Seborrhoeic Demititis woes.

I have eczema and psoriasis on my scalp. I've had seborrhea in the past. I use pine tar soap and a vinegar rinse. I also make sure to use a cool water rinse last thing. This reduces the majority of flakes for me. The ACV rinse is the most important part, in my experience. The soap just helps reduce itching, the ACV helps soothe the skin.

I have also had limited success with pine tar soap, but moreso than with other stuff. I used to use a lot of T-Gel, which also contains some pine tar (I think.)

There are now multiple types of T-Gel (and there is still T-Sal); IIRC some have pine tar and some only have coal tar. (All have coal tar, I think.) So you might want to check the labels.

When I had it on my face, introducing ground flax seed into my diet (via smoothies) and washing using the OCM method cleared mine up (after two years of trying EVERYTHING else). My head, I sometimes had to resort to Head and Shoulders Intensive Treatment. This works like a charm, and is the ONLY shampoo I tried that works. Surprisingly, it leaves my hair looking amazing... (I'd give anything know what it is about this shampoo that works so well so that I could find a natural substitute for it. I really don't like using shampoo...)

I have doused my scalp with vinegar solution, and then went to bed (with my pillow covered with a towel). Then I took a shower in the morning. Seems to help quite a bit. I did this only once or twice. I plan to do this once a week and see if that works for me.

exposure to sunlight often improves skin conditions such as psoriasis and eczema... people in sunnier climates seem to have a lower instance of such conditions.

I have SD on my scalp as well, and I'm surprised to see going no-poo helped. Everything I have read and experimented with personally has indicated that's the worst thing to do, unless you are using something else to strip the oils daily? From everything I've read, SD is a PH imbalance, as in the oils your head is secreting are so imbalanced that they are irritating your skin like an allergen. So to fix the problem you need to ideally balance the PH and/or take measures to lessen the amount of time oils sit on your skin. Mine gets so incredibly worse if I skip 1 day of shampoo; if I skip two days, I will be bleeding by day 3. I had years of experimenting with shampoos, since so many irriate my scalp (even natural ones). Two I've found that don't are Aveda's Sap Moss and Graham & Taylor's Ice Cap. From what I've read & personal experience, tea tree oil & other things good for dandruff control do not help, and usually worsen, SD. What has helped me get control of mine the most (I rarely have problems any more) is washing every day and vinegar rinses. I make a strong mix of white wine vinegar and water (1:4) and add lavender, peppermint & rosemary essential oils (you could do just vinegar, but the EO blend seems to work better for me). I apply it liberally to wet hair with a sea sponge (less messy, less wasteful, less in the eye) and let it sit while I shower. Shampoo before or after, or experiment with using that instead of shampoo. It will relieve the itching and cleanse any wounds and minimize irritation, and it's good for your hair, too. Otherwise, maybe examine your diet or talk to a naturopath or the likes about PH. If your diet is very acidic, making a change might help.

My husband has SD, and two natural things have helped him:

1. high dose b vitamin complex daily

2. giovanni's tea tree oil triple treat shampoo

My fiance and I have both had it very severe for years. You know, to the point where our scalps bleed. I tried everything from flax seed, tar shampoo, vinegar rinses etc, etc, etc. Anyway, I hate to say it, but the only thing that worked was a medicated shampoo from my dermatologist. You use it for a few days, the SD goes away, and you stop using it. I can usually go for about a month before it comes back again and then I repeat the cycle. I know, that it isn't natural, but the SD was so painful both physically and mentally that I went the western medicine route and don't regret it one bit.

Is that what those pimple-thingies are on my scalp?? I always wondered... I've found that using my daughter's shampoo (no-tears children's stuff) does it for me as well as not washing *quite* as much. I'll look into those great ideas listed above as well!

SD is more flaky than pimple-like. "Pimples" on the scalp could be cysts from clogged follicles/pores/glands.

For me, after trying just about every medicated and natural shampoo (including the entire JASON's range), on the market - I finally found one that works for me. H&S Menthol. Funny enough, none of the other Head & Shoulders range works anything like as effectively, and I have to use it on a daily basis otherwise the SD spreads down through my eyebrows and onto my upper cheeks and gets really bad. T-Jel alleviates a lot of the itching, but not the flakiness. I did find that shampoos with greater amounts of Aloe Vera in helped considerably, and the dermatologist I saw said that drinking it often helped sufferers - this I never found out though cause the smell of the Aloe Vera drinks made me want to up-chuck so bad that I could never bring myself to try it.

Shaving suggestions (& other items)

I go with the shaved route. (For the record I am female :) ) I should note that I have more than SD on my head, I have psoriasis too and arthritis in my hands makes it very difficult to apply anything through my very thick hair and that was definitely a factor in the shaving decision. I've had SD for at least 5 years and it is all over my head (scalp, face and in my ear canals). It ranges from rather annoying to intensely painful -- I'm at the latter right now and am going to shave again tomorrow because of it. One thing to watch with shaving is that if you have been picking a lot, esp if it has gotten infected as mine has and you have those nasty yellow scabs, it's good to let the scalp heal up for a day or so else shaving will be extremely painful. Of course by shaving I mean using clippers on the zero setting, I couldn't cope with actually using a razor as the skin is just too sensitive for that. But the clippers still scrape the scalp no matter how gently they are wielded so it's best to put it off until the picked at bits, especially if they are bleeding or oozing, heal over a bit.

Selsun Blue has given me some relief but honestly the only times my scalp is entirely clear is after shaving. It takes about a day to clear up after it's buzzed off and then it stays clear for 10-15 days. Sometimes 20 days if I am lucky.

(I still use selsun blue on my scalp even if it's shaved. But my body seems to become immune to it after a few weeks so I put it away, I tend to "save" it for winter when things are worse, probably due to the fact that I get very little sun then.)

I use Palmer's Cocoa Butter on my face and on my scalp if it's shaved, it's soothing and can help dampen the itching. I've recently switched to their "For Ashy, dry skin" formula which works even better but smells worse :/ I use straight emu oil which pretty much takes care of the psoriasis part and keeps the SD down if I am diligent at applying it. For itching I use rosewater (anything cold will do too) and a menthol gel. The latter REALLY stops the itching for at least an hour but smells bad too. Beware that it burns on any open sores! But so does most anything IMO.

Sunlight really does help, at least for me, but you need to be careful not to get burned.

The best thing that ever worked was that over a month ago I took some antibiotics for a bacterial vaginosis infection. My scalp and face went totally clear for almost a month and then when it flared again it was psoriasis alone for another week or two. The SD has only really come back in the past three days so that's nearly 6 weeks of clear. Of course I'm told that this is impossible but hey what do doctors know :) Apparently there is a skin condition that is a yeast infection that closely resembles SD so I guess that might be what I have but I haven't seen my doc since this incident to ask her.

Last winter for reasons I don't really understand the SD was hideous on my face but pretty mild on my scalp so I tried growing hair back again for nearly five months. Then just as mysteriously it swapped back and got really bad on my scalp and my face mostly cleared. Whatever! I shaved everything off again as I couldn't manage the ointments n stuff.

I've got Nizoral cream and I honestly have never noticed it helping at all. But I won't rule out using it again I just have issues with taking steriods (medical mostly, I react badly to them) so I tend to avoid their use as much as I can. But I will admit that I've never given any of them more than a week -- and even then I always put them on half of my head to compare against the other half and have never noticed any improvement. Possibly it takes more than 7 straight days of application to see results. *shrug*

If there is anything else you want to know about how I treat this just ask!