pin size red dot on top of my scalp - painful!

Hi there,
I am a 28 year old woman in good health. Just this evening I felt this soreness on my head, I started touching my head and felt that it was localized at the very top crown part of my scalp - whenever I touch my hair or lightly touch that area it is incredibly painful and sore. A friend looked at that area and there is a bright red dot - the size of a grain of rice. The entire area surrounding the dot is incredibly sore - as though someone smacked me in the head with a hammer. The size of soreness is about a dollar coin size area in diameter, with the dot as the center. I can not figure out if the dot is raised or not - perhaps slightly. There are hair follicles on it, but don't seem to be affected.
I have been doing research online but can't find anything like this - lots of people have the dots but they are not painful. This does not itch at all. It is just sore - so sore that it gives me a little headache. I have dark thick hair that I wash every two days. I just washed my hair yesterday. I used gentle shampoo. My skin and scalp are not dry or flaky and I have never had problems with dandruff.

[Gemmonk]

Have you been in the woods? This could be the start of Lyme's disease with the bullseye/tick bite! My guess would be some sort of insect bite because of the sore middle and surrounding area. If it gets bigger/worse, I would definitely go the MD to get meds.

Good luck!

[serpico33]

My wife as recently experienced the same condition, minus the red dot.  Her symptoms are EXACTLY the same.  I have examined the area under a magnifying glass and have determined the effected area to be approx. the size of a nickel, is slightly raised and hot to the touch.  There is no sign of a "Bullseye" or ring around any centralized center at this point.  I did; however, notice for the first time today the appearance of two small pin ***** marks approx 1 inch away from the effected area.  The red pin pricks are approx a half inch apart form one another and were not there two days ago.  One could say they appear similar to fang marks, but they were not there before.  Any ideas?

[Dr_Aparna]

Hi,
This could be the beginning of folliculitis, which is the inflammation of the hair follicles. It starts  when hair follicles are damaged, maybe by tying hair too tightly, called traction folliculitis.

The damaged follicles are then infected with the bacteria Staphylococcus (staph). It is seen as a reddened skin area or pimples or pustules located around a hair follicle.

Antibiotics such as mupirocin or neomycin containing ointment can be applied on the red pin-pricks.
This is sufficient to cause a resolution, they will heal even if nothing is applied.

ref:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folliculitis