7 Essential Seborrheic Dermatitis Shampoos Reviewed

Originally published at: 7 Essential Seborrheic Dermatitis Shampoos Reviewed

This article reviews the most popular seborrheic dermatitis shampoos available today. What makes them work, which active ingredients occur most frequently, possible safety concerns and a summary of my personal experience.

I am a bit confused. You state at the end how none of these shampoos helped you but you dont mention that till the end. And you also dont mention what helped you during the two month period when you just stayed at home. Was it the honey treatment?

Hi John,
Sorry for the confusion. The shampoos did help greatly in controlling my seborrheic dermatitis, but my skin seemed to become overly dependent on it. Additional most of them made my skin overly sensitive (particularly to UV rays). Neutrogena Coal tar was probably my favourite as it seemed to be a little more gentle.

The two month period was when I abruptly stopped using all anti dandruff shampoos and solutions. For about a month I tried not doing anything at all, but found skin quite oily after exercise. Then I started my own regimen and its been quite effective ever since.

The honey was very good as well. But, its quite a time consuming treatment though. Also it lost some effectiveness over time, but this was probably due to my laziness and lack of consistency.

Hope that helps. Best of luck.

In my opinion the Holy Grail of medicall shampoos for very bad breakouts is: Kertyol by Ducray, this was prescribed by a dermatologist when I had an extremely horrible breakout of SD (my head was full of wounds and dry flakes, and my hair was falling in patches from the worst affected areas).

I used this one http://aptekaslonik.pl/images/prod/6154/ducray-kertyol-szampon-125.jpg
It worked like magic, so from a head full of scales and wounds, to an extremely happy clear skin that felt great, my hair had a nice herbal smell and the overall feeling was amazing. After few weeks the skin normalized so I was able to switch back to a normal Zink Pirithione shampoo for maintenance (head and shoulders or Syoss).
I would have liked to continue with Kertyol but it was too expensive for me for long term use.

Warning: There are many types of Ducray products for different types of SD or for Psoriazis, so it is good if a doctor is familiar with it and will prescribe it according to your condition. Or do your research first http://www.ducray.com/en-gb/hair-care

Selenium Sulfide Shampoos are also effective for me, but it took a long time to become effective_ 2-3 weeks until clearing up 100% of the dandruff.

Zink pirithione shampoos as Syoss or Head and Shoulders are effective from first uses but only for long term maintenance, not for treating a breakout. If you have a horrible breakout, these might not cut it, you might need a strong medical one like Kertyol for a while.

Nizoral is one of the worst ones, don’t try it, waste of money. It clears the skin but the skin does not feel good afterwards, Also it is only working for a very short amount of time, and then the problem is back in full force. My doctor said that he would not recommend it because it looses effectiveness very quickly and patients usually don’t like it.

Fantastic write up. I have red sores on my scalp for the last few years and switched from head and shoulders when I learned about the nasty ingredients used. I tried Jasons shampoo which definitely helped a little but then I found Reviive Organics, not sure if you have heard of them but my sores on my scalp have completely gone. I no longer need to wash my hair every single day and would recommend for you to do a writeup on this also ! www.reviive.com/en

Hi GC,

Thanks for the update. Look’s interesting, but it seems like it has very limited availability. Have been actually quite interested in the active ingredient in this (which appears to be a combination of ichthyol and crotamiton.

Itchyol has quite a good track record and is similar to coal tar, but a more natural version. It is also known as sulfonated shale oil. Unfortunately it’s availability in the North American market is fairly limited and I believe this is due to some issues with FDA approval. However, I strongly believe that this is a much better and safer alternative to coal tar (based on all the research that I’ve seen). Personally, I think it’s simply not being allowed on to the market due to competitor interests. Regardless, I was able to get pure itchyol from a personal friend in Russia. It worked very well at getting rid of the seborrheic dermatitis, but I wasn’t quite able to find a way to integrate it into a easy to follow routine (it’s basically a tar -> stick, black, and smells like resin).

The one shampoo I did find that contained itchyol was this one:
Morrocco Method Pine Shale Shampoo
Worked well for me. However, it was really expensive and went bad before I could finish the bottle.

Completely agree regarding the other points. Except, personally I never attempted any selenium sulfide products, at this time I had already found that natural products can be just as effective.

Thanks again for the detailed comment and adding on to the discussion.
All the best.

Hi Jack,

Thanks for the feedback and your input. Took a quick look at the Reviive products and they seem fairly good. But I believe they are priced way to high. There are many other natural/organic products on the market with very similar ingredients that are much cheaper. The ingredients used for both their shampoo and conditioner are fairly standard among the natural product offerings from other companies.

All the best.

Hi, I have just recently found out that I have seb derm, never knew until then. But only on my scalp, but problem now is hairloss. I used to have tons of hair but now they become thinner and thinner , and I think it’s due to seb derm . Now I use selsun once a week and Head&shoulder Classic Clean daily, to keep my hair away from flakes. I just wonder, do you and the others, who also have seb derm, have the same issue like me ?
Best regards!!

Jack, I am interested in your complaint of noticing red sores on your scalp after using Head and Shoulders. While, out of all if the med shampoos I have used, the zinc pirythione seems to be the one med that actually impacts my seb term (temporarily) , I too often notice sores on my scalp…i figured it may be due to the heavy sudsing ingredients…are you aware of a particular ingredient in H and S that causes these sores? I am looking into other ways to use zinc pyrithicone on my scalp besides H and S

After first use of Nizoral, the seborrhea has increase and itching has increased 2 times it was before.

Is this normal. Should I continue using it.

Hi , I am pretty sure it did not contain Itchyol, that ingredient is only in their shampoos for Psoriazis.
The shampoo that I used in the past is now called Squanorm, but I am not sure if they changed the recipe. http://www.ducray.com/en-gb/node/66917

Now I am using a new one called Kelual DS for Seborrheic Dermatitis which is quite expensive but really effective.

I also started to use the Kelual DS cream (http://www.ducray.com/en-gb/node/66915) for face and ears combined with Biom8.
The combination is really good: Kelual DS cream stops the flaking but sometimes the itchiness comes back, and Biom8 reduces the itchiness and increases the effectiveness of the treatment. I am not cured completely but my skin looks and feels quite normal when I apply this combination.

Hi Tuan,

In the majority of the research I’ve came across, hair loss typically accompanies seborrheic dermatitis. This is because the malassezia fungus likes to invade the hair follicules and this can get in the way of healthy hair growth. The second edition of Seborrheic Dermatitis - The Owners ManualeBook will contain a section devoted to explained the hair loss associated with SD and potential ways to resolve the issue.

Overall though, once the seborrheic dermatitis is controlled, hair loss usually returns to normal. Both Ketoconazole (Nizoral) and Pyrithione Zinc (Head and Shoulders) have been shown to help improve hair growth in a significant number of studies. Some individuals who have issues solely with hair loss even use Ketoconazole.

Hope that helps.
All the best!

Hi Vic,

This isn’t normal and it seems your skin isn’t agreeing with it.
Personally, I would stop usage and attempt something else.

Let me know if you have any updates.
Best of luck!

Hi GC,

Thanks for the response. Will look into these in more detail and potentially add them into the main post as well.
How exactly have you been combining the two? Would be interesting to hear. Potentially, a good idea would be for me to add a section to the Biom8 website for users to provide details on their own unique approaches to using it (get some pretty creative ideas through email). Also, have you attempted solely Biom8 usage?

Thanks again and best of luck!
Hope things continue indefinitely.

Thanks michel for this review its realy helped , im newly diagnosed with SD and i use triderma shampoo containing salicylic acid its just work for one day doesnt help so much , i just wonder about the safest product in pre pregnancy and during preg and breast feeding???

HI SMS,

Thanks for the positive feedback. And sorry to hear about your results with that shampoo.
A more natural approach is likely best in this situation. My current regimen (My Seborrheic Dermatitis Skin Regimen 2.0) uses all natural fatty acids to control my facial seborrheic dermatitis and some people use it with great results on their scalp as well.
Personally, simply using this shampoo: Andalou Naturals Moisture Rich Shampoo, seemed to clear by scalp issues.

A medicated shampoo you may want to consider is this: Kertyol P.S.O.
It uses a supposedly more natural alternative to coal tar and is considered to have a better safety profile (and is much more popular in Europe).

Hope that helps and look forward to any updates.

I used Neutregena T-gel every time I washed my hair for a number of years and suspect that it caused ongoing hairloss for me. I stopped using it and with each passing month my hair grew back to its normal fullness.

Hi everyone. My scalp is literally a snow storm and itchy with dried lumps of skin, that come away when picked. Sometime these very itchy bits then break and become sore. I’ve tried so many shampoos from my GP over the last year and nothing has cleared it. I’ve turned to pure organic products,containing burdock and Neem, for irritated scalps…no improvement. I’ve soaked my head in cider vinegar, which took the redness away from my hair line, and rubbed tea tree oil in. Nothing has touched the snow storm . I’ve noted various other shampoos that have been mentioned, and if I can purchase them , I’ll try them. Coal tar made my scalp go mental!! I’m into natural products where possible, but my scalp is now just getting me down. Nice page here though exchanging ideas. Thank you.

head and shoulders does NOT WORK AT ALL, actually makes the problem worse
this must be seriously sponsored

I recently knew that I have Seborrhic Dramatics on my scalp. I was using “f-biwash+” shampoo(http://www.fluencepharma.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Combined-BrochureQ.png) with Apple Cider Vinegar for about a year.

Apple Cider Vinegar may have reduced my red spot but I found that my scalp is not improving. There is still lots dandruff in the roots of my hair, which cause lot hair fall.

I also used Head and Shoulders Anti-hair fall shampoo (Zink Pirithione Shampoo) for about a week. But that does not seem to work well. After using this shampoo, there is always a soft white layer of wet dandruff on my whole scalp. If I try to remove them ,then there is lots of hair fall.

Which of these Shampoos will be best for me?

Should I use http://aptekaslonik.pl/images/prod/6154/ducray-kertyol-szampon-125.jpg??

I don’t want to use “f-biwash” anymore. It is totally waste of money !!