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Scalp folliculitis
Hello I have been visiting many doctors. For last 3 years my scalp folliculitis doesn't go away, it took me one year to find a doctor , before I just been send to one another doctor. Nobody could make a certain statement. No I am taking doxycycline hyclate. 3 years ago i was attacked and had been injured, more I had many open wonds on my head. after about 3 month my hair started to fall out. and those acne appeared. I was stressed out a lot because was scared to be killed. Essentially changed my lifestyle. Doctors claim I have PTSD.
My question is could all this be the reason for my illness? Why id doesnt go away for long time?
My question is could all this be the reason for my illness? Why id doesnt go away for long time?
Hi to all, my name is Andrew and I'm a 32 yo engineer. Please excuse my english...it's a bit rusty. I will tell my story its a bit long so bear with me, because it has a nice ending....not completely cured but I'll say 99.9% and improving every day since 6 months now, after having it for 20 years.
I too suffer from this terrible disease and have it since I was 12yo, and now I'm 32. I have tryed every antibiotic already named here (doxy, minocycling, ciprofloxaxin, flucloxaciclin etc). Apart from those I've been on accutane 3 times (20 to 10mg), and I can say that it was the only drug that has really worked the longest too. The thing is that when I stopped taking it, it always returns like 3 to 5 months after. I've also tryed dapsone, itraconazole and fluconazole. I must say my dad is one of the top MD's in my country, so the drugs or derm appointments were never a problem for me. I went to the top dermatologists in my country (Harvard type guys, etc), only to be precribed with the same drugs already posted here and the same temporary effects. So I don't think the doctors are bad, just that they doesn't know. I also must say for the record that when I was like 5 or maybe 6 yo to the age of 19, I was constantly on antibios (every 4 months maybe) because I had throat recurrent infections. The standar treatment back then for that was penicilin one shot. I wonder what is your medical background besides from the folliculitis? think when you were little.
Well, after years and years of looking for a cure and been on and off drugs, I got tired, and decided to be a year at least without any oral medication what so ever. So, when I stopped my condition got worse and worse at first, and at some point in time I had like 30 zits in my scalp, bloody pillows etc. I went off the prescription shampoos also, and try a natural propolis shampoo, that managed to calm my scalp and reduced my spot to maybe 10 spots per week. I also stop drinking alcohol and stop smoking, change my diet a bit, and tryed to live a more healthy life style. I also cut my hair very short. This steps really improved my condition a lot, like 70% at least but never cured me.
With time my "natural" shampoo stopped working too, so I had to change it and I found that mild shampoos,where better tan shampoos for greasy hair regardless if they claim to be natural or mild. Prior to that I thought that shampoos for greasy hair were better, but I found out that the stronger the shampoo the stronger the breakout in the long run. I mean strong shampoos worked very well in the begining, but in a few weeks time, when they stop working, the breakouts were worst, so I'd decided to change to mild shampoos instead and rotate between them. I used Eucerin PH5 shampoo and others of the same kind (cetaphil etc). I also tryed with some neutral soap bars or no-soap bars, with the same results...10 spots a week maybe a little more but not so much more.
One time in the summer I went camping with my friends, and to me going camping was always terrible because I had to deal with folliculitis in places where there were no showers near or just a river or a lake were you had to take a bottle, fille it with wáter and shower like that (that's camping in the wild!). Well, that particular time we went to a national park where there was no wáter either, so the first few days I wasn't able to shower at all because we only had wáter to drink and cook, not to wash our hair. Ok, so the first few days were terrible, I had a big breakout but no so terrible as when I was on meds or prescription shampoos....maybe like 7 spots in 3 days.
This is the nice part,...... in the day number 5 of not washing my hair the spots started to dry out, and my scalp started tofell better. In day number 8 I washed my hair, but only with cold wáter from a river we found in our journey. In day 9 I was ready to wash my hair with my shampoo again but I wasn't able to do it because my shampoo got lost and wasn't willing to try some of my friends shampoo, so I thought that was it, it was doomed. In day 10 my scalp continued to clear to almost normal. After that I returned to my home, and continued to wash my hair only with wáter in the shower. The first few days I started to took 2 showers a day only with wáter only because I thought it was shampoos that were giving me this condition a so I thought I could fight it just with wáter...a lot of water. In 4 weeks I had no new mayor breakouts...just like 4 to 6 spots a week or so. Then my scalp started to itch a lot and that's when I thought that something was wrong with my skin flora, beacuse how it was posible that during the camping when I wasn't showering, I didn't had any mayor breakouts a no itch either?
Thinking this I stopped showering 2 times a day and started to wash only one time a day with only cold wáter and spending less time in the shower. This change my entire skin dramatically, from 3 to 5 spots a week it has been reduced to 1 or 2 spots a week that dry out from one day to the other. It's been like that since the end of february and I'm very happy. I really feel normal, ad must say that my hair is much less oily. I keep it vey short though.
After years and years of antibios and accutane, the only thing I had to is nothing, that's hilarious to me and a big puzzle to my MD dad I assured you. My next step is to go off wáter in my scalp every other day because I strongly belive that tap wáter with chlorine and all the thing the put it to is bad for the damaged skin. I will do that next summer because now with work and all I have to shower everyday and don't want to mess with what I have acomplished....this has been the best time of my life.
Looking in retropective I think antibiotics and/or prescription shampoos really damaged my skin for good, so I'm trying to rebuild my skin flora and trying to eat right because years of antibiotics almost for sure damaged my digestive system for good as well. Talking to my dad he said it is very difficult to rebuild your "original" flora because it is now been studied that we are born with some of it. Prior it was belived that microorganisms colonized us after we were born, but now it is known not to be the case.
I truly hope this will help you. I must say the first 3 weeks of not putting shampoo or taking drugs will be very difficult, so you could do it gradualy if you're willing to try this I should also say that I've found that stress plays a big role in this condition because when you worry so much about it your scalp poduce a lot of sebum, specially at night (mine surely did). The other thing I did when I first stopped the treatments was try not to touch my scalp at all. this is one of the most difficult parts I must say.
Hope you all can beat this terrible disease, and I will be posting new developments because I'm trying to make my dad and other MD's could do a research on this. This is very interesting from a medical perspective you know? I don't know why the other MD's in this fórum don't take time to read all of your posts....maybe they are afraid to put their reputation on the line by not having anything valuable to say. Good MD's do researc when they encounter problems they can't solve....my dad at least do that, but he is from another specialty.
I too suffer from this terrible disease and have it since I was 12yo, and now I'm 32. I have tryed every antibiotic already named here (doxy, minocycling, ciprofloxaxin, flucloxaciclin etc). Apart from those I've been on accutane 3 times (20 to 10mg), and I can say that it was the only drug that has really worked the longest too. The thing is that when I stopped taking it, it always returns like 3 to 5 months after. I've also tryed dapsone, itraconazole and fluconazole. I must say my dad is one of the top MD's in my country, so the drugs or derm appointments were never a problem for me. I went to the top dermatologists in my country (Harvard type guys, etc), only to be precribed with the same drugs already posted here and the same temporary effects. So I don't think the doctors are bad, just that they doesn't know. I also must say for the record that when I was like 5 or maybe 6 yo to the age of 19, I was constantly on antibios (every 4 months maybe) because I had throat recurrent infections. The standar treatment back then for that was penicilin one shot. I wonder what is your medical background besides from the folliculitis? think when you were little.
Well, after years and years of looking for a cure and been on and off drugs, I got tired, and decided to be a year at least without any oral medication what so ever. So, when I stopped my condition got worse and worse at first, and at some point in time I had like 30 zits in my scalp, bloody pillows etc. I went off the prescription shampoos also, and try a natural propolis shampoo, that managed to calm my scalp and reduced my spot to maybe 10 spots per week. I also stop drinking alcohol and stop smoking, change my diet a bit, and tryed to live a more healthy life style. I also cut my hair very short. This steps really improved my condition a lot, like 70% at least but never cured me.
With time my "natural" shampoo stopped working too, so I had to change it and I found that mild shampoos,where better tan shampoos for greasy hair regardless if they claim to be natural or mild. Prior to that I thought that shampoos for greasy hair were better, but I found out that the stronger the shampoo the stronger the breakout in the long run. I mean strong shampoos worked very well in the begining, but in a few weeks time, when they stop working, the breakouts were worst, so I'd decided to change to mild shampoos instead and rotate between them. I used Eucerin PH5 shampoo and others of the same kind (cetaphil etc). I also tryed with some neutral soap bars or no-soap bars, with the same results...10 spots a week maybe a little more but not so much more.
One time in the summer I went camping with my friends, and to me going camping was always terrible because I had to deal with folliculitis in places where there were no showers near or just a river or a lake were you had to take a bottle, fille it with wáter and shower like that (that's camping in the wild!). Well, that particular time we went to a national park where there was no wáter either, so the first few days I wasn't able to shower at all because we only had wáter to drink and cook, not to wash our hair. Ok, so the first few days were terrible, I had a big breakout but no so terrible as when I was on meds or prescription shampoos....maybe like 7 spots in 3 days.
This is the nice part,...... in the day number 5 of not washing my hair the spots started to dry out, and my scalp started tofell better. In day number 8 I washed my hair, but only with cold wáter from a river we found in our journey. In day 9 I was ready to wash my hair with my shampoo again but I wasn't able to do it because my shampoo got lost and wasn't willing to try some of my friends shampoo, so I thought that was it, it was doomed. In day 10 my scalp continued to clear to almost normal. After that I returned to my home, and continued to wash my hair only with wáter in the shower. The first few days I started to took 2 showers a day only with wáter only because I thought it was shampoos that were giving me this condition a so I thought I could fight it just with wáter...a lot of water. In 4 weeks I had no new mayor breakouts...just like 4 to 6 spots a week or so. Then my scalp started to itch a lot and that's when I thought that something was wrong with my skin flora, beacuse how it was posible that during the camping when I wasn't showering, I didn't had any mayor breakouts a no itch either?
Thinking this I stopped showering 2 times a day and started to wash only one time a day with only cold wáter and spending less time in the shower. This change my entire skin dramatically, from 3 to 5 spots a week it has been reduced to 1 or 2 spots a week that dry out from one day to the other. It's been like that since the end of february and I'm very happy. I really feel normal, ad must say that my hair is much less oily. I keep it vey short though.
After years and years of antibios and accutane, the only thing I had to is nothing, that's hilarious to me and a big puzzle to my MD dad I assured you. My next step is to go off wáter in my scalp every other day because I strongly belive that tap wáter with chlorine and all the thing the put it to is bad for the damaged skin. I will do that next summer because now with work and all I have to shower everyday and don't want to mess with what I have acomplished....this has been the best time of my life.
Looking in retropective I think antibiotics and/or prescription shampoos really damaged my skin for good, so I'm trying to rebuild my skin flora and trying to eat right because years of antibiotics almost for sure damaged my digestive system for good as well. Talking to my dad he said it is very difficult to rebuild your "original" flora because it is now been studied that we are born with some of it. Prior it was belived that microorganisms colonized us after we were born, but now it is known not to be the case.
I truly hope this will help you. I must say the first 3 weeks of not putting shampoo or taking drugs will be very difficult, so you could do it gradualy if you're willing to try this I should also say that I've found that stress plays a big role in this condition because when you worry so much about it your scalp poduce a lot of sebum, specially at night (mine surely did). The other thing I did when I first stopped the treatments was try not to touch my scalp at all. this is one of the most difficult parts I must say.
Hope you all can beat this terrible disease, and I will be posting new developments because I'm trying to make my dad and other MD's could do a research on this. This is very interesting from a medical perspective you know? I don't know why the other MD's in this fórum don't take time to read all of your posts....maybe they are afraid to put their reputation on the line by not having anything valuable to say. Good MD's do researc when they encounter problems they can't solve....my dad at least do that, but he is from another specialty.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Hello,
It is true that folliculitis is caused by bacterial infection but from your symptoms perifolliculitis also needs to be ruled out. It is characterised by small, very itchy pustules within the scalp, often most troublesome on the frontal hairline. The scalp should be washed with a mild normal shampoo as often as desired. Antidandruff shampoos containing antifungal agents such as ketoconazole or ciclopirox are sometimes helpful. Apart from that you need topical and oral antibiotics, antihistamines, oral steroids and topical tretinoin.
My sincere advice is to get it examined from a dermatologist. It is very difficult to precisely confirm a diagnosis without examination and investigations and the answer is based on the medical information provided. For exact diagnosis, you are requested to consult your doctor. I sincerely hope that helps. Take care and please do keep me posted on how you are doing.
It is true that folliculitis is caused by bacterial infection but from your symptoms perifolliculitis also needs to be ruled out. It is characterised by small, very itchy pustules within the scalp, often most troublesome on the frontal hairline. The scalp should be washed with a mild normal shampoo as often as desired. Antidandruff shampoos containing antifungal agents such as ketoconazole or ciclopirox are sometimes helpful. Apart from that you need topical and oral antibiotics, antihistamines, oral steroids and topical tretinoin.
My sincere advice is to get it examined from a dermatologist. It is very difficult to precisely confirm a diagnosis without examination and investigations and the answer is based on the medical information provided. For exact diagnosis, you are requested to consult your doctor. I sincerely hope that helps. Take care and please do keep me posted on how you are doing.
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