Pseudofolliculitis barbae (PFB) is a minor disease affecting essentially only and almost all Negroes who shave. It results from transepidermal or transfollicular penetration by sharp incurving beard hairs. Because of a continued requirement by the U.S. Army for clean-shaven faces, a significant racial furor and hostility has been aroused, and definitive medical care has been difficult to achieve. The disease can be cured only by complete cessation of shaving but it can be adequately controlled in most patients by carefully shaving the hairs neither too close nor too long and by meticulous lifting out of penetrating hairs.

A technique for surgical extirpation of severely fissured, chronic seborrheic dermatitis is described.