Skin conditioned temporarily cured by trip to Thailand

I've been getting patches of red, dry flaky skin on my face for many years now, mostly on the side of one nostril but more recently on my forehead and other areas as well. I don't recall a doctor definitively naming the condition but I have been using hydrocortisone ointment to treat it for many years. I also get quite bad dandruff and have to use anti-dandruff shampoo regularly

I just spent almost 4 weeks in Thailand and during that time my skin cleared up and looked extremely healthy and I noticed almost no dandruff despite not washing my hair the entire time.  I've now been back in melbourne for 4 nights and my dandruff and skin condition are starting to return. I figure this is a prefect time to try to establish what is causing it, so I've tried to list the elements that were different in thailand that may have contributed to my temporary cure.

When in Thailand: I was swimming in the ocean several times a day for long periods, I was getting a lot more sunlight and outdoor air than when I'm home and I was under a lot less stress. In the 4 days since I've been home its been fairly warm and I've been outdoors a bit and not under huge stress so I'm not sure about this. Its possible that it was the daily soaking in saltwater that was the cure, and because I was in bangkok for a few days before my return, its actually been more like 7 days since my last swim in the sea.

I wasn't using any sort of shampoo and conditioner in thailand. I usually use strong anti-dandruff shampoo which was suggested as a cause for the red skin on my forehead by a doctor but I am dubious about this as I never get this shampoo on my nose and the longer nose problem I think has occurred regardless of what shampoo I was using.

What I think is more likely is perhaps some sort of allergy. There are a few things that I usually consume on a regular basis that I abstained from in Thailand due to the poor quality and price. Most obviously: wine, yeasty beer, coffee, and big quantities of red meat (i.e. a good steak).

Since I've been back I've resumed drinking wine (mostly red).

I've resumed drinking yeasty, heavier flavoured beers (in thailand you can only get quite watery flavoured beers like singha and Heineken),

I've eaten a lot more red meat than I was eating in thailand - in thailand I was eating a lot of seafood with occasional small amounts of red meat, and also I was eating heaps more chilli, as well as all the other ingredients found in thai food...

And I've resumed my daily coffee - of which I had very few in thailand.

These are the most obvious possible culprits in my opinion but there are probably other things such as potatoes and pasta that I've had big doses of since my return.  

If anybody has an opinion please let me know, I think that I will experiment with abstaining for about a fortnight from each of the things listed above one by one, but if I could narrow it down to a more likely list then I could probably figure it out faster.

Thanks in advance.

[maatson]

Seborrheic dermatitis is the probable diagnosis. This is caused (Not fully proved) by an yeast like organism (Malassezia furfur) that thrives in colder areas..Possibly the temperatures helped you.Also I did read elsewhere that sugar does play a role here.Wonder whether the heavy beers are more sugary? (Guess they are). Best wishes.