What Is Seborrheic Dermatitis?

Seborrheic dermatitis is essentially a more severe form of dandruff and shows very similar symptoms – flakes, itching and redness, to name just a few.

It’s easy to get confused between seborrheic dermatitis and dandruff – after all, the symptoms are almost identical:

• flakes
• redness
• itching
• dry scalp
• inflammation

But there’s one major difference to look out for – seborrheic dermatitis tends to be more severe. So you can expect to see more flakes, experience more itch and see more signs of irritation than with dandruff.

The cause of seborrheic dermatitis

Yes, you’ve guessed it – it’s the same as dandruff. The symptoms of seborrheic dermatitis are all linked to the presence of naturally occurring microbes on your scalp called Malassezia globosa.

As Malassezia breaks down your scalp oils, it forms an irritant: oleic acid. Half the world’s population is sensitive to it and for most of them that leads to dandruff; for others, it results in a more intense case of seborrheic dermatitis.

So how do you tell if it’s seborrheic dermatitis?

As we’ve seen, there are plenty of similarities with dandruff, however there are things to look out for:

• More severe flakes
• White/yellowish scales – these tend to be more oily than dandruff flakes
• Red, inflamed patches on the scalp

How to treat seborrheic dermatitis

Just like dandruff, you can treat seborrheic dermatitis with a shampoo.

You might find that a good anti-dandruff shampoo with 1% pyrithione zinc is strong enough to control all the symptoms.

Our Cool Menthol Shampoo contains the active ingredient ZPT combined with Zinc carbonate that helps keep the dandruff-fighting ingredient in its most effective form, for maximum power to fight dandruff and severe scalp conditions better.

More about seborrheic dermatitis

^* vs. 1% Pyrithione Zinc dandruff shampoos