Seborrheic Dermatitis

Howdy…I’m wondering what people are using for a facial cleanser
now. Right now I’m using a St. Ives cleanser with salicylic acid,
which was initially helpful but is now just too drying and makes my
skin flake. On the other end of the spectrum, cetaphil made my skin
softer (which was initially helpful) but ended up breaking me out in
itchy bumps and making the redness worse. So, and this may apply to
many of us, finding the sweet spot between these extremes is the key,
especially since any moisturizer I’ve tried (i.e. every single one of
them) has made things worse. thanks for any input!

For anyone who’s interested, some layman’s science/conjecture below-

Moisturizers of any kind make things worse for me because essentially
they are feeding the fire, providing a great environment for the
yeast which is implicated in this condition to thrive…moisturizers,

while usually a good idea for normal skin, provide the yeast with a
humid environment as well as nutrients to support growth (whether
it’s petroleum based ingredients or fatty acids, the great majority
of them support growth). So, in my experience, because cetaphil is
more moisturizer than cleanser (it has very little
surfactant/detergent, and lots of moisturizing ingredients that stay
on the skin), it gave me problems. On the other end, the St. Ives
stuff had a surfactant with lots of potential for irritation, as well
as the salicylic acid, which was just too much at once. Of course,
everyone’s skin is slightly different, so one person’s sweet spot may
be too drying for someone else, too moisturizing, etc. The idea, I
think, is to find a cleanser that cleanses effectively while not
doing too much damage to the barrier function of the skin…easier
said than done.

I’m working slowly, on a faq for all this that might be helpful to
people, as well as a survey which I had mentioned a few months back.
Things have been going much better though, so I haven’t thought about
it as much recently.

Thanks for reading, cheers-

This entry was posted on Monday, June 11th, 2007 at 3:50 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.