Diseases & Conditions

Folliculitis

With common names like hot tub folliculitis and barber's itch, folliculitis may sound more like a bad joke than a skin disorder. But folliculitis, an infection of the hair follicles, is no laughing matter. Severe cases may cause permanent hair loss and scarring, and even mild folliculitis can be uncomfortable and embarrassing.

Folliculitis usually appears as small, white-headed pimples around one or more hair follicles — the tiny pockets from which each hair grows. Most infections are superficial, and they may itch, but on occasion they're painful. Superficial folliculitis often clears by itself in a few days, but deep or recurring folliculitis may need medical treatment.

Mild cases of folliculitis often clear up without any treatment. But if the infection doesn't improve in two or three days, appears to spread or recurs often, call your doctor or a dermatologist. You may need antibiotics or antifungal medications to help control the problem.

Your doctor is likely to diagnose folliculitis simply by looking at your skin. When standard treatments fail to clear the infection, your doctor may send a sample taken from one of your pustules to a laboratory, where it's grown on a special medium (cultured) and then checked for the presence of bacteria. When doctors suspect eosinophilic folliculitis, they may remove a small tissue sample (biopsy) from an active lesion for testing.