Folliculitis wont go away

[Robrei16]

I am a 19 year old, first-year college student. About 6 months ago I randomly began to find inflamed hair follicles on the front top-side of my thigh. I didn't know what I was dealing with so  I tried popping them and removing the hairs just resulting in infected wounds and more inflamed follicles. I have never seen anything on my body like this prior and have always had perfect skin even on my face. I did research and came across "folliculitis". After desperately trying to find causes, I began cancelling the most miniscule things out of my life to see if the condition improves. Once not having any luck, I visited  my dermatologist. I was prescribed a 1 week treatment of doxycycline and that wiped it all out and prevented it until 4 days after the medication ended where I found 2 on my lower stomach! It appeared to have left my thighs and infected my middle torso. After going through the same stress and worries about it, I  contacted my dermatologist again and asked for a refill. Again the medicine wiped it out until a couple days after,  it was  on my thighs again. I would like to mention that I am an extremely hygienic person. Shower everyday with a bar of anti-bacterial soap, then wash again with Dove men's extra fresh body wash. I've found that the folliculitis is not as severe when I removed the loofa from my routine. I now just rub my body with my hand while the soap is applied. I never wear an article of clothing more than once without washing it so its not because of dirty laundry. I would like to know why it predominantly forms on the thighs? I do not wear skinny jeans but do feel irritation when I sit and the jeans become tight. I can definitely notice an irritation with the hair on my thighs. It was very long prior to me trimming it and that seemed to really decrease the occurrence. Out of frustration, I now cover my thighs and torso in baby powder whenever I get out of the shower because I found that drying the skin prevents it the best,  but I still do occasionally find a couple forming day by day, but I can annihilate them with a dab of antibiotic ointment. Up to this day, I never get it bad enough where a follicle has a white head, but  its incredibly frustrating how with all my desperations, cleanliness and attempts, it still doesn't go away. If It helps at all, I first began getting the folliculitis at a time I had very bad jock-itch which is what makes me suspect its fungal (candidia) related. I believe this because the anti-bacterial soap doesn't remove them, although when I suspected it was fungal related, rubbing tea tree oil on the affected leg didn't increase, or decrease occurrence of the pimples. This has just been so frustrating to me and the only thing I can believe it is at this point is stress and anxiety. Is that possible? I am a Chemical Engineering Student at PennState University and my stress and anxiety is through the roof (as you could imagine). One other belief I have is that I am acquiring it from the showers here. The water tastes odd and the students whom I share these showers with appear to be riddled with pimples from head to toe. I bleach washed the walls and handles of the shower I use in desperation to  find  solution. Is the bathroom being unclean/harboring bacteria a possibility? Is the stress and anxiety a possibility because I am new to this level of stress? Could it be the hair paste running down my legs as I shampoo it out of my hair? As it may be clear, it has been driving me nuts and I am absolutely tired of it and It adds to the stress I already have and makes me self-conscious/depressed. Please help! I've done extensive amounts of research on the topic and just cannot find a solution. I am tired of inhaling high quantities of baby powder and feeling the severe burn of my excessively dry skin while I try to fall asleep at night. I want to go to the gym and not form 5 new pimples before I can even get home and shower. Am I possibly fighting it and taking care of it well and its on its way out? Please help me and provide me with good news so  I can stop worrying.

[algordon1230]

Hey!  I'm having the same issues on my thighs.  I've been changing my diet to see if that's it, but up to this point, I don't see a big difference.  It does get better during periods where I have eaten little to nothing.  I'm in great shape and pretty clean as well.  My dermatologist gave me a prescription for Doxycycline.  I haven't started yet because I've been trying to see if I can get rid of it without medication.  Any info would be great.  Thanks!