is it scalp picking???

Hi! I just found this site too. I do exactly what you're doing. I think it started in my late 20's. Don't know why. I NEVER have a healthy scalp. Wait. I take that back. A few years ago I went to a dermatologist and used my medication religiously. My scalp cleared up and I had nothing to pick. I lost my insurance and since then, even though I have insurance now, it's been a downward spiral. I now have the beginning of a bald spot at the crown of my held. I love pulling off the flaky skin, especially if it comes off in a big patch. So, yeah, I think it's compulsive scalp picking. :( I need to stop, too.

Yes and No. You can choose to enjoy picking it, clearing the scalp, keeping it clean, dont let fungus spread. And use good healthy products and remove loose flakes carefully. Or you can scartch, loose hair cause infections and inflammation. you can have fun scratching it just depends on how smart you are about it....

I think if you do it to clear and for health reasons (sometimes its fungal and spreads.) Picking, combing and brushing can be good for it. and if you enjoy it so be it. My head gets fine white dandruff. If i comb it out it goes away a month or so. But its so bad it covers like a magazine cover all the way. Can I ask if your Seborrheic dermatitis is like plaque/flaky?? like is it nickel to giant size slabs and is it layered? my brother has that. He used to have a compact green yellow flakes. So packed it looked like they were lined up Or was your head like that the scaly compact discolored oily flakes????? please read my story below at the end ill explain why i am telling you all this! .my brother would scratch His packed oily crud and for a few seconds and nothing....must have been letting the scales get loose. Then all of a sudden the green and yellow crust looked like toxic waste failling. Hed want to go out and was self concious. As a brother with light dandruff i understood especially if you are talking to a girl and all of a sudden you instinctively scratch your head and a storm of green and yellow crap falls out. he sat there in slow motion as some fell on her cleavage and in her drink. I only mention this because after that he went compulsive. Bought a metal grooming comb for dogs. Made a home made shampoo inluding some dangerous anti fungal liquid, and listerine, His hair is crazy thick as mine is. He made his own "hair tonic" He put it on dry and sat down while we watched a movie. I could hear the sizziling and corrosion, no joke. Oh yeah poroxide was watered down and added to. So he does his thing, showers blow dries his hair. And he asked me to look. Except for loose stuff and stragglers it freaking worked! Unfortuantley the oily toxic crud would come back but hed either repeat or strengthen his tonic. Eventually his scalp got really red. I believe his bodies only defense was to start reproducing skin cells faster (psoriasis) and over activate the oil glands. A few weeks after he stopped the tonic, he looked pale and said please help me I want to meet someone and now i never will! really sad like. I thought oh well the toxic oil is back we'll just have to comb it out scrape it or whatever.....i walked over, took the metal brush and saw something i never saw before. His dandruff turned into an thick oily psoriasis. It stayed with in his hair which was a god send. But to first get through i had to "chip" away cracking the plaque. Now this plaque was raised but stuck. very wierd for plaque to not be on the scalp. So i put the comb under pushed hard until he "owed" the I lifted and had to use my hands to pull a piece of id say half the size of the iphone! under that were giant white oilyish flakes maybe penny sized, but in that one spot together like a deck of cards. So i comb that out.....oh my god we put that one spot on a towel covered to towel almost 100 percent. To get a better Idea it filled a plastic keg cup. Under the penny sized ones guess what was back?! The packed greenish yellow oily dandruff!!!!! It was too painful to keep going but he was meeting a girl out with the guys and thier girlfriends. We went to our doctor friends. we knew she had a medical bag. She said oh my god and just stared. She decided to help. First by writing scripts for special shampoo. then because she wanted to help she shot lidocaine and demeroll into his scalp. WIth gloves on and using special brushes....shes a girl she had way better ones. Well after taking off the top layer followed by the security big white flakes we got down to the toxic crud, he shampooed many times, loosening it up. Blow dried it lots came out the rest we combed out. still a sh+t load. His head was swollen and bloody, so ontop of the shampoo we got him a weeks worth of percocet considering he was too shampoo daily to stop the oil glands and heal the red welts. Over 2 months his hair went back to dandruff but with a script for tetracycline he has very thick white dandruff. but its soft and takes a 5 min combing and minimum picking, life isnt all that bad now for him! So my point is, have fun, make a game out of keeping your head clean and clear. just dont get to the point like my brother where youre putting crazy chemicals in your hair. If my brother brushed that girl off "no pun intended" then he would have been fine. Instead of apologizing and saying he has a skin condition and offering to buy her a drink he just bolted out of the place. Now because he is better just white semi big soft flakes he is happy. The girl he is seeing, guess what her fetish is??? Picking/combing dandruff. she saw pictures and said "oh my god i would have brought you home if you flaked on me and i got to go to town on that head!" I guess be happy do what you want, a lot of people pick i mean a lot....so try not to make it bleed, stop the SD from spreading. It can have fungal properties that spread if left there! Keep it from being oily too. Id like to hear back from you about your next clean up! tell me how much you picked off, what it looked like, was it oily, did you make it bleed? and how clear is it now:?? Ill do the same to keep you motivated if needed. GOOD LUCK TO YOU! NOTHING WRONG WITH GROOMING YOURSELF!!!! =)