Q. I have had an underarm rash off and on for years. I read about coal tar shampoo for rosacea and found that it worked well. I thought perhaps my armpit rash might be caused by fungi too.
I shampoo my armpits and face at every shower and everything has cleared up. This has worked better as a rosacea treatment than years of antibiotics.
A. Several people have reported that dandruff shampoo (whether based on coal tar or selenium sulfide) is helpful for rosacea. This condition causes redness of the face along with pimple-like lesions.
Although physicians haven’t determined the cause of rosacea, the fact that dandruff shampoos may help suggests that yeast or fungus on the skin surface may play a role in some cases. Perhaps the same mechanism explains your success with underarm rash.
If you would like to read more about dandruff shampoo for rosacea, here is a link. Others have found that magnesium (topically in the form of Epsom salt solution) also works. Here is a link.
