PGA Tour winner Max Homa opens up on dealing with chronic skin condition
Six-time PGA Tour winner Max Homa has battled more than the stiff competition throughout his career. He has also battled seborrheic dermatitis, a chronic skin condition.
Seborrheic dermatitis, more commonly known as seb derm, is something the 35-year-old golfer said he has dealt with since high school.
"I think (in high school) I noticed I had dandruff or what I thought was dandruff. And you know, you see it on commercials, everyone's got that, so no big deal," Homa told Fox News Digital as a part of Arcutis’ Free to Be Me campaign.
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"As I got older, started to get a lot of redness on my face and I tried everything over the counter, creams or whatever lotions and I could get things to like help it a little bit, but never sustainable."
Homa said that being out in public a lot, it’s not ideal to wear a blotch on your face to counteract what seb derm, and said that in his beard it became painful. Homa credited his wife for getting him to go see a dermatologist about it.
The Burbank, California, native said that having seb derm is a very humbling thing, and he wasn’t planning on talking about it until Arcutis reached out to be a partner. He hoped that being open and vulnerable encouraged others to get checked out.
"It's not something I was ever looking to do. But kind of after some thought, when Arcutis wanted to partner, I thought to myself, man, if I could help somebody else kind of get nudged to go figure out what's going on with their skin," Homa said.
"Although it's not the easiest thing to do, I think especially for men, for whatever reason, I don't know, very men. We, we don't seem to like the dentist. We don't seem to like the dermatologist. We don't seem to like the doctor. All these things are, fortunately my wife makes me go to all these things now."
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Dr. Tina Bhutani, a board-certified dermatologist, clinical researcher and CEO of Synergy Dermatology, told Fox News Digital in a recent interview that 10 million Americans deal with seb derm.
"Most common areas are the scalp. That's what we call, you know, quote unquote dandruff.
"But it actually can manifest in other areas like the face, the ears, the upper chest, the upper back," Bhutani told Fox News Digital.
"So it can be in multiple areas all at once, which makes it difficult to live with. It's very visible, and it has an impact on patients' quality of life."
Bhutani said if left untreated, it can not only get worse but continue to spread. She recommended the first step to being treated is to talk to your primary care doctor and dermatologist for next steps.
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Homa said he was prescribed Zoryve (reflumilast) foam, which is a 0.3% once-daily, steroid-free foam to treat the itching, redness, and anywhere seb derm appears.
"It's like a once daily for me in the morning and I just have more peace with it. I don't think about my skin really ever, which is cool," Homa said. "If it can be this easy for me, hopefully other people can find that."
Homa said it is not greasy, it’s not overbearing, and it takes just a minute and a half to apply in the morning. He said the hardest part of getting treatment was just going to the dermatologist.
"Easily the most difficult part was just going to the dermatologist, which was not hard," Homa said with a laugh. "Like that was the, that was easily the hardest part."
"So for the guys, I think we see our wives or significant others or women in general, like they have skin care routines. That's why they are pretty and we are not."
Homa wants people to know how easy it is to get treated. "I just want people to know that like once you find a solution or something that's working for you, it's just becomes a part of your everyday and it is not overbearing."
Homa won the Wells Fargo Championship in 2019; the Genesis Invitational and Fortinet Championship in 2021; won the Wells Fargo Championship and Fortinet Championship again in 2022; and the Farmers Insurance Open in 2023.
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