Hair falling out

[Peaceful Isle]

Okay ladies, what are some reasons you personally had your hair fall out. ( other than chemo etc.)

 

Lately, my hair has been falling out in smallish clumps. Mostly in the shower, but even when I run my fingers through my hair. It is getting worse, and this is not the "normal" hair falling out I'm dealing with. I'm getting to the place I am almost worried.

 

I do have thyroid issues, but have recently had more blood work and have it under control via meds. I have Fibrolyalgia as well. I haven't been under any deep stress lately, as in the past year, and am a pretty happy person. 

 

What could it be? I don't have thick hair to begin with, so this is getting worrisome. MY dh even noticed it because of how much is coming out in our shower and staying in the drain. I try to remember to clean it out, but sometimes I forget. 

 

Please help :(

[UncleEJ]

I wish I could help, mine is doing the same thing. I think mine is due to all the meds I am on for Crohn's disease. It is really depressing. I've gotten to where I can't do anything with my hair besides wear a pony tail. Sorry I can't help, but lots of hugs!

[fairfarmhand]

I had this a year back. I significantly reduced my aspartame consumption. (I still love Coke Zero, but I have a single 1-2 times per week instead of 2-3 glasses per day) Also, I got my Vitamin D levels up and started taking a multivitamin. I also take biotin.

[Wheres Toto]

I have the same thing happening.  I've been putting it down to age/hormones. 

[helena]

I've lost hair at times because of lupus. I hate to even type that, because I don't want to give you an unnecessary reason to worry. But there it is. 

Are you using a shampoo/conditioner that is too chemical-y? http://blog.aarp.org/2014/02/11/is-your-shampoo-causing-hair-loss-try-these-tips-from-a-specialist/ 

[Guest]

It's just age. It looks better if you wear it up. The silver lining is that thin hair is extremely low maintenance.

 

You might want to try this:

 

Gibson Tuck

 

for a feminine, romantic look or an elegant, tidy french twist that you could never pull off in your twenties.

 

 

[Pawz4me]

Too stringent dieting

Stress/hormones

Iron deficiency/anemia

[Greta]

I'm sure this is not a common cause, but for me it was hyponatremia -- too little sodium. Once I increased my salt intake, it stopped falling out and grew back in to its usual thickness.

 

 

ETA: I was suffering from the other symptoms of hyponatremia too: muscle cramps, constipation, fatigue/lethargy. If you're not having any other symptoms like that (nausea and headache are also common) then it might have nothing to do with sodium.

[Kalmia]

Do you eat an excessive amount of fish? Predatory fish like tuna, shark, mackerel, etc. bioaccumulate mercury, and high mercury levels can make your hair fall out.

[Peaceful Isle]

I wish I could help, mine is doing the same thing. I think mine is due to all the meds I am on for Crohn's disease. It is really depressing. I've gotten to where I can't do anything with my hair besides wear a pony tail. Sorry I can't help, but lots of hugs!

I'm so sorry :(

 

I had this a year back. I significantly reduced my aspartame consumption. (I still love Coke Zero, but I have a single 1-2 times per week instead of 2-3 glasses per day) Also, I got my Vitamin D levels up and started taking a multivitamin. I also take biotin.

 

I don't eat anything with aspertame, but good advise.

I have the same thing happening.  I've been putting it down to age/hormones. 

Ugh, I was wondering about that as well.

 

Too stringent dieting

Stress/hormones

Iron deficiency/anemia

I went on atkins for a few months, but I have been off of it for a few weeks.

 

I'm sure this is not a common cause, but for me it was hyponatremia -- too little sodium. Once I increased my salt intake, it stopped falling out and grew back in to its usual thickness.

 

 

ETA: I was suffering from the other symptoms of hyponatremia too: muscle cramps, constipation, fatigue/lethargy. If you're not having any other symptoms like that (nausea and headache are also common) then it might have nothing to do with sodium.

 

I have muscle cramps as well, but I think I eat enough salt, but this has me wondering.

Do you eat an excessive amount of fish? Predatory fish like tuna, shark, mackerel, etc. bioaccumulate mercury, and high mercury levels can make your hair fall out.

No, I eat very little fish.

 

All this advise has me thinking. Thanks so much for all your comments.

[Peaceful Isle]

I've lost hair at times because of lupus. I hate to even type that, because I don't want to give you an unnecessary reason to worry. But there it is. 

Are you using a shampoo/conditioner that is too chemical-y? http://blog.aarp.org/2014/02/11/is-your-shampoo-causing-hair-loss-try-these-tips-from-a-specialist/ 

I was tested for lupus about a year ago because of my symptoms, and it came back negative. Can there be a false negative?

[Shelly in IL]

Atkins can definitely cause your hair to fall out. I did that to myself with Atkins. And my nephew did it to himself with a drastically reduced carb diet and body building. If that's what it is, it will come back. I personally take biotin every day.

[Peaceful Isle]

It's just age. It looks better if you wear it up. The silver lining is that thin hair is extremely low maintenance.

 

You might want to try this:

 

Gibson Tuck

 

for a feminine, romantic look or an elegant, tidy french twist that you could never pull off in your twenties.

Beautiful!

[helena]

I was tested for lupus about a year ago because of my symptoms, and it came back negative. Can there be a false negative?

I was lucky :huh:  to be quickly diagnosed and I've always had test results that don't question the diagnosis. 

It seems like there's a lot of folks out there who have the opposite experience though. You can google false negative lupus (or something like that) and get all kinds of results. Lots of conversation, frustration, and confusion over the whole thing. For some people, it takes a long time to get a correct diagnosis (for a variety of reasons)

 

 

With SLE the hair does grow back, you just have to be patient. 

[gardenmom5]

after having babies - hormone changes would make it fall out, but it would stop after a couple months or so.

thyroid did a number too.

 

have they actually looked at the T3 & T4?  or just the TSH?

[Guest]

High testosterone due to PCOS. Rogain solved the problem.

[texasmama]

I lost about a third of my hair due to low normal B12.  I had other symptoms, too.  I am on monthly B12 injections now.  Also, when my stored iron was low, my hair started falling out.

[Spryte]

Vit D, thyroid issues, PCOS, adrenal issues. Anything goes off balance and I lose hair. Addressing all of those, plus using Nioxin products has helped my hair loss. It actually grew back!

[Momof3littles]

PCOS, thyroid, a friend had it happen with low ferritin levels.  Lots of things can cause it.  In some people, weight loss can make hair fall out for a while until things stabilize a bit.

[AMJ]

Been there, repeatedly.  Sometimes it was hormone fluctuations.  Sometimes it was allergies.  Sometimes I suspect it was from a vitamin deficiency, because biotin shampoo really helped.  I've dealt with perimenopause for 8 years now, and the most hair I've lost has been during this time.

 

I would recommend seeing a doctor about it -- perhaps start with your OB/GYN, and ask for recommendations if they don't know what is causing it.  There are so many different causes, some treatable, some not so much.  It's not always just age.

 

[RKWAcademy]

my hair falls out when my thyroid gets a little out of whack.  Even with "normal" TSH, if it gets a bit too high, my hair falls out.  It probably has some connection to T3 and T4 but my current doctor dismisses all that so I'm not sure what mine are anymore. 

[fairfarmhand]

When mine was falling so badly, I went to washing every other day and only combing as needed. I also ditched the tight pony and found some other gentler alternatives to clipping my hair out of my face. I got a low maintenance cut too so I didn't have to do much with it.

[SerenityNow]

Mine was falling out like crazy, too.  It got about 75% better when I:

 

1.  Stopped pulling my hair back in a pony tail, especially when still damp.  Too much stress on the roots.

 

2.  Started using a sulfate-free shampoo.  Apparently in some people long-term sulfate use can cause hair loss.  Or so I read somewhere.   :001_unsure:

 

Scary, isn't it?  Seeing all that hair in the shower drain!   :willy_nilly:

[6packofun]

Do you also have anything abnormal going on with your fingernails? (Oddly shaped, "pitted" pinprick dents in the surface, texture or thickness changes)

 

It could be alopecia areata and is related to an immune system issue where your body mistakenly attacks hair follicles.  (I only know this because I noticed a few "pits" in my nails and wondered what is up! lol  Not having hair loss myself, though.)

 

[mom2samlibby]

Vitamin B12 deficiency can cause hair loss.

[Guest]

 

Do you also have anything abnormal going on with your fingernails? (Oddly shaped, "pitted" pinprick dents in the surface, texture or thickness changes)

 

It could be alopecia areata and is related to an immune system issue where your body mistakenly attacks hair follicles. (I only know this because I noticed a few "pits" in my nails and wondered what is up! lol Not having hair loss myself, though.)

That was exactly my thought. Unless you are in extreme calorie deficit, low carb or not, dieting isn't usually a culprit. But dieting is a form of stress, and if it isn't immune stress - emotional, physical, or physiological, can slow hair growth or cause massive shedding. Hormone balance is another big culprit, and I know that's been the issue with my own hair loss. Both postpartum and thyroid hormones have been the ones to do it to me. But your symptoms, especially the clumps? Alopecia was my first thought. It can definitely come on in episodes.

[Reefgazer]

That was a symptom of my mom's when she was diagnosed with low thyroid.  Once she went on thyroid meds, her hair grew back.

[datgh]

Discontinuing a medication did it to me.  Once I had been off the medication for a while, my hair thickened back up.

[Jasperstone]

I have been going thru this for over a year now. I was considering keeping the clumps of hair and making a wig out it!

It has slowed down now though. Mine had to do with low oxygen in the blood due to systematic candida.

[Tiramisu]

Because of the muscle aches in addition to the hair loss, I tend to think that the Atkins diet may be the culprit. Some kind of nutritional deficiency or imbalance. Not that it's Atkins as much as your body's needs and its implementation.

 

When I was in a bad nutritional state for another reason, I had scary hair loss. It wasn't immediate. It was two to three months later. I was found to have a B12 deficiency, but you can also have hair loss due to low iron. With Atkins, it would seem hard to develop a B12 deficiency and you were probably getting iron. However, if you weren't getting vitamin C, you may have not been absorbing iron well.

 

I also went a long time, probably years, with muscle aches. My doctor and I were both thinking it could be fibro. Once I made sure I was properly hydrated by increasing my salt, drinking Smartwarter, and eating a banana or sweet potato or some other high potassium food everyday, it got much better, almost immediately. If you've been on Atkins, you may be low in potassium.  

[Greta]

Because of the muscle aches in addition to the hair loss, I tend to think that the Atkins diet may be the culprit. Some kind of nutritional deficiency or imbalance. Not that it's Atkins as much as your body's needs and its implementation.

...

If you've been on Atkins, you may be low in potassium.

Oh, is the OP on Atkins? Then I'm going to reiterate what I said about hyponatremia. When you drop your carb intake below 60g per day, it changes the way your kidneys process mineral salts, and your body releases a ton of sodium. This is why a lot of people find they can go off their blood pressure meds when they go low-carb: it reduces your sodium levels that much! And when your sodium levels drop dramatically, then your body also has to "let go" of some potassium, because it has to maintain a certain ratio. So basically both sodium and potassium can get depleted. But the cure is generally sodium. If you get your sodium levels restored to normal, potassium will automatically balance too.

 

Peaceful Isle, if you are low-carb, then you need to supplement with 2 to 5g (yes, that's 2000-5000mg) of sodium per day. Most people do this by drinking broth and salting their food liberally. I seem to have a salt need that's at the high end of that spectrum, so I drink broth with extra salt added twice per day. Yes, I get very sick of it. But it's better than incapacitating muscle cramps and hair loss!

 

ETA: Phinney and Volek do talk about this increased salt need in their books, but I don't think Atkins himself realized or fully understood it. If you don't have Phinney and Volek's books, then here's a blog entry from Dr. Eades that talks about it: http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/saturated-fat/tips-tricks-for-starting-or-restarting-low-carb-pt-ii/

[Guest]

Yes, don't skimp on quality salt. There also why avocados are highly recommended - they're an excellent potassium source and, yes, tasty when salted.

 

I got the impression the OP wasnt have issues getting enough minerals, based on previous dietary threads, but it's always a variable worth checking!

[Katy]

I vote it's Atkins-   A sudden diet or hormone change (low carb can affect both) can change what part of the hair growth cycle your hair is in- ultimately stopping the growth cycle and forcing hair to shed early.  You can get more follicles to change to the growth cycle by doing things like using an inversion table or hanging your head off the edge of the bed while massaging your scalp, or massaging in things like castor oil into your scalp. The problem though, is that at some point the growth cycle stops and all those hairs fall out.  Simultaneously.  This is why people who use things like lash growth serum find it works for a while, but at some point their lashes end up shorter than they were before.

[Peaceful Isle]

OP here. Wow, thanks everyone for commenting!

 

I guess this problem is more prominent than I realized. I agree that it might be the atkins diet doing it to me. I hate to eat more salt, though, because I get bags under my eyes in the morning when I overdue it. I am going to try to up my salt a bit, and drink even more water, and see where it gets me. I am going to be more consistent on taking my vitamins as well. 

 

I did go through a very emotional time about 4 years ago, ( spouse sickness, parents disowning me, and other things) where I lost a bunch of hair because of stress, so I know what that is like!! I am actually at a calm time in life right now, PTL. 

 

Thanks again for all your advise, hugs, and your btdt stories. Very encouraging I must say :)

[Liz CA]

Did you also mention muscle cramps? For that I would take a high quality magnesium supplement.

[J-rap]

Besides all of the suggestions that everyone else has said, I'd recommend zinc.  I've had a couple doctors tell me, when I asked them about zinc for acne, that they don't know about acne but they know it helps with hair loss!

 

 

[Ausmumof3]

Okay ladies, what are some reasons you personally had your hair fall out. ( other than chemo etc.)

 

Lately, my hair has been falling out in smallish clumps. Mostly in the shower, but even when I run my fingers through my hair. It is getting worse, and this is not the "normal" hair falling out I'm dealing with. I'm getting to the place I am almost worried.

 

I do have thyroid issues, but have recently had more blood work and have it under control via meds. I have Fibrolyalgia as well. I haven't been under any deep stress lately, as in the past year, and am a pretty happy person.

 

What could it be? I don't have thick hair to begin with, so this is getting worrisome. MY dh even noticed it because of how much is coming out in our shower and staying in the drain. I try to remember to clean it out, but sometimes I forget.

 

Please help :(

Post pregnancy or when I'm run down. also common with thyroid. I would double check your thyroid, it may be as you are getting levels right some weird stuff happen.

 

If it's feeling thin getting a shorter haircut can help to make it feel like it still has some body while you figure out what's going on.

[Ausmumof3]

Weirdly, this can happen in autumn for some women ( me included). It's an actual thing. I know you are probably in the US, so not in fall, but just adding it to the list in case it rings a bell for others. Mine thins a lot in autumn and tends to thicken over spring/summer.

I wonder if this is actually related to a vitamin deficiency though? I get cracks in the corners of my lips that are caused by a b vitamin deficiency. They generally really flare up in autumn. I think the weather change puts stress on the body and makes me run through vitamin reserves quicker or something.

 

I just checked and vitamin b2 deficiency can also cause hairloss.

 

Lucky it occurs for me at the same time as mushrooms are in season, and they are a great source of vit b2.

[Violet Crown]

Wee Girl had hair loss in clumps, with crusty patches on the scalp and a lot of irritation. I tried everything; the pediatrician thought it was just bad cradle cap; I was convinced it was an effect of her severe anxieties. It turned out to be a fungal infection, and two weeks of shampooing with Nizoral cured it.

[Kimberly in IN]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but the side effects of some thyroid medicine includes hair loss. I experienced hair loss on Synthroid, but not with Armour. Though some people report hair loss on Armour also. Good luck with finding the cause!