Folliculitis Puns

Obligatory "this has happened for the past 25+ years and has only been resolved in the last three weeks".

Ever since I started hitting puberty, I have always had lots of inflamed whitehead-looking things on my butt. 5-20+ at any given time, of varying sizes. They get worse when I sweat a ton, particularly while wearing jeans, but they're pretty much always there. For a long time, they made me feel anxious about getting naked; I got over it, but it has definitely been both emotionally and (to a lesser extent) physically scarring.

I remember 13-year-old me in mostly-pre-internet days trying all kinds of ridiculous things to get rid of them, none of which worked. I somehow got the impression that there was nothing I could do about it. At some point, I learned that they're folliculitis. Still under the subconscious impression that it was incurable, I'd occasionally ask my GP about it or Google it. I remember a doc once saying that he thought it could be resolved and I vaguely remember the words "antibacterial soap" among other things. But I remember thinking that I had tried it, so I never pursued it. This childhood idea (and probably some body issues from growing up) had totally clouded my perception of the issue.

Three weeks ago, I had a weird skin thing on my hand, so I went to a dermatologist. We hit it off, she immediately figured out my weird hand thing, and I remembered to ask her about my butt. "Oh, just get [insert highly-recommended-by-dermatologists brand] soap, use it daily, and it'll probably resolve in two weeks." Ok, great. I was skeptical, but what the hell. It's just soap, and I'd never tried that brand. Why not? Ordered a bunch online.

Three weeks later, just switching soap and showering daily like I always do... I HAVE A PRETTY NORMAL BUTT. My angry red friends are gone. Seriously. 95%+ resolved.

What. The. F&*k. Was. Wrong. With. Me. (I actually know the answer to that, but still.)

ETA: The above-mentioned soap that worked for me: Cetaphil deep cleansing bar soap.

TL;DR: Suffered from folliculitis for several decades, only learning in my 40's that it's easily curable with certain types of over-the-counter soap.

Male, 42 years old (36 at time of laser sessions)

Just wanted to post my experience so others are aware of possible setbacks with this procedure.

Throughout my life, I'd occasionally get ingrown hairs in my beard/goatee area. I didn't necessarily get them more than average person, but just enough to wonder if I could do anything about it. So one day I figured "since I shave everyday anyway, why not just get the hairs lasered off and that way I'm hitting two birds with one stone." So I did a little research and then found a local laser provider and scheduled several sessions on my face. That was about six years ago and, man do I wish I could turn back time. This has hands-down been the worst decision of my life.

I got laser six years ago and since then I've had 100X the # of ingrown hairs b/c of folliculitis. Folliculitis can occur through infection (fungal/bacterial) or through damaged hair follicles (mechanical folliculitis). Even if you're completely sterile with the preparation and aftercare, you can still get folliculitis simply because the laser damages the hairs. Think about it, you've got thousands of hairs on your face. Even if laser successfully destroys 99% of them (it won't), you're still left with that pesky 1% (hundreds of hairs) that was damaged by the laser but not completely destroyed. Those damaged hairs are the ones that will likely become inflammed and ingrown. If folliculitis is due to fungus or bacteria, you can likely resolve it through antibiotics. However, if your folliculitis is due to damaged follicles, the damaged hair will keep trying to "grow" but because it's damaged it will become inflammed and result in an ingrown hair lesion. My face has looked like a pepperoni pizza for the last 6 years. It has totally ruined my social life and has even affected some of my career/business decisions. Not everybody experiences this, but I want you to know this is a possibility. Trust me, you don't want folliculitis. If you're a male and thinking about getting this done to your face, please know the risk you're taking. Wish somebody would've informed me.

Good luck.

I've been dealing with scalp folliculitis for about 4 years now. I dont know how I got it but it's there. Until recently my case was always mild to severe. But now it's been mostly cleared up. First thing I did to help was getting a doctor's prescription of antibiotics. I took Clindamycin orally for about a week along with an antibacterial shampoo prescribed by my doctor. After the round of antibiotics, I restored my gut biome with florestor and probiotics. And then after that I use Tea tree shampoo and leave in conditioner. Now I think aside from the oral antibiotics the biggest thing in helping my case was the tea tree shampoo and conditioner. Be sure to get real tea tree, either Paul Mitchell or Tea Tree Brand from a salon. Now I only get a bump or two every now and then.. also be sure to wash your bedsheets often. At least once a week with good detergent and oxiclean. This is coming from a case where I had probably 1000 bumps on my head. Hope this helps someone. 👍

Just posting this here in case it helps anyone.

I (27 yo male) have had folliculitis and acne bad for years on my back and buttocks, chest, and at its worst down my arms. Basically anywhere clothing touched my skin. It was hellish and made basic things like exercising or swimming very uncomfortable. I have corrected the problem with the help of a naturopath (who btw was WAY more helpful than any MD I saw). Here's what made the difference:

1. High EPA fish oil, 1.5tsp/day - ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL. I can't describe how much this helped my skin (MUST be the high-epa variety, I use AquaOmega brand)
2. B100 vitamin complex, 0.5 tablet/day
3. Selenium, zinc, vitamin C, and beta-carotene multivitamin daily (I believe the beta-carotene to be much better than preformed vitamin A for preventing toxicity)
4. Nettle leaf tea 1-3 cups daily (this stuff is awesome)
5. CBD 30mg oil to help with inflammation and stress as needed.

It took about 2 weeks for my skin to clear up substantially. It's now about 90% better and still improving.

Basically this regimen helps to improve skin barrier function, hydration, and inflammation. I believe that improving the barrier function helped tremendously with keeping the always-present beneficial skin bacteria from penetrating the layer and causing infection around the hair follicles, and also cut down the yeast overgrowth causing the seb derm.

Anyways, just what worked for me. It would make me happy if it helped someone else too, so please give some or all of it a try if you haven't already.

I was suffering from folliculitis for 5 years. I tried a bunch of stuff at home like vinegar, apple juice, yogurt, benzoyl peroxide. Eventually late last year I visited a dermatologist who prescribed amoxicillin for a month. The folliculitis cleared during the month I took amoxicillin but returned stronger than ever soon after. The other thing the doctor had told me was to shampoo everyday. After the folliculitis returned, one day I just said fuck it and shampooed 5 times that day, then lowered it slowly to twice a day by the end of the week and thereafter have been shampooing once a day for the past few months.

TLDR Use of godzilla amounts of shampoo cured my folliculitis after suffering for 5 years and trying everything under the sun.

Brief background--

I am an Indian male who had been suffering from scalp folliculitis for three years.In the beginning,I ignored the problem as I was a chronic sufferer of acne on my face and back.After around 1.5 years,I met a dermatologist who put me on 3 months doxycycline course but the problem persisted.

I used tea tree oil,dettol liquid which did nothing to it.I then switched to septran ds antibiotic for two weeks but to no avail.Then,I went to Dr RML hospital,New delhi dermatology department.There,I met this gentleman dermatologist who straightforward prescribed me ketoconazole shampoo,clindamycin lotion to rub on scalp twice daily and mupirocin 2% to apply in nostrils,armpits, bellybutton,groin and in between butt cheeks twice daily for 5 days every month until the problem resolved.

The size and number of bumps decreased but bumps persisted with a lot of itching.In between,I got tuberculosis and I was on ATT for 9 months.The doctor told me to come after ATT for isotretinoin course as It affects liver.Also,Isotretinoin had already been prescribed two times in the past to cure my acne( It eradicated my nodular acne in second course.But,I also got IBS).Thus,I was concerned about its side effects.

I started searching on internet and I found similar posts on reddit like my problem.I found about people successfully using benzoyl peroxide and hibiclens to eradicate the folliculitis.I started using benzoyl peroxide 5% gel wash,certrimide mild solution on scalp during shower.I got benzoyl peroxide 2.5% soap and savlon solution to mix it in a bucket of water for the rest of my body areas.I was already using mupirocin 2% every month for five days.I also started changing bed sheets,towels and pillow covers daily.

Finally,after doing this routine for 3 months,My scalp folliculitis was gone except a few bumps on face.I was prescribed minocycline 50 mg twice daily for 2 weeks.My face bumps were also gone after completing minocycline course and I am free of folliculitis as of now after a week.

I am attaching links of the products I am using right now.I hope that It also cures your problem.Please be cautioned,I am not a medical practitioner and these products may have unwanted side effects and may not work for you.

1 Benzoyl peroxide 5% gel wash.Wet your hair and Rub it on scalp before shower and wash it thoroughly at the end of shower.Use with caution as It may bleach your hair.It didn't bleach mine.

https://m.netmeds.com/prescriptions/benzonix-gel-wash-5

I know this has been posted before, but I’d like to add another success story for others in the hopes that they may find success with this method as well. I have struggled with moderate folliculitis for about 10 years until about 6 months ago when I found this subreddit. I had tried maaaany things including steroid cream, salicylic acid, ketoconazole, coal tar, sulfur… the list goes on.

Eventually I stumbled upon the popular post on this page outlining the benzoyl peroxide method to treat foliculitis. I gave it a try and what do you know, it worked! I’ve been free of those painful red bumps for about 6 months until this past week when I haven’t used the cleanser for ~3 weeks due to being on vacation.

My routine below is how I began the first 1-2 weeks:

Neutrogena Stubborn Acne Cleanser: apply every morning and leave on for ~45 minutes prior to showering.

Neutrogena Spot Treatment: Apply after shower to the most problematic spots and leave on all day

After about 2 weeks the spots had cleared significantly and I switched to using the cleanser maybe 1-2x per week for maintenance. The spot treatment has only been used 1-2x total for a breakthrough spot.

That’s it, any other questions I’m more than willing to answer.

I feel like I’m constantly at war with my chin. I had contact dermatitis and the hydrocortisone made my skin sensitive, swollen, red and raw. The few rashy bumps of contact dermatitis completely transformed into a swollen red patch of bumpy skin around my chin. It almost looked like eczema or a burn but slightly raised. I went back to another doctor who said I had folliculitis, and antibiotics cleared it all up. But ever since then, it’s like my chin is just always breaking out. I think the hydrocortisone damaged my natural barrier or something. I have been using a lot of creams and am careful not to overdo it with creams/read up on them first. I’m just really fed up. My chin keeps breaking out.

I’m a 32 year old male and have suffered with folliculitis as long as I can remember, but I believe it all started about the same time I had severe acne at age 15-19.

Over the last couple of years my wife and I have been slowly replacing dairy products in our diet with non dairy alternatives. For the last 6 months the only dairy I was having was milk in tea and coffee. However, after visiting her family In Poland I had to revert back to having cows milk and cheese in higher volumes. I noticed this gave me severe breakouts of folliculitis. I had to use an antibiotic to get my scalp back to normal - but this is only a temporary solution.

Since returning to the UK and my reduced diary diet I noticed my scalp cleared up but was still getting regular but smaller breakouts. I decided to completely remove diary from my diet as an experiment (even in tea and coffee). Amazingly I’ve noticed a dramatic improvement in my folliculitis since removing dairy completely from my diet. It was like the same effect as being on antibiotics. I still get the occasional spot, but I’d say it’s 95% better and I’m in no rush to go back to diary in my diet.

I recommend trying this, but it is hard - dairy is in so many things you wouldn’t imagine.

I do think stress also causes breakouts for me, so perhaps this is the 5% that remains, but I can’t really control this so much.But going dairy free has been a really nice effect.

As in we have to keep applyimg treatment such as BP and hibiclens why so? Why is it reoccuring for us?

Hey everyone! I f(21) had a bad bikini wax. It messed with my skin. Ever since I’ve had itching and folliculitis and it’s been persistent. I’ve seen 7 doctors and they all said folliculitis. My partner and I both worked and lived from home when I got these symptoms and had no other sexual partners, but I’m worried about what if I’d got scabies from an unsanitary wax? She wore no gloves, and I sat on a used towel. What are the odds of scabies through that! Mind you no one in my household has gotten this. Everyone is fine but me. My infection is localized and worsens on my period. I can pull hairs from it. It itches worse at night. I’ve had this for MONTHS, but no burrows and honestly just looks like folliculitis. It responds to treatment like bleach baths and folliculitis antibiotics but if I stop bleach bath it’ll itch again (I think because I did shave). I have ocd and being diagnosed with persistent folliculitis that itches this bad is messing with me lol. What are the odds

I’ve had severe scalp folliculitis for almost 8 years now. It has been pure hell. A few weeks ago I started feeling sick and got a cold. A few days after that I developed a wicked sinus infection. I finally gave in and went to the doctor. Amoxicillin for 5 days was prescribed. I noticed my head acne has disappeared. This is the clearest and longest it’s been gone ever. I have taken way stronger antibiotics for up to 30 days. It would get better but come back worse in a week. I’m pretty much baffled. As weird and fast as it came it has now disappeared just a fast. My snoot is always always clear now. No yellow or green boogers. There is definitely some correlation between the sinus infections and skin/scalp acne.

I just started using Nozin to decolonize my nose from Klebsiella aerogenes. It’s a product used in hospitals to decolonize the nose to reduce staphylococcal infections but I figured it might work for klebsiella too as gram negative bacteria are more susceptible to disinfectant types of treatment. Klebsiella and other bacteria form biofilms which protect them from traditional antibiotics, you can kill the ones outside the films and suppress the infection but the ones in the biofilm remain safe and reproduce again. Accutane certainly worked well when I used it but I didn’t achieve full eradication, I used roughly .5 mg/kg for several months. I think my chronic allergies kept my nose from drying out enough. In desperation I started using Nozin twice daily, about 1 cm into my nostrils, and the effect has been dramatic so far. Within two days I stopped getting new lesions. This was a week ago now, don’t know if it will work for everyone but I wanted to give you guys some hope.

Hi. So. I have long hair. But i have three spots of folliculitis decalvans on scalp. I usually have 2 treatments that keep the spots under control but the are very drying and my hair got very damaged.

I sometimes want to shave my head totally and start to grow it from scrap. Also for few months I'll be able to apply the lotion more easily.

But I'm afraid the spots will make my scalp look bad (like burned skin).

Did some of you tried to shave your head?

Please provide any tips and products recommendation to remove folliculitis (red bumps) on shoulders and chest after trimming body hair.

Thanks!

I have gram negative folliculitis on my face and on my legs, nothing on the scalp. I don’t have large cysts, but a few small bumps that appear every few days. If anyone has experience, how long does it take to work? This is my second round of accutane, first round was for acne and it got rid of my acne. I am finishing up month two. One thing I noticed was that I had a lot of miniature folliculitis on my face that weren’t really pustules and the number of those seems to have gone down. I also get my nose swabbed fairly frequently and got it swabbed last week. I have no growth of staph or klebsiella in my nose, the gram negative bacteria causing this. I also got my cheek swabbed a few weeks ago and had no staph growth on cheek and “rare klebsiella growth” on cheek. Thanks

I had a shaving waiver for 5 years up until separating. The bumps were really bad and was put on the waiver to assist which it did--greatly. Since getting this, I have rigorously taken care of my face in avoiding ingrown hairs and bumps which has come with LOTS of maintenance.

Because of this, I fear that because I've maintained minimal damage since, I will have done a disservice to myself in getting a rating.

How can I go about this without having to endure the pain and agony of letting ingrown hairs happen yet also relay to them that this is something service-connected?

So last week, my wife looked at my tight ass and asked....do you have Chicken Pox? Well, I was very surprised to find that my ass and part of my back was covered in small red marks. No pain or itch.

I came to the determination that I got Hot Tub Rash. Ugh. I thought I had my sanitizer down...........but I would test and adjust on Monday and Fri. Usually I use the tub every night. I realized that by Weds, the sanitizer was almost used up and I need to add shock on Weds to keep up my levels.

So my lesson: Shock often and wash out your suit and take a shower after a long soak!

I'm banned from the hot tub until this clears up. I think I got 3 more days of being banned. It will be a loooonngg 3 days.

I have very bad hyperpigmentation and folliculitis on my butt and hyperpigmentation on my back from KP (thankfully the bumps from KP are under control) It's embarrassing and very hard to "beat". Here's the routine that I want to start-please let me know your thoughts :)

My proposed routine:

shower in the AM

-Skinfix Glycolic renewing scrub ( 7% glycolic acid + 6% lactic acid); twice a week

- Neutrogena acne body wash w/salicylic acid; 5 days a week

After shower

-the ordianry Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1% AFTE; twice a week (wont use it when I use the skinfix scrub)

-Paula's choice C15 super booster (15% vitamin C); twice a week on the days I dont use the niacinamide

- Palmers cocoa butter lotion with vitamin E; 7 days a week

As you can see Im starting twice a week for many of the products to see how my body reacts to everything. I've read that for some products like the Skinfix and niacinamide you can start to incorporate them more often in the week once your skin gets used to it.

I joined this group months ago, when I was desperately looking for something to help me with recurring folliculitis on my scalp. It was bad. I couldn't identify the reason for it, but it seemed stress would made it worse. As soon as one bumps healed, new appeared. I had tried anything that could potentially help. Cortisone creams, antibacterial creams - prescription and not. I had tried natural stuff: pine tea oil, tea tree oil and so on... I had done two antibiotic therapies. One seven day and another twenty-eight day. Inflammation came back days after completed each course.

I had read tons of articles and studies and one day I came across one that looked a bit dodgy. If I remember correctly this was a study from a Turkish or Iraqi university. It said something about kefir used on male recurring scalp folliculitis. It found it to be some high percentage effective. It didn't say how they used it in the preview. The article was paywalled, so I closed it and I couldn't find it since.

I couldn't stop thinking though. How did they use kefir? I started drinking it more and since it didn't help much I decided to put it on my scalp one night. I washed my head with hibiscrub, then I rubbed kefir in, let it dry and then did that again without washing the first layer off. I went to bed with some kefir flakes on my head. I kept going with it for a couple of days, since day two - no hibiscrub, just kefir. I think it helped. I've been doing that for the last 3 months or so and have no problem with folliculitis anymore. I have tried stopping for a couple of days and some bumps and etching would come back, so I don't do too long breaks now. Although last week I was away for the weekend and had a break on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I didn't notice any major changes on the scalp. When I got home Sunday evening I put kefir on the scalp and I still do it every day.

I haven't researched that too much, but I looked up kefir anti-inflammatory properties and it seems to add up. I have a working theory that there may be some connection to microbiome of the skin. I mean, I had put so much antibacterial stuff on my skin over the years, that maybe only the most sturdy bacteria left and when without much competition the overgrow in the follicles ... I dunno, but maybe someone knows better or wants to dig dipper into this. I would much appreciate any feedback.

The bottom line is: it looks like kefir helped me with my scalp folliculitis. I'm not sure if it's not just a "remissio