Sea Salt for Seborrheic Dermatitis - Treatment Guide and Research Summary

I’ve been using dead sea salt for my scalp. At first, it was almost magical (though extremely painful) to use. I was mixing it with my conditioner to make it easy to apply. Now, it doesn’t seem to make quite a strong improvement. It really only ever reduced itching and reduced the amount of flaky. It never cleared up my SD completely. I saw your other post about your current regiment and might have to give those things a try.

Is there a better way to be using sea salt on my scalp as a topical relief? Direct application in the conditioner can be quite painful if there are open lesions or cracking. Would soaking my scalp in water be better? If so, what do you think would be a useful concentration?

Diluted apple cider vinegar gives serious relief.

Thanks for the update. Great to hear that it’s working out so well.
If you like, send I can append your specific approach to the main ACV post.

The best way I found was the head dunks. Rubbing the salt into my scalp was okay as well, but not as effective. For the soaks I was using about a teaspoon and half for about 2-3 litres of water. It was never precise thought, I just kind of put in as much I felt would make the water similar salinity to ocean water.
Not sure how this would work out, but looking back I might have considered adding a drop of iodine to the water if I was still going with this treatment approach. Way back I tried directly applying pure iodine on the spots, but that was way too crazy and slightly burnt my skin.

It’s strange to see why the salt stops working so quickly. For me it was quite magical at first too, for about a week I was riding high and thought I had everything figured out. Then it kind of just stopped working.
Even now though, I still think sodium and iodine might play a role however. I eat quite a bit of iodine rich foods and I’m not really watching my sodium intake as intensely as I did before. This seems to help the sweat glands behave more naturally.

Let me know which route you end up perusing. Best of luck either way!

hi
I am suffering fron SD too on my face nd scalp
Right now I am applying the creams and shampoos which r prescribed by dermatologist but I am not getting the effective results.Even I feel like this SD becomes worst when I apply facewash.What should I do? Should I use dead sea salt or apple cider vineger? I scared of SD.Plzz reply soon

Hi Neerja,

Thanks for checking in. Sorry, but I don’t really have a clear cut answer.
This is the regimen that has worked for me. Other readers have reported great results as well, but others didn’t see any changes. Additionally, it might be fairly difficult to find the Restoraderm wash in Indian, but I’m not sure. Perhaps you can update in this regard.

Overall these appear to be the three most popular treatments on this site so far:

  1. Restoraderm
  2. Apple Cider Vinegar
  3. Nystatin
  4. Sea Salt

Another post that might be of interest to you is this one. It’s basically an outline of my experience with everything that I had attempted.

Hope that helps and sorry I don’t have a clear answer for you.
Unfortunately, seborrheic dermatitis appears to be quite complex and differs significantly among sufferers.

I’m currently going through a ton of medical papers trying to find a more concrete answer. Will update as I have more details

All the best.

Thanks for response MICHAEL
Can u tell me one more thing?? From where should I oreder it online?? I mean which one will be the best…

Hi Neerja,

Just to clarify, what are you trying to order?

Apple cider vinegar

Hi Neerja,

Braggs apple cider vinegar is really popular here in North America. However, in my experience it really doesn’t matter all that much.
Seems like any quality apple cider vinegar is practically the same.

Perhaps check out some local stores. I would imagine it would be available.

All the best. Let me know how things turn out.

Im really interested to all the information re: SD. Right now Im suffering itchy scalp and some small rashes in different areas of my body and I am already so depressed about it…
Thanks for the info…

Hi Nenita,

Hope some of the info helps. If you haven’t done so already consider reading through this post.
It’s a quite long, but covers my whole experience with SD. Strange enough my scalp went away as my face got under control.

Hope some of the information on the site helps.
All the best.

I tried the pink himalayan salt baths and afterwards it gave me terrible terrible itching… Dont understand why

Hi Eateban,

It’s really hard to say why this happens.
I’ve had similar experience. Sometimes it would burn, other times it calm it instead.
However, I wasn’t using himalayan salt, just regular sea salt or dead sea salt.

Also I had magnesium salt flakes. These burnt my skin like crazy.
Strange thing is that it (the magnesium flakes) would burn and then actually provide relief. But it didn’t really provide a fix though.

Hope that helps.

Hi Michael,

I have had seborrheic dermatitis on my eyebrows for almost 5 years. it started as a Gunk of dead skin on my eyebrow and grows into a full blown flaking all over my eyebrows.
the problem with SD in eyebrow is that it causes serious hair-falling and get me stressed, sparse eyebrow looks terrible on me, and the worst part is that i am a 17 years old teen boy. my appereance matters so much for me :’( :’(

all these 5 years, i tried to treat my eyebrow with Shampoos like Head nShoulders, Selsun, and Nizoral 2%, LIMITED TO NO SUCESS AT ALL :’ :’

so, my question is, is it safe to apply Sea Salt to my eyebrows??
i am a little bit obsessive and i don’t want my eyebrows to fall, each time it falls my heart mourn out of anxiety and depression,

thanks for reading,
reading your post actually sparks a new hope in me!

i hope someday, we will ALL be freed from SD .

THANKS

recently i moved from indonesia to New zealand, the weather in NZ was so cold and it gets my SD worse,

Hi Nicholas,

Sorry to hear about your story, however you are not alone and quite a large number of people face the same issue you as you (me being one of them). Best thing to do is to try and stay calm, and perhaps start a food journal.
One of the biggest things that had a negative impact on my SD was all the crap information on the internet regarding the topic. So be careful online and always be sceptical when reading.

Sea salt is safe for all skin, however you might have issues if your skin is excessively raw and damaged. In this case the sea salt will cause burning and can irritate the skin further.
A way to overcome this obstacle is by simply diluting with more water, until no irritation occurs. However, then the solution may not be as effective.

If you haven’t yet, consider checking out the “Overview of Seborrheic Dermatitis Face Treatments” post. I’ve covered as much as possible from my experience there. The Cetaphil products mentioned in that post have had fairly good success for a significant amount of people, but some reported irritation. So try to get samples if possible. Additionally, you may want to consider joining the community, as it’s a good chance to communicate with others going down the same road.

I’m currently trying to write a book on the subject. However, it’s quite hard as most of the medical community currently has no clear explanation for why some of us have SD, while others don’t. However, I believe I’ve uncovered a few things that may connect us. Will email you with any updates on this (need to do a bit more testing).

Hope that helps and all the best.

Hey Michael,
I used the salt method last night for my facial SD using the mixture of half a tea spoon to 250ml, I watered my face then poured the salt mixture of my face leaving it for 5 minutes then I washed off, in the morning (now) the redness was reduced but the SD is still there, so I have a few questions, how long should I keep doing this method for e.g 1 every day or twice a week? And will my SD be gone in how much time ? Thank you :slight_smile:

Hi Connor,

If your SD keeps improving, simply keep at it. On average I found that it takes about a week for everything to clear up (if treatment is actually working).
For me though, the sea salt seemed to become less effective over time and then stopped working all together.

A more complete outline of everything I’ve tried is outlined in the “Overview of Seborrheic Dermatitis Face Treatments” post.
The Restoraderm mentioned there has been working for about a year now. However, just in the past month I think I may have found a more specific (food) related issue. However, I still need time to know for sure. If you want a preview of that approach there is a link and password for it in this comment on that overview post.

Let me know if I’ve missed anything or if you want any other questions.
Hope that helps mate and best of luck.

Okay yeah I’ll keep it up for a couple more days and see how it goes! I’ll read the other overview of seboherric dermantits later in the morning. Perhaps a preview would be good thanks :slight_smile: one more question, should i just wash it over my skin or let in soak in and use a cotton bud? Which method is better in your opinion? Thanks heaps Michael

Also when I do apply the salt with water on the face it doesn’t seem to sting? Is that normal