I have had problems since the start of 2006 with a rash on my scalp that my doctor diagnosed as folliculitis and which is treatable with Neutrogena T-gel shampoo. It took me a while to figure out why I suddenly started having this problem; I realized that I broke out every few weeks when I used a deep conditioning treatment. But, by Spring 2007, even daily shampoos and conditioners began having the same effect. If a product that I had been using came out with a "new formula," then it would suddenly cause folliculitis and I would have to switch to another product. Out of all the products that caused me to get folliculitis, the only chemical they had in common was dimethicone. So far, it seems like I am fine if the product has no dimethicone, but I get folliculitis within a day after washing my hair with a product containing dimethicone. I am not sure if my hunch that I have some sort of allergy to dimethicone is correct. I haven't been able to find any info about dimethicone causing folliculitis; rather, I've read that dimethicone is not supposed to cause any allergies or irritation at all. Also, I haven't found much on folliculitis caused by shampoo and conditioner, but I can pinpoint my outbreaks to using a new product as the only change in my hair routine. What do you think? What do you know about this? This problem is difficult since silicones, like dimethicone, are in almost all of the hair products now.
