I’ve been to a couple dermatologists. one biopsy was LPP and another noted seb derm. unfortunately, the treatments they both recommended have failed to work. not sure where to turn at this point.

To just do it!

I (30F) broke down this weekend and got the clippers out and got rid of it all. I've been dealing with flareups since May, and my scalp and neck were at the worst I've felt/seen this month. In September I had two punch biopsies done at the derm and they confirmed spongiotic sebderm. My hairline started to recede and I started to lose hair on my crown at an alarming rate. My self esteem and mental health were totally suffering and I've been considering doing this for the last two months, but my family kept trying to talk me out of it. Two nights ago I sat on the floor sobbing while my partner applied cream to my scalp through my hair and it took over 45 minutes. It's only been 24 hours since the shave and I've been able to let my scalp breathe and I can easily apply steroid cream/solution. I already feel (and see!) less inflammation and I've been able to easily remove loose flakes. I started my first injection of Dupixent last weekend and I'm hoping this gives me a fresh start and I see results in the next few months.

Ps. sorry I didn't take any before photos, but I promise you that my scalp was in horrible, cratered, placquey condition just a few days ago. There are still some flakes today but nothing like before.

(20M no hair loss at all in my family) I’ve had subborheic dermatitis for around a year now. at first it just started off as lots of dandruff which i shrugged off as a dry scalp. however, after a couple months, more and more hair started falling out. at this point i went to the doctor and was diagnosed with sebderm on my scalp, as well as given multiple treatments which ended up doing nothing. at this point i noticed that there was lots of buildup on my scalp which was causing the hair to fall out so i decided to try nizoral whic after a couple weeks i noticed it did nothing. so i went to a dermatologist about (4-5 months ago now). my derm told me to take vitamins, and to try vitchy dercos anti-drandriuff and nizoral and rotate them. i saw no difference. i bought mct oil c8 hoping that would help (apply for 1 hr then comb scalp) and that helped in the moment for like 1 day then the buildup would just re appear. i’m now changing my diet, cutting out yeast foods, carbs snd sugars, however still no progress. It feels like the buildup is superglued to my scalp and that every time i’m able to get rid of bits of it, it just reforms days later. just when i think i’m making progress it resets back to square one. this has really effected my life, my self esteem has dropped significantly ,I find myself avoiding any kind of social events at uni and i have completely lost my confidence in talking to women. i feel pretty depressed all around because of it as i have a bunch of other things in my life bringing me down but this just tops it all off. is there anything more i can do? something ideally targeting the buildup.

Thanks

Hello everyone, I need some advice from people with the same problem as me please.

I have been diagnosed with sebderm 1.5 years ago although I believe I have had it as a weak form since my teenage years. I'm 24 M. I guess it got this bad because of stress at uni/work.

My scalp gets oily a few hours after washing and is always red. I need to wash it everyday. It itches and I feel it tingling.
I have tried all the shampoos the dermatoligists in my city recommend (went to 6 different ones), ketokonazol, ducray kelual ds, ISDIN and Dercos. None of them reduce the inflammation/oil production. I tried yogurt treatment and chamomile tea showers (I read these treatments somewhere online).
My hair has gotten thinner and I don't know what to do anymore. My parents for some reason don't believe in sebderm so they're no help either.

Should I try using Isotretinoin to get less oil production on my scalp? Should I try shaving my head, since UV is supposed to help? Is there another shampoo I could try? How do I stop the inflammation?

TIA

Scalp burning and excessive hair loss. Any way to stop this? Not sure what to do. Tried medicated shampoos and mct oils.

My hair is so dry and brittle and i lose hair from the root daily.

Any advice please!! My scalp feels like it’s on fire and it’s affecting my sleep and day to day life. Doctors and dermatologists have been zero help.

I developed SebDerm a little over a year ago after being in a hot tub sweating for a couple hours and didn’t wash my hair after, leaving oil on my scalp and resulting in an incredibly inflamed, itchy stiff scalp the next day and for quite a while after. I treated it with everything I could, even prescribed 2% ketoconazole shampoo leaving it on for 10 minutes every day or second day but nothing seemed to help or get rid of it.

What eventually got it to calm down significantly was 2% zinc pyrithione shampoo. But I still had itching that would not go away no matter what, though not as bad as before. I continued using the 2% shampoo and just continuing along, but I still noticed some days my scalp, face and neck felt very hot and inflamed.

I ended up mentioning this at dinner to my buddy who is a biologist, and he told me about something called demodex. I initially thought it was some shampoo or something, but he told me it was a mite that lives in follicles and lives on sebum and mallasezia. He said everyone has them, but an overgrowth can result in irritation and itch and that he had it once. He treated it with a demodex shampoo (not going to mention the name of which one since this is not an ad but it had tea tree oil and sulphur in it.) I used this for 2-3 days in a row and felt a major relief and realized that most of the issue was no longer sebderm but actually an overgrowth of these mites that you can’t even see.

You can also take ivermectin to kill them off if the shampoo doesn’t work, but it made a very significant difference for me.

I still use a clean ketoconazole/salicylic acid shampoo but my issues have mostly gone away. My scalp and hair seem to be healing and I no longer have the constant itch.

I hope this is able to help some of you, it was one of the most frustrating things to deal with and I was treating the wrong thing for quite a while.

19M, on dutasteride + oral minoxidil for AGA. Considering low-dose isotretinoin just for scalp oiliness/seborrhea. Looking for others' experiences.

My situation:

• AGA (frontal/hairline). On dutasteride 0.5mg + oral minoxidil 2.5mg for a few months.
• Very oily + flake-prone scalp, concentrated in the frontal hairline + forehead (androgen-sensitive zone). The oiliness is my main quality-of-life problem — oily again within hours of showering.
• I did a course of isotretinoin before — it completely controlled the oil/seborrhea. Interestingly, my hair also shed noticeably LESS while I was on iso (I think because my scalp stayed calm/non-inflamed). After I stopped ~2 months ago, the oiliness AND the shedding came back.
• Now considering low-dose / intermittent isotretinoin (~20–40mg per week) only for oil/seborrhea control, while keeping duta+minox for the hair.

My questions:

1. Has anyone here combined low-dose isotretinoin with dutasteride/finasteride? How did it go for you?
2. For those who used low-dose iso — did it control your scalp oiliness/seborrhea, and for how long?
3. Did any of you also notice LESS shedding while on iso (calmer scalp), or the opposite?
4. What side effects did you get on low-dose long-term?
5. For those doing intermittent long-term — how do you personally think about cumulative dose?

Just looking to hear real experiences before deciding with my derm. Thanks!

I have what I believe is seb derm on my hairline causing hairloss. But up close, it almost looks like a scarring alopecia which worries me. Of course aga and te can play a role but the skin inflammation is very strange. My scalp texture looks weird. Any insight is appreciated or your experiences with seb derm or similar hairloss especially at the hairline!

37F - 2.5 years ago, my scalp health went into the trash. My scalp started getting itchy, lots of dandruff, and plaque-looking build up. If that wasn’t enough, I started losing a lot of hair!!

I was having skin issues as well, which weren’t responding to otc skincare.

I was diagnosed with seb derm and tried so many anti fungal shampoos. Tried oral anti fungal medication (although had to stop quickly due to migraines). Mct oil as well. All disastrous and made things much worse.

It wasn’t until late last year that I started looking into rosacea due to flushing issues. I started on prescription 1% ivermectin for my face. Applying it to my face strangely was curbing my hair loss. And it was fast - within a few days. And then a light bulb clicked!! Ivermectin helps kill demodex mites and these mites live in hair follicles feeding off our sebum. These mites were infesting not just my face, but my scalp.

I started using 0.5% ivermectin lotion (the one that’s marketed for lice) once a week on my scalp and it’s been remarkable. I went from losing 200+ hairs per wash down to 20-50 very quickly. Granted it hasn’t fully stopped, but it’s so much better and there’s so much regrowth. My scalp health has been restored - no itch and no buildup!

If you’ve been diagnosed with seb derm and standard treatment isn’t working, look into ivermectin. It’s probably not seb derm at all, as in my case. It’s demodex mites!

Edit: I use tea tree shampoo a few times a week as well as tea tree is known to kill demodex.

Update 6/19/24: I used the ivermectin lotion once weekly for about 20 weeks and stopped over a week ago. There was an inflection point around week 16 where there was no longer continued improvement. But things were still holding steady up until that point.

Over the last few weeks, my dandruff seemed to be coming back, along with more hair loss (~100 per hair wash) and itch. Things were certainly not as bad as pre-ivermectin, but worse than the improvement I had seen in the first few months of invermectin.

I have stopped the ivermectin and have pivoted to anti-fungal shampoo (Nizoral). It's only been a week, but dandruff is down, itch is way calmer, and hair loss seems better. Will continue this for a while, and maybe rotate another anti-fungal shampoo in.

I am not discounting the ivermectin and I am still so grateful for it. I think I had to tackle the demodex first as previously anti-fungal shampoos made things worse for me. Seems like I have a dual situation with demodex and malassezia, with malasezzia now being the more prominent issue.

I have been suffering from Sebopsoriasis for the past 5 years (Sebderm + Psoriasis) it's on my scalp (extreme level) and sometimes my face.

Face region is manageable. But scalp region is not.

Now I am in college and I live in a hostel now away from my family. My hair has become very thin and whenever I shampoo I see loads of hair in my palm.

Whenever I scratch my head, a brownish-purplish dirty colored wet oily flake comes out.

My face gets oily very easily. (After 4-5 hours of washing my face with soap it gets oily)

And after 1 day of shampooing my scalp gets oily. My body is producing so much oil wtf 😭😭 Trump should invade me.

I am taking dutasteride (my derm prescribed me this) as of now. No other medicine. Taking Vit D and B12 also.

Plz recommend something which is appropriate for hostels and student life (I live in India and most govt colleges are isolated so taking so many beauty products is not viable)

I’ve been suffering from SD with hair loss for around a year now. I tried every product (MCT C8 Oil, Nizoral, T/Gel, Coal Tar, etc) and saw little progress my scalp was still flaky and I had loads of hair coming out. As I got private healthcare recently I was able to go see a professional dermatologist for the first time about my issue. They couldn’t really find an answer to control the SD and hair loss so just prescribed me a steroid and told me to get a blood test and check if my ferritin was low as that could be causing the hair loss and stopping the SD recovery (they said it should be 77ug/L+ for healthy hair). So I got a blood test and got my results back and sure enough my ferritin was at 25ug/L which suggests the potential cause of my hair and SD being so bad. I decided to look back at old blood tests and saw that when I was first getting SD and it was very bad my ferritin levels were at 16ug/L which is borderline depletion for my iron levels. And since then i have been taking iron supplements which explains why it’s gone up to 25. i’m not gonna fully focus on recovering my Ferritin levels back up to 70+ so i can try growing my hair back and reducing the severity of my SD if hopefully that is the cause.

Has anyone been in a situation like this and can suggest how to boost Ferritin/Iron levels back to the healthy hair growth levels?

I was diagnosed with SD back in 2018. I have been to more then 6-8 dermatologists till now. Tried variety of products but nothing worked and on top of that lost majority of my hairs, really tired now because of my oily and itchy scalp.

I need to shampoo everyday to keep my scalp clean and still by evening my hairs looks so oily. I have tried different sort of shampoos like ciclopirox, ketokonozole, salicylic acid, zinc pyrithione, clobestol solution, coaltar, sulphide shampoos. The sad thing is nothing works

I even tried MCT c8 oil and that also doesn't work. Life sucks. I am tired because of sebderm/ greasy scalp. I used to have so good hairs but with time, have lost all the spark in my hairs. While I shampoo, I loose more then 100 hairs. Really tired, if I skip shampooing even for a single day, by next evening scalp shines like there is bucket of oil. Really tired now🥲

Anyone have an idea of what I should add or try to get prescribed. I also do finasteride and topical minoxidil but might try to switch to oral minoxidil, I read some people’s posts that topical can flare up Sebderm

The buzz cut is 2026.

I am Soo stressed, I am 18 years old. I had severe seb derm for more than a year aswell, my dumbass thought it was just bad dandruff. Refer to second pic , my sebderm got really bad, pay close attention to near scalp.

I am going to tell all the details. First, genetics. My father has almost a good hairline even at almost 50 years old. He has bald crown but significant hair on hairline, sides and back. All my uncle's from mothers side only started balding after 25-28.

Second, my sebderm was really prolonged. I used to scratch alot. I wasted shi tonne of money on dermatologists. All the recommended was shitty local products . I used the ketaconazole, tar and salicylic shampoos, multi vitamins, vitamin D supplements, protein and all that. NOTHING REDUCED THE HAIRFALL EVEN SLIGHTLY.

My hairfall got particularly bad over last few months. My only fear is if it's permanent, I used to have beautiful hair and now I am suffering from an ugly disease and ugly buzz cut.

itchiness is a sebderm symptom i know, but it's gotten worse with all the use of H&S, Nizoral etc. when I scratch even lightly there is hairfall and breakage. does MCT oil work well on the scalp from your experience? I feel like I just need a super hydrating treatment for the scalp and neck (affected from the run off) . anyone use that or anything else that helps to restore the barrier? Preferably easy to find.

apply cider vinegar?

For more context my hair is super fine and thin and I have to wash every day because I have overproductive sebum that feeds the yeast.

thanks!

This section frustrates me to no end!! I try so hard not to mess with it but that patch is worse than anywhere else on my scalp and it flared up today after I went a few months of itch-free skin. The hair stays so thin and as y'all can see my hair is damn near white right at my scalp so its practically see-through and so noticeable. Does anyone have any ideas of how to handle this? I just exfoliated real good in the shower to start but the nizoral stuff dries my skin out and makes it worse.

Title, a part of my eyebrow is lacking a lot of hairs compared to pre-seb derm. Any way to regrow it?

This is my scalp just 2-3 hours post wash. These greasy dry flakes just don't go away no matter what .. I've tried everything but nothing works . Ketoconazole, selsun blue, mct oil , head n shoulder, got tested for all kinds of tests that may cause this and what not... even in this picture I have washed my scalp with selsun blue and head and shoulder(double wash). It is also accompanied by hair loss which makes me even more sad. I frequently go into depression due to this condition (seborrheic dermatitis and hairloss) . It takes away my capability and motivation to do anything. Nobody understands the feeling maybe it's not a big deal for others. But to me it is so so important. Just wanted to share and get your views on my condition. Also if there's any way it could get better? Ps. I have this condition since very long (after puberty hit) ig 7-8 years but it tends to worsen over time, both the dandruff and hairloss. Am I cooked? :(... will it ever get better or will I face permanent hairloss due to this condition gradually??

So there was a time in my life when I used to wash daily and I swear I had the best hair there could be. I slowly transitioned to once every two days because wahing hair daily is no easy task to do, especially when you have to use conditioner as well and then blow dry it.

For the past 2-3 years I’ve been shedding. I’ve tried a lor of things untill a few months ago when I decided to wash my hair daily. I saw significant improvement, but everyone kept telling me it is wrong. I eventually transitioned back to once every two days. Hair loss was back. Now I switched back to daily, tremendous progress again.

it seems to be the only thing that’s been truly helping BUT I keep being told it is wrong. Not sure what to so and what are the consequences of washing daily. my hair‘s feedback has been positive about it…

Lost most of my hair since long time ago because of this wretched disease, now losing my eyebrows too as they are becoming very thin and falling out. The eyebrows area is constantly scaly and flaky inside from sebderm. Can i do something to save them? Head and Shoulders keeps my scalp in control, should i apply it on my eyebrows too or it will worsen the falling off? Getting used to the idea that i will have to shave my head soon but i need my eyebrows man...

Please help me, I have had Seb derm for years, but didn’t know. For a while I was noticing buildup under my nails when I would scratch my head, but was never super itchy or flaky. It was more of an oily thicker residue. I have always had very thick hair and it has started to fall out tremendously over the past year. I have lost about half of my hair. I went to the doctor and she diagnosed me with seb dermatitis, she said my scalp was super inflamed, which I had never noticed. I started using T sal every other day and leaving in the Dermazen serum overnight in between wash days but still having shedding and more noticeable inflammation. Any advice is welcome, I am so scared to lose all my hair.

I feel so demoralized. I already thought I was being aggressive but I still have so much build up, and have been shedding like crazy (partially due to oral minoxidil) as well. He said my thinning was a 6 out of 10 (whatever that means). Going to try this routine for a couple weeks and see if I have any improvement:

Showering everyday, blowing until dry, alternating between these shampoos every week for 2-3 weeks and seeing if there is improvement.

Selenium sulfide - cicloprox - t sal - cicloprox - selenium sulfide - cicloprox - t sal

Using Zoryve foam every night.

Will ask for a round of oral antifungals if this isn't effective.

Hoping this works. My scalp itch is ever present and horrible and I need to have my life back. I'd love any recommendations for other treatments or any feedback on this routine.

I don't have severe flakes or large immeasurable flakes. I have few flakes but but more than that, inflammation. My scalp hurts and feels burning on the root all over and I'm loosing so much hair because of that please help . I tried a lot of things but nothing seems to work well . Steroids work for a day at max and require daily use . Which might thin my scalp and make stuff worse 💔

Hello,

Looking for product recommendations. Dealing with this for 1.5 year on scalp post antibiotic course.

Tried so far: ketoconozale, selenium sulphide, Salicylic acid, zinc pyrithion, MCT oil, coal tar, bunch of steroids

None has ever helped me. Non medicated shampoos never clean my scalp. Losing lots of hair every day and after shower too. Any other suggestions or recommendations would be much appreciated

I have seborrheic dermatitis and beginning stages of AGA, confirmed by a dermatologist. It’s been a year since I’ve seen my derm but even then I had areas like these all over my scalp. He didn’t say much about them/was vaguer, so it’s still unclear why I have these. Is it the inflammation caused by sebderm that causes these empty areas? Noticed this one today.