Once Again Asking About Dh . . .

[still tiredofdoctors]

In your experience, can DH occur from TOPICAL application of gluten?

My dermatologist told me "Absolutely not." He also said that what I describe is not indicative of DH and that it only develops after ingesting gluten. I have been gluten-free for over three years now - and I am extremely compliant and am scrupulous about watching for cross-contamination.

I had my hair cut - only cut - but she decided to put a "conditioning treatment" on my hair. She gave me a scalp massage, then massaged all around my hairline, at my temples and around my face to the bottom of my ears. It felt fantastic at the time!

I had my hair cut at noon,and had to wait for my husband to leave work to pick me up. I have neurological celiac, and because of that am in a wheelchair for any distances and cannot drive. As I was wheeling around the mall, I noticed that my scalp and hairline began to really burn. It continued to get worse as time passed.

I went into Sephora - my new favorite store(!) - and was checking out their new things. I decided that I would "touch up" my powder while I was there. When I pulled my hair back to apply, the entire area was crimson red. I noticed small bumps beginning to form that looked almost like blisters. I asked two of the girls that work there that I am familiar with if they thought my face was read in that area. At the same time, both of them said, "You're starting to get blister-like bumps there." The one girl went to get something to calm the area down, but knows that I can't use products with gluten . . . and said she called the manufacturer and it DID contain gluten, so she knew I shouldn't use it. I had told her about my concern with accidentally ingesting gluten through products, so I made sure all were gluten-free.

I went back to the salon, they looked at my scalp as well, and said that it, too, looked to be developing what looked like blisters. They read the ingredients on the bottle of conditioner, and it listed "hydrolyzed wheat protein". It also said - and this surpsied me - "Contains Gluten". This was told to me by two of the women who work at the salon.

As soon as I got home, I washed my hair and face (VERY gently) with gluten-free shampoo and face wash. By the next morning, I had what looked like small full-blown blisters throughout my scalp and hairline. I called my dermatologist's office, and the response through his assistant was, "It does NOT sound like DH, it sounds like a plain old contact dermatitis." They told me to use over-the-counter cortisone cream for a few days.

YIKES. It made it HORRIBLE. I ended up with small "oozing-like" blisters throughout the whole tarea I descrbed. It reminded me of when my daughter had the chicken pox and she had them in her scalp. Eventually they kind of "crusted over", then became scabs that eventually fell off.

Question #1: Is this what DH looks like and/or starts like?

Question #2: Can you develop DH from topical contact and NOT ingesting gluten?

Any help you can give me would be great. Thank you.

[ravenwoodglass]

In your experience, can DH occur from TOPICAL application of gluten?

My dermatologist told me "Absolutely not." He also said that what I describe is not indicative of DH and that it only develops after ingesting gluten. I have been gluten-free for over three years now - and I am extremely compliant and am scrupulous about watching for cross-contamination.

I had my hair cut - only cut - but she decided to put a "conditioning treatment" on my hair. She gave me a scalp massage, then massaged all around my hairline, at my temples and around my face to the bottom of my ears. It felt fantastic at the time!

I had my hair cut at noon,and had to wait for my husband to leave work to pick me up. I have neurological celiac, and because of that am in a wheelchair for any distances and cannot drive. As I was wheeling around the mall, I noticed that my scalp and hairline began to really burn. It continued to get worse as time passed.

I went into Sephora - my new favorite store(!) - and was checking out their new things. I decided that I would "touch up" my powder while I was there. When I pulled my hair back to apply, the entire area was crimson red. I noticed small bumps beginning to form that looked almost like blisters. I asked two of the girls that work there that I am familiar with if they thought my face was read in that area. At the same time, both of them said, "You're starting to get blister-like bumps there." The one girl went to get something to calm the area down, but knows that I can't use products with gluten . . . and said she called the manufacturer and it DID contain gluten, so she knew I shouldn't use it. I had told her about my concern with accidentally ingesting gluten through products, so I made sure all were gluten-free.

I went back to the salon, they looked at my scalp as well, and said that it, too, looked to be developing what looked like blisters. They read the ingredients on the bottle of conditioner, and it listed "hydrolyzed wheat protein". It also said - and this surpsied me - "Contains Gluten". This was told to me by two of the women who work at the salon.

As soon as I got home, I washed my hair and face (VERY gently) with gluten-free shampoo and face wash. By the next morning, I had what looked like small full-blown blisters throughout my scalp and hairline. I called my dermatologist's office, and the response through his assistant was, "It does NOT sound like DH, it sounds like a plain old contact dermatitis." They told me to use over-the-counter cortisone cream for a few days.

YIKES. It made it HORRIBLE. I ended up with small "oozing-like" blisters throughout the whole tarea I descrbed. It reminded me of when my daughter had the chicken pox and she had them in her scalp. Eventually they kind of "crusted over", then became scabs that eventually fell off.

Question #1: Is this what DH looks like and/or starts like?

Question #2: Can you develop DH from topical contact and NOT ingesting gluten?

Any help you can give me would be great. Thank you.

First your derm really should have seen you. It does sound like a contact dermatitis mainly because the reaction happened so very quickly. If you had said the blisters were in your nose, eyes, or another area with a mucous membrane then it would be more likely to be DH. When they test using mucous membrane for celiac (not available in the US) the time from the application of the gluten to the biopsy of the tissue is about 3 hours. In other words the mucous membranes will show a reaction within that amount of time. Intact skin is another story. Do you have DH lesions when you get CC'd? If you do not get lesions when eating gluten then it would also be more of an indication of a contact dermatitis. Some with DH however can have outbreaks really quickly after getting it into their system but for others it may be days from injestion to outbreak depending on how many antibodies are in the skin. If it happens again see if they will biopsy to check if it is DH or not.

I do hope this is healing up for you. I also had to learn the hard way not to let my stylist use ANYTHING on me.

[ang1e0251]

on another thread, someone said her DH broke out on her hand after eating chips in CC frying oil. SHe said she was still sitting at the restaurant at the time of the meal! I believe you! Mine also looks like chicken pox. I stopped using shampoo years ago because my scalp always developed sores. I didn't know about celiacs then.