Yahoo Lifestyle Odell Beckham Jr. Reveals He's Been Dealing With a Skin Condition for Years — How He Finally Found Relief (Exclusive)
Odell Beckham Jr. is opening up for the first time about his longtime, chronic skin condition, seborrheic dermatitis, and how he finally found an effective treatment for it.
The veteran NFL player, 32, exclusively tells Parade that after a surgery to repair a horrific ankle break he suffered in 2017 while playing for the New York Giants, he first started noticing "flakiness that was in my beard and on the edges of my hair."
Beckham Jr. thought it developed as a reaction to the pain medication he took while recovering in the hospital. "They give you painkillers, and I never in my life had taken anything like that, [which could contribute to] the buildup of toxins and all that," he says.
"I started putting vitamin E oil on. I thought maybe I was just dry, maybe my environment's dry," he adds. "I feel like I've seen people with it but never knew what it was."
"At first it was mild, and then it started to get a lot worse," says Beckham Jr., who thought maybe this mysterious flakiness and itchiness was from his helmet, chin strap and sweating, but it continued through the offseason. "My barber would be like, 'Your hair is extremely flaky.' And then it started to be more in the scalp."
Meanwhile, he was frequently in the public eye—on the football field, in magazine photo shoots, on social media (posting photos of himself enjoying life to his 17.5 million followers on Instagram).
Did having the flakiness affect his self-esteem? "I think everybody deep down inside, the better you look, you feel better about yourself in that kind of way," says Beckham Jr, who recently bared almost all in a sexy campaign for MAC Cosmetics.
"It wouldn't shake my confidence in a way, but it was something that I was aware of, and if I'm presenting myself, I would want to present the best side of me that I can. I just wouldn't want that [flakiness] presented to the world.
"I just wanted to find a solution, you know what I mean? The appearance of myself is what's going to bring money and put food on the table and be able to provide for my family," he continues. "I would always just make sure that it was at least as good as possible."
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During much of the time before he found an effective treatment, he was dating model Lauren Wood (the pair reportedly split in 2023, and they now co-parent a young son, Zydn Beckham, who will turn 3 on Feb. 17. He was linked to Kim Kardashian following the breakup.) One thing Beckham Jr. didn't worry about was dating and feeling self-conscious, he says.
"For the last couple of years, I had a girlfriend and then had a son. So to me, it wasn't really much of a dating life. I'm just kind of, I am who I am. I'm kind of OK with me. I know the good, the bad. There's nothing nobody can really say that is going to waver my opinion and how I feel about me."
Around March 2024, Beckham Jr. finally discovered what the mysterious skin flakiness was when he saw Dr. Karan Lal, a Scottsdale, Ariz., dermatologist who diagnosed him with seborrheic dermatitis, a chronic form of eczema. "I would just like to highlight that this is a really common condition that's really underdiagnosed," Dr. Lal tells Parade.
Dr. Lal (@sirdermzalot on Instagram) prescribed ZORYVE foam to be used once a day, which Beckham Jr. began using. "It started working pretty quick for me," he says.
"Just being able to walk out that door and attack your day is not something that I worry about, think about, second guess," says Beckham Jr., now a spokesperson for ZORYVE with hopes that sharing his story will inspire others to seek treatment from a dermatologist.
"It works for me, and I know that I almost feel like I forget about it because of how great it is, at least from my experience."
Now splitting his time between his home in Paradise Valley, Ariz., and Miami, he cherishes his time as a dad of almost 3-year-old Zydn.
"It is the most amazing experience, the most amazing job, the most amazing anything," he says. "I always knew that I was going to be a father. I always loved kids, just always, always, always. My entire life, the pureness of 'em. They don't know about what this world really has to offer in a sense, in the bad way.
"I just love my son so much. Just looking in his eyes continues to inspire me to be able to go out and do what I need to do. I want to be able to provide the most amazing life for him. There's nothing in the world that I can ever compare being a parent or a father to him."
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He and Wood, who lives in Arizona, "do the absolute best" at co-parenting Zydn.
"We have an amazing relationship and just like in life, everything figures itself out. We just stay afloat," says Beckham Jr, who goes back and forth between Arizona and Miami.
"She's an amazing mother, and we just do what we have to do for our son. Whatever God has in store, we'll figure that out as time passes, what the plans truly are."
As for Beckham Jr.'s future—he was released in December by the Miami Dolphins—he is not revealing anything for now.
"I'm just focused on being present and staying in flow and whatever God has planned for me, he has planned for me," says Beckham Jr., who flew back from Dubai last week. "I'm just living life, just establishing all my businesses and getting everything in order."
