Can they see it? I hope they know it’s not contagious. Is that why they won’t come near me? Great, it looks like there’s snow on my shirt. They probably think I have lice. If they only knew the truth.

Seborrheic Dermatitis is an ugly skin and scalp condition that affects more people than you would think. For years I thought that I had severe dandruff and would pack on the grease thinking that would solve my problem. Guess what? It made it worse. When I was younger, my mother would always ask me why I didn’t grease my scalp.

I tried to tell her that I did every day, but she didn’t believe me because my scalp was constantly dry and flaky. After years of trying to combat this “dandruff” with grease, I realized that what I had was far more serious than dandruff. I literally had huge flakes on my scalp, my hair line was red and bumpy and there were even flakes in my eye brows and ears. When I would remove the flakes, hair would come up with it, that was it, I decided I had to see a dermatologist.

After I saw an excellent dermatologist, he diagnosed me with seborrheic dermatitis. It is one of the top five diagnoses for African American dermatology patients and it is a chronic inflammatory condition that affects your scalp and other parts of your body. The oiliest areas of your body (scalp, chest, ears, forehead, etc.) can be affected by seborrheic dermatitis.

Another mind boggling revelation is that the condition doesn’t occur because your skin is dry, rather it occurs because your affected body part is too oily so putting more oil on top of your supposedly “dry” scalp will only aggravate your dermatitis more. Dermatitis also flares up when you’re stressed or during certain season.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a cure for seborrheic dermatitis, once you have the skin condition, you have it for life. Fortunately, it can be controlled with prescription medications or with natural remedies. When I was initially diagnosed, I accepted all the creams, lotions and potions the doctor recommended because I just wanted to get rid of my itchy, red and irritated scalp for good.





More importantly, I wanted to keep my hair from falling out. Now that I’ve had a few years to do the proper research on the condition, I’ve opted to go a more natural route when I have a flare up.

Keep in mind, I still use a prescription shampoo to cleanse my scalp because it’s necessary and no getting around it, but I can’t rely solely on the shampoo to combat the condition. Here are some things I’ve learned about my seborrheic dermatitis and how I keep my flare ups at a minimum with natural remedies.