How does your seb derm present on your scalp? For months it was just small sores/scabs that would appear a few days before my menstrual cycle and then slowly heal up. They'd have only very minor flaking immediately around them, so little that I didn't even consider it dandruff. Itching was so mild that I just wrote it off as being from dry skin or sweat or dirt from being in a barn frequently. Then one month one of the scalp sores got big, inflammed, and possibly slightly infected and I lost a lot of hair in that spot. It also started to itch a bit more to the point it was clearly something wrong. Unlike the previous times, this flare didn't just heal up on its own. Got diagnosed with seb derm at this time (also lost a bunch more hair but that was from ferritin & vitD deficiency rather than seb derm). Currently I have some sebum crusting in various areas, but it's pretty firmly attached to my scalp and easy to find based on texture. I can scratch some flakes loose, but sometimes if I try it would result in very light bleeding so I avoid doing that. There are also about a half dozen small scab spots about the size of a pencil eraser that just seemed to appear out of nowhere. I try not to pick at them but I'm a fiddly person so I sometimes fail. Itching is at worst moderate and mainly occurs after sweating (yay summer). No dandruff unless I scratch some flakes up.
Do you have seb derm/fungal issues anywhere else? Fungal acne and might be getting seb derm in one eyebrow.
If you know it, what triggers your seb derm to flare up? Hormonal fluctuations, sweat, and other unknown things.
Do you have any other health issues? Narcolepsy, interstitial cystitis, mild IBS-C, mild depression & anxiety, ferritin deficiency, and vitamin D deficiency.
At what age did you develop seb derm? 28
What was your skin & hair like before seb derm? Has that changed now that you have seb derm? Skin was combination and hair was on the dry side. Skin is now slightly dry and my hair is even more dry than it was before seb derm. My hair is also fragile due to my nutritional deficiencies.
What products/methods/meds/etc have you tried for seb derm in the past and what were the results? Ketoconazole RX shampoo worked at first then seemed to stop working. Switched to only products that are FA safe but the conditioner wasn't nearly moisturizing enough so I added back in a non-FA safe one and it didn't seem to make anything worse but helped with breakage. Neutrogena T-Sal didn't do anything but dry out my hair more.
What are you currently doing to manage your scalp seb derm? Head&Shoulders Clinical Shampoo with selenium sulfide 1%, but my derm called in an RX selenium sulfide 2.5% shampoo that I'm going to try this week. I wash my hair every other day or whenever I sweat and only use the antifungal shampoo but use a non-FA conditioner (Paul Mitchell Tea Tree Conditioner or Aussie 3 minute miracle). My scalp & hair is actually worse if I don't apply conditioner to the scalp at least once every few days. I blow dry it on the cool setting for a few minutes to shorten the time spent wet.