Oscar Wilde's skin disease: allergic contact dermatitis?

During the last years of his life, Oscar Wilde (1856-1900) suffered from a suppurating otitis media as well as from an unidentified skin disease. The eruption was localized to his face, arms, chest and back and itched severely. A new theory is suggested, based on the fact that Wilde almost certainly used a dye to conceal his rapidly graying hair. He sensitized himself to p-phenylenediamine and developed a stubborn allergic contact dermatitis. Patch testing, the only proof of such a diagnosis, had not yet been devised.