Treating Seborrheic Dermatitis with Raw Honey

Hi Peter,
Thanks for the update. That sounds like a solid plan!

Haven’t heard of the Fungoral, but I’m guessing it uses one of the azoles (anitfungal agents that end with azole) to do it’s job. My own experience with them was they peeled my skin. However, from many others I heard the best chance with any antifungal treatment is sticking to protocol with any deviation and ensuring you cover the surrounding skin as well.

Let me know how it goes for you and stay in touch.

Michael,

I have done some more researching online and SD is funny condition. I just got it 6 months ago at an age of 31 one and i find it weird that it can just pup up at such a late stage in life. Surely there must be a reason for obtaining this condition. I see from my recent research that many believe that it is a consequence of an internal imbalance in the body itself. The fungus on the skin everyone has, so surely there must be a reason other than bad luck that some of us react too much on that fungus?

Many believe it has to do with Candida in the gut, too much fungus in the body and the body reacts with SD. Have you ever read/heard about that? People seem to clear up from SD by doing a Candida diet, eliminating sugar, starch, yeast and carbohydrates with fungus feeds from. Kind a make sense to me……

So i am planing to take some test to see if my body has Candida or not. Or some other type of fungus infection.

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the update.

For a while I went this route myself. Anti-Candida diets and all the common anti-fungals described online. Fasting for several days or vegetable based diets would clear it up quick for me. However, these diets were not for me and my sports performance went down significantly during this time.

The anti-fungals didn’t seem to do much and would sometimes make it get worse. The first time I took Caprylic Acid (anti-fungal) it cleared quite well for a while, however, it stopped working over time and seborrheic dermatitis returned.

Currently my regimen has still been working. Feeling great over all with a well balanced diet and regular exercise. I can still sometimes feel tingling sensations in the areas were the seborrheic dermatitis was the worst. Tiny flakes sometimes show up around the nasal fold as well. However, no redness overall and no aggressive flaking/scaling. Best of all I haven’t been using any strong topical anti-fungals or lengthy methods.

Have you been having any luck with your current approach?

All the Best.

Peter,

Im still on my 3 month project using an anti fungal cream (Fungoral). Not seen any difference at all so far, starting to get dry skin in other places. My eyebrows are there worst, seems to be getting worse and worse.

Once I’m done with this i will spend a few months whereby I’m not putting anything on the skin. See if the body can work it out. If that doesn’t work i am planing the candida diet, cutting out sugars etc. Booked an appointment to to some test to see if my body have candida or other fungal infection.

I am not red at all, no inflammation just flaky/facial dandruff. Starting to wonder if it might not be SD as i ready most of the people complain over redness and inflammation. Yet to receive you mentioned cleanser and lotion, will be interesting to test that.

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the update. Still interested in hearing how your current treatment progresses. All my attempts with anti-fungals never played out for much longer than 2-3 months. They seemed to actually start aggravating and drying my skin the more I used them.

Most of all I’m interested in hearing how the “leave it alone” turns out and how the appointment results come in.

Regarding the redness, I had none at all sometimes as well. My redness usually came when I was actively trying things on my skin to prevent the flaking. Some things seemed to get rid of the flaking, but cause intense redness and burning instead.

Stay in touch and best of luck!

I have been reading about raw honey as the cure to seb derm, and finally I bought myself a bottle of Comvita manuka honey 15+ today!

Thanks for the exceptional writeup on this treatment plan. It really helps as I note down the details on how much water to add, the use of non-chlorine water, 4 weeks + additional 6 months and no coconut oil. These are the best information online. Thank God for your website as I was almost going to incorporate coconut oil.

It takes great commitment to follow through till the end. I also need the courage as I am afraid the honey will contribute to acne breakouts, more blackheads and awful flare-ups. When I see the flakes, I get all stressed up. Despite repeated reminders not to scratch off the flakes, I use my nails or tweezers - and it always end badly as the skin becomes raw, bloody red and inflamed. The cycle continues as next day the affected areas will be covered with scaly flakes again. Depending on my level of self-control, I may resist scratching for that day but certainly not for long. It is a disheartening skin problem I have had since 17 years old. I am so thankful that the honey treatment has given me faith and hope that I can do something good for my face and scalp at age 34. I really want it to work. Strangely I am quite anxious at this moment as I am diligently reading and gearing up for my first day of treatment tomorrow.

I am hoping to add squalene (after washing off honey mask) as my skin is very dehydrated. I lay off completely moisturizer and sunblock for over a year. I am currently using a gentle facial wash twice daily and bioderma sensibio make-up removing water occasionally as I rarely wear make-up these days. My skin has gotten worse. I have stopped elomet or elidel for face, only using Stiefel’s stieprox shampoo for my hair and scalp which work really well to control the dandruffs.

I love Skinceuticals Vitamin C and Differin in the past. I was wondering if I could add Skinceuticals CE Ferulic along with Squalene during the prophylactic 6-month period? Will it help if I apply the honey mask every day instead of every second day for the 4-week period? Is sunblock essential or should we stay off sunblock during the treatment?

Appreciate your feedbacks and comments. Please feel free to share. Thanks!

Hi Jamie,

Thanks for providing so much details on your experience and current approach.
Additionally thanks for the positive feedback :).

I’ve emailed another person who (last time I talked to) was planning to go through the whole honey treatment.
Will update you on how it’s been working for him as it might help give you an idea of what to expect.

Personally I never made it through the full treatment. My usage at first was very spontaneous and wearing the honey on my face so often was hard for me as a guy. Additionally I never covered my scalp with it, as I just imagined it was way too messy. However, I think this was my ultimate downfall when attempting the honey treatment. It was definitely hands down my most successful natural treatment. Especially during the beginning it was the best. Not sure why over time it’s effectiveness deteriorated for me. Maybe the specific honey was different, maybe I was not consistent enough, maybe covering the scalp was crucial, or maybe some other reason.

You mentioned so many things in your post that I’ve actually never heard of. One thing that I can really connect to is the self-control aspect. I think part of the issue is in the mind and how you re-act/perceive the your skin issue. Often if you think about it too much, it starts to act up. This seems to be a closed loop and actually feed the problem.

Staying determined, learning to control my thoughts and let go definitely seemed to play a big role in my improvements. However, I question everything so I still sometimes wonder if I’ve learned to let go because of my skins improvements or did my skin improve because I learned to let go. Regardless though, if I stress out about it I can actually almost forcefully make the tingling sensation start up again (also I get the sensation after large greasy meals).

Wish you all the best and stay in touch. Stay positive and I’m sure everything will sort itself out.
Best of luck on your treatment.

Thank you for this info! I am starting this treatment now and am very grateful for an alternative treatment (and possible cure!) compared to the expensive prescriptions that don’t work that well. After the initial 4 weeks, are the weekly treatments 1 hour or 3 hours each?

Hi Kelly,
In the study they used 3 hour follow up treatments. I’m a guy and this treatment was quite difficult for me to follow through with. However, it I’ve gone through about 2-3 small jars (500ml) of raw honey (ate some of it as well though) and it was definitely one of my best treatments.

Overall honey had really great results especially when I started. But as soon as my seborrheic dermaitits cleared I would usually get lazy and become inconsistent with treatment. Over time the honey started becoming less effective. This was likely just due to not following through all the time. Also I didn’t cover all effected skin (such as my scalp) which was probably a mistake.

Looking forward to hearing how the treatment works out for you. Best of luck and stay in touch.

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your great sharing. Just an update on the honey treatment.

I started slowly with the honey as facial cleanser twice daily before stepping up to the honey mask treatment on Feb 25. Today is my 6th treatment and I am experiencing bad flaking of scalp on my forehead hairline. Somewhere on the 3rd treatment, I had a very big acne on my chin, which had dried up nicely by now.

I have the same sentiments that it is hard to keep to schedule. Before starting on the treatment, I had to plan for 4 ample weeks where there wouldn’t be any disruption. Leaving it as a face mask is fine, but covering my scalp fully with honey is not easy. I apply the honey mixture on dry face, ears and dry scalp. I am not sure if I should wet and towel dry my hair first before applying the honey. Is that the correctly way or should I stick to my current method of applying it directly on dry scalp? I shampooed only once since last week so I am wondering if the excessive flaking on my hairline is due to my scalp missing the shampoo routine. So far not much flaking on my nose, just the usual redness but I don’t see significant improvement to say that the treatment is working or it is a roaring success. I have a nasty feeling that “it gets worse before it gets better”. Looking forward to seeing positive changes soon and I will certainly report back again!

Hi Jamie,

Thanks for the update. Glad to hear about your progress, but too bad your not seeing drastic changes. For me the honey had really quick results. Within the first two treatments my face was mainly cleared. Only as I kept using it my results started to diminish.

One other reader noted that he had success with the ACV method, but only after an initial phase were the seborrheic dermatitis actually worsened. He didn’t give up and kept going. In the end the ACV really did it for him and he’s been using it ever since.

If the honey still has no results for you, perhaps you might want to try the cleanser I’ve been using. Another reader also reported great results and he didn’t even need the moisturizer. He said he’s had seborrheic dermatitis for ~20 years and it’s the best he’s seen his skin.

Thanks for reporting back. These type of updates are likely to help others who stumble upon this page. Hope you finally start seeing results.

Also out of curiosity, what specific brand of honey are you using?

Thank you for all this info! Do you think this raw honey method would work for eyebrows as well? That is mainly where my seb derm is.

Hi Kepi,

Thanks for the positive feedback.

Raw honey worked really for the seborrheic dermatitis on my eyebrows. My biggest issues mainly came from trying to control the forehead, cheeks, and nose.
The eye brows seemed to be the easiest to control. Perhaps maybe because the eye brows were better at soaking stuff up.

On a side note though, one reader just mentioned she had amazing success with controlling the eye brow area with ACV.
Check out her comment for some more details.

Hope that helps and all the best.

Hi Michael,

I used haddrell’s of cambridge manuka honey UMF 16+. It made my skin look better, radiant and moisturized. After 4 weeks of manuka honey mask treatment every other day, my SD improved about 5 - 10% on my face. I needed my medicated shampoo to reduce the formation of flakes on my scalp, the honey treatment had zero results on my scalp.

May I ask what cleanser are you using? I read that you use Probiotic Cleanser and I am eager to try. I plan to use Probiotic Cleanser and carry on with weekly manuka honey mask on my face and neck for 6 months. I will leave my scalp honey free as it is too much work and mess to apply honey on the scalp. I find it easy to apply honey on the face and leave it on for 2 - 3 hours.

Do you know anything about AOBiome AO+ mist? It is a live probiotic, bacterial mist to spray on the skin in order to restore healthy skin microbiome. It is in development phase by a startup company. Probiotics seems so promising. I hope to start a routine on:

  1. Probiotic Cleanser
  2. AO+ mist
  3. Oral probiotics, LactoGG

Do let me know the name of the cleanser. With all the great sharing on your website and the internet, I have so much to be grateful for.

Hi Jamie,
Yeah I was using the probitioc cleanser for a while way back then. It was really quite good initially. I event went out and stocked up with 3 bottles right away. However, it seemed to stop working quite quickly. In total I only finished about half a bottle of it. This is the one I was using. I’m located in Vancouver Canada, so if your near you can have mine :slight_smile:

Honey was definitely one of best treatments I tried for this. I believe the only reason it was not effective in the long term because it was so hard to keep a good schedule. Plus it just didn’t feel right sitting in honey for 3 hours every couple days (especially for a guy).

Haven’t seen that mist, but seems like a good idea.

Not sure if you’ve seen this post, but it’s my latest comprehensive write-up. I tried to go over as much as possible (from what I’ve attempted) and towards the end I go over what my final treatments were. Hopefully theres some useful information there.

If you find the time, come check-in as things progress.
All the best.

23 days ago I’ve started raw honey treatment after failure with sea salt. I didn’t notice any improvement, nor deterioration. I’m moisturizing my skin with coconut oil which doesn’t want to soak in at all (a lot of pimples appeared cause first time I used too much of it, but even smallest amounts of it doesn’t soak in and after night i have a greasy layer on my skin). I don’t really know what to do now. Steroids doesn’t work, honey and salt doesn’t work… Maybe I’ll give ACV a try :S

Hi Mathieu,

Thanks for checking in. Coconut oil was a no go for me. It didn’t seem to have any positive impact initially, but over time it felt the seborrheic dermatitis actually got worse from using it. Additionally the bacteria/yeast which is believed to cause seborrheic dermatitis feeds on lipids (oils), so maybe that’s why the honey+coconut oil hasn’t been so effective.

Or maybe your skin is reacting differently to the honey. Maybe it’s not for you. Did you see any improvements from it initially? It worked amazingly well when I first used it, with results kind of going into limbo over time.

Not sure if you have seen this post, but I’ve tried to summarize as much as possible about my whole experience (interesting discussion in the comments as well). Hope it helps and let me know if I’ve missed anything.

Best of luck and take care.

Hi,

I’m going to give this a try, but not quite sure how I’d go through the whole process.
Do I apply the mixture as directed and leave for 3 hours before rinsing, and then every other day; use it as a face wash? continuing for 4 weeks?

When do I next have to apply for another 3 hour period?

And, what’s the ‘4 Week + 6 Months’ about?

Sorry, but I’m completely clueless :smiley:

please heeelpp!!
I have it on my eyebrows since a year,30%-40% of my eyebrow has fall off and many of the hair grew thinner…would this treatment make them grow back?
How do I aplly it without being agrssive and remove all my hair that is left? I also have it on my scalp and lost a lot of hair in my temples because of it but still the eyebrows is the worse for my self steem by far.
So I going to tell you how my day goes so you can “organized” me the best way
I go to the gym in the mornin so I used to let jojoba oil with tea tree oil in my scalp and eyebrows but it hasnt really worked that good,I shower before going to the gym.
So what I should do let coconut oil on the night to lubricate the afected zones then aplly raw hony with 10% non chlorinated water to the zones leave it tree hours and then shower with warm water?the aplly coconut oil? how do aplly the raw without being agrssive to the hairs?

Hi Mani,
Personally I didn’t use it as a face wash that much. I found that the masks were enough for me as it was.
Yeah, I would leave it on the face for 3 hours then rinse off with cold water. Using coconut oil as a moisturiser after the mask seemed to make results worse.

From what I remember the medical study had participants use the honey every other day for four weeks, then half of them remained on a prophylactic plan for 6 months (twice a week treatments).
The majority of the four week only participants cleared up initially, but relapsed later when treatment was stopped. The ones who kept up with the prophylactic 6 month plan did not report any relapse.

Check out the abstract of that study here.
Additionally, I was never persistant enough to stick with the 3 hours masks for that long.
I’ve written a more comprehensive post recently that summarises my whole experience with seborrheic dermatitis and what I’m using now.
Here is a link to that post.

Hope that helps.