This comment has also been directly emailed to you. I’m posting it here as well, just in case it might helps others as well.
Hi Mollie,
Thanks for leaving a comment on the website.
It is encouraging to find others who are looking for a solution to their seborrheic dermatitis.
First of all I will address the items you mentioned specifically:
Dead sea salt caused my skin to sometimes become very dry and pale (had to be very careful not to make it too salty as this caused major redness). OverallI found it hard to get consistent results.
Aloe vera is very popular and highly recommended by many. Personally each time I used it, my seborrheic dermatitis skin would go bright red. The flaking would stop, but the inflation seemed to increase. However, I only used the actual plant juice directly taken from fresh leaves. Perhaps this form was just too strong. Looking back now maybe a regular aloe vera based cream or moisturiser might have worked better.
Apple Cider Vinegar cause the skin to smell of vinegar for short while. It also caused my skin to become much more pale and quite sensitive to sunlight. Concentration was key in order to see any results. Consistency was poor and on some occasions seborrheic dermatitis was hardly affected by application. Consuming it on a daily basis had pretty much no effect on the seborrheic dermatitis. It’s consumption did, however, seem to improve digestion and over made me feel good inside. You can see my full article on my experience with apple cider vinegar here.
Secondly here is a summary my story with seborrheic dermatitis:
Personally I am 24 and I’ve spent about 3 years suffering from the dermatitis.
It mainly affected my scalp and face, but this caused many other issues in my daily life.
Luckily after tons of research and experiments I managed to find something that worked for me.
Currently it has been about 6 months without any flare ups.
Sometimes a flake or two could appear or my scalp can get a bit of dandruff.
However, it is rare and extremely mild. Nothing like the thick crusting and inflammation before.
During my experimentation I believe I’ve tried every natural solution that was mentioned online. The two that worked the best and most consistently were Raw Honey Masks and Grapefruit Seed Extract as a face wash. I used these methods during separate periods.
The Grapefruit Seed Extract was the first method I found which had sustained results for several months. I simply used a few drops with water as a face cleanser. Flakes disappeared and skin looked healthy. Then it stopped working and would only sometimes be effective. Also reading online I came across some articles that mentioned that the grapefruit seed extract actually contained some sort of disinfectant chemical (similar to hand sanitizer) which was the actual reason behind its effectiveness. Either way it stopped working for me so I stopped using it.
Raw honey masks seem to both moisturise and cleanse the skin at the same time. After using the masks the skin was supple and well moisturised. The biggest problems with this treatment is it took about 3 hours each day, was a little messy, and if a few days were missed the seborrheic dermatitis would quickly return. Even after about a month or so of bi-daily use I always had to keep using it (otherwise dermatitis quickly returned). There were also times that it just didn’t do anything.
Also one of the strangest and biggest things I noticed while fighting my seborrheic dermatitis is the illusive connection to food and diet. Often times it seemed that certain foods triggered flare ups and irritation. Fasting would cause the skin to fully heal and seborrheic dermatitis to go away. One time I went for about a week on just fruits and vegetables (no grains, meats, or dairy). During this week my skin was perfectly healthy even without using any topical treatments.
In the end though, the whole food allergy thing proved to be a very hard path. Many of the diets caused issues with daily life and regular social eating. It was stressful to always restrict yourself from certain things and worry about the effect it could have on the dermatitis.
Personally I believe trying to pin down foods that could be causing the seborrheic dermatitis actually enforced the idea and actually played a role in overall worsening of my condition.
What has been keeping me free from seborrheic dermatitis has been a simple approach.
My first step was to stop reading and researching online.
Second I went and asked my friend in medical school what he would recommend for restoring the gut. He told me the supplement L-Glutamine is often used in medical cases. It is supposed to provide the gut with an abundance of the specific protein it needs to rebuild its walls. I purchased the powder form of it from Amazon and have been using it practically every single morning for the past 6 months. Each morning I wake up I drink a bit of water followed by a glass of water and about a teaspoon of L-Glutamine powder. Then I do some morning exercise and wait about 30 minutes before I eat breakfast.
Third I went to my local pharmacy and asked for all the samples they had of cleansers and moisturisers. The gentleman working was very nice and he gave me about 15-20 different types of cleansers, moisturisers and sun screens. After about going through 4-5 that had no effect, I stopped at Cetaphil Restoraderm. It had a very subtle, but extremely soothing effect on my skin. Since than I’ve been using the cleanser along with the moisturiser pretty much every day before bed. After washing my face with the cleanser I let it air dry and a few minutes later I apply the moisturiser.
Other key rules that I now follow:
Never stress about the food I eat
Never touch or scratch the skin (except sometimes my scalp)
Stay away from excessive sun exposure
Drink plenty of water
Shower regularly
Only cotton pillow cases
Also for my scalp I went through a length adjustment period. After using commercial dandruff shampoos I decided to just find a good regular shampoo. Instead of picking one for oily hair (which my hair was at the time) I went for a moisturising shampoo.
First I purchased a natural anti-dandruff one from Amazon (a very expensive product). The shampoo was non foaming and was more like a cream that I used to wash my hair with. My scalp started to normalize after about 2-3 weeks of constant usage. When I was using that shampoo I almost never had any dandruff.
However, I when my bottle ran out I didn’t want to spend another 30 dollars on a small bottle of shampoo. Instead I went with a simple moisturising shampoo from a brand (Andalou) whose natural cleanser I previously enjoyed (the cleanser didn’t help my dermatitis long term). This is the shampoo that I’ve been using every since. The smell is amazing, my scalp feels healthy and my hair looks and feels very good. A bit of dandruff sometimes does come around, but it is quite mild and nothing which causes me to change my routine.
Hopefully some of this information can prove useful to you.
If you have any questions please feel free to email me. None of the advice above is medical advice and is a simple recollection of my approach.
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Best Regards,
Michael Anders
PS. Wish you luck with your fight against seborrheic dermatitis.
