore & huge pieces of it began to slough off. This wasn't like little bits of dandruff here & there. The pieces were sizeable square inches of skin. Because the pieces were so large, they wouldn't fall off because several hundred hairs were still threaded through them. The pieces looked like off-white tissue paper hovering about 1/2 inch above my scalp. It was a very alarming sight (though not as alarming as the condition of my brother). I first tried Scalpicin from the hospital pharmacy, but that only provided a very brief, cooling sensation. I looked on the internet & read about apple cider vinegar. The recommendation for scalp problems was to dilute the acv with water. I was in a state of extreme anxiety due to long hours in the ICU, & just wanted very fast relief. So I poured several cap-fulls of acv on my scalp & massaged it in a bit. The only thing I noticed was the vinegary smell & a very slight tingling sensation. I sat for an hour or so, & then rinsed my hair & scalp. It's hard to believe, but after that one treatment, the horrible huge pieces of skin stopped rising up from my scalp immediately. I repeated the same treatment one week later, just as a preventative measure. The problem never returned, despite several months of equally stressful hospital experiences.

I had dandruff for many years and dermatitus for 4 years or more. I read on this site how acv works and tried it. wow ,i took a q-tip and would rub the acv on the areas with the dermatitis, and in two days it disappeared. I also started taking acv tablets and my dandruff is totally gone. thanks to everyone for the helpful advice

ACV cured my psoriasis on my scalp. I have been aflicted with psoriasis on my scalp for twenty years. I have tried more "remedies" than I care to count with little or no success. After reading about how people were helped by putting ACV on dry spots on the body I decided to try it on my scalp. I put undiluted ACV in a spray bottle and sprayed it on my scalp before going to bed. Within a few days I could see that the scales were getting thinner. In two weeks they are practically all gone! Even if the scales never fully go away, the ACV has made the scales easier for me to live with. By the way, ACV is better at drying up acne that any treatment on the market.

To Teekup 11/14/07 from Metrowest, Ma. Half & half ACV/water is best hair conditioner you can use - leaves hair silky soft & shiny & dandruff free ( I think it works by acid vinegar taking alkali shampoo off hair) but best of all it leaves the hair in place (unlike H & S dandruff shampoo Or any other dandruff shampoo with same active ingredients) every time I see someone that looks too young to be losing hair naturally I always ask them if they are using head and shoulders shampoo- a few of them had already figured out what was causing their hair loss and stopped - It works real good for controling dandruff, but then I don't think I've ever seen a bald person with dandruff

I have "suffered" for more than 15 years with red, scaley, itchy scalp. It's so embarrassing. I have tried all kinds of shampoo: with salicylic acid, zinc, ketoconazole, coal tar, selenium sulfide. I finally gave in and bought a bottle of Apple Cider Vinegar. Last night, I poured some over my head and rubbed some on my face, since it was really red, itchy and flaky too. The smell was horrendous! Thank goodness my family was asleep! I watched a little tv and after the ACV dried, I then washed my face and scalp. I could not believe the difference. This morning, I look nearly "normal". No flakes, and almost no redness. And no smell either! Who would have thought that a few dollar's worth of apple cider vinegar would work? On a related note, I used a little diluted ACV on my daughter's diaper rash and the next day it was cleared up! I am going to start taking ACV internally next week after I get some litmus strips to test my internal pH. Thank you so much

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.