I'm happy to have found you all here, I'm sad that I fit in to join. ;)

Hi, I'm a 43 year old women that have suffered from folliculitis since I was 16-17 years old. In my case I was completely zit free and had a perfect scalp when I was on birth control from 19 to 24, but came back as soon as I quit. Also, my scalp was perfect throughout both my pregnancies.

Ten years ago I was diagnosed with roceaca that also affected my eyes and i also had tons of very stubborn, big zits on my back I now understand must have been folliculitis as well. Courses of minocykline helped my roceacea and eye problems, and IPL treatments of the face totally cured my roceacea. The minocykline also helped my scalp, which is otherwise very red and inflamed, covered in painful folliculitis that also cause lots of hair loss.

Now I've been on minocykline for almost 5 whole years with no breaks and my scalp has been great during all that time. I just quit them a week ago, I'm worried about the long term effects on the body and felt I needed to see what happens after all this time. Needless to say, but it all came back just a few days after quitting the Antibiotics , gaaahh! I'm so fed up with this!

So now I've been, once again, googling on this sucky condition and so I found this support forum. I read about using listerine on the scalp and I just started to use it. The first few days I just soaked the zits with it on a cotton ball, but today I splashed it all over the scalp and let it sit there for half an hour before shampooing.

I have switched over to use only a shampoo bar, all natural, from JR Ligett and after I rinse with applecidervinegar diluted in water to neutralize the alkaline effects of the shampoo bar. Hair feels great.

Last night I also put on some Polysporin on the zits, as well as in my nose, 2 times/day now. Also some on the outer ear.

I also ordered a Hairmax laser comb since it claims to help with lots of scalp issues and also hair loss. My hair loss doesn't seem to be permanent though, I don't think I have the scarring folliculitis, but still, my hair could've much better than so thin.

I'm now also going to change my pillow case every night to a fresh, clean one, as well as new towels for every shower. I'm going to quit using my ball cap when I go for bikerides, anything that has a risk of carrying germs/fungus.

I also clean my hair comb once a day in a alcohol solution mixed with listerine, as well as my hair clips and such. I'm getting quite obsessed, but so be it.

I'm thinking about quitting gluten all together for a few months to see how my body reacts and my scalp. My mom has sensitivity to gluten and I know it can be genetic and cause the weirdest symptoms. I do feel that my roceacea and the scalp issues are related, and that certain hormones caused by BC or pregnancies are protective against whatever it is that's causing it and I do feel it's an allergy issue. So, gluten will have to be the first thing to exclude to see if it's making a difference. Just that I love, love love bread...

It's so good to have come across this support forum, I've been reading here for two days already. And I see that a lot of you here have it so much worse with oozing, bleading bumps and permanent hair loss, makes me feel a lot less sorry for myself.

My "pimples" usually don't bleed or have puss, (even though I do occasionally get them too) but they can be raised, shiny and look like large pimples. They're mostly found at the crown in the back, where my natural part is. I can have up to 30 of them at any one point, or just 5-10. They do itch and are very painful to the touch, and my whole scalp feels like it's on fire due to the constant inflammation and redness.

This morning I felt a new one had popped up right at my hairline. It's huge, almost 2 cm, but it feels like it's very, very deep, it raises the whole scalp, I get a lot of those too. They stay like that and never turn into pimples. All of these lasts for a week or more, but the Listerine seems to have dried up some of them in just a few days. I will just keep on applying it.

I have also stopped scratching my scalp, I don't even allow myself touching it at all unless I first wash my hands.

I will keep you guys updated on how I'm doing with all the tips I've gotten from here. Oh, I also ordered a small jar of Terrasil yesterday since I read about great success using it. Hopefully it comes next week and I will use it three times a day.

Also, I should mention that I started to use castor oil mixed with olive oil on my scalp 3 times a week for hair growth, started nine weeks ago, and I have a whole new set of hair growing in! Tons of new hairs sprouting. Castor oil is antibacterial and goes deep into the tissue, so I figured it can't hurt.

I dream about a miracle cure for this terrorizing condition that could drive the strongest person insane, and I wish all of us will find relief and that soon! I'm going to keep reading here, every day.