Big hair loss

Nanogg55

I'm getting a bit freaked out by how much hair I'm losing. I'm 51 years old and started menopause back in April of this year. I've always had very thick, curly hair and have never noticed much shedding, just a few hairs in my comb or in the tub hair catcher after washing. Suddenly in July of this year my hair started shedding at an extreme rate. Instead of losing maybe 20 hairs a day I'm losing 200-300 a day. I actually kept track of how much hair I lost each day for about 10 days and it averaged around 240 per day. I also joined MFP back in April and have gradually lost about 50 lbs so far. (This site rocks). I still have another 60 lbs to go. I don't think I've been losing weight too quickly (I'm averaging 1.5-2lbs a week so far) and I love meat so I don't think I've been shorting myself from protein. I eat 1200-1400 cals every day. I'm 5'2" and SW was 230 lbs. I also just had a physical with blood work (CBC with automated differential) and other than a Vitamin D deficiency everything was normal. I moved to Oregon about a year ago so the vit D lack is not surprising. My doc prescribed some concentrated vitamin D that I take each week but was not concerned about my hair loss and said to wait and see how it was after a few months. Maybe it's vain but my hair is important to me and to have it falling out like this is kinda scary. It also seems very sudden and extreme. I'm afraid I may not have much left in a few months! Does anybody out there have any experience with this? Could it be because of menopause and/or a vit D deficiency? Or am I losing weight too quickly after all? Here's how much hair fell out after I washed it this evening. I lose a similar amount every time I comb my hair. Sorry if this is too much info but Yikes!!!

Artemis2121

Major stress can cause hair loss.(work, illness etc.. ) Quite likely hypothyroidism. it can cause loss like that, along with body hair, and the outer half of eyebrows. Google symptoms and see if any others fit. Often diagnosed in menopausal women. Doctors don't all agree on the same test result #s when determining when/how much to treat. There is at least one MFP group for this conditinb and informationon on web md and othermedical websites. I wouldn't wait.

RodaRose

Shortly into my weight loss, I lost hair. Then it stopped dropping.
In case that was the issue, I added more protein.
Are you eating enough fat and oils?

Nanogg55

I think so; I eat cheese, avocado and olive oil just about every day. My thyroid levels checked out as normal too. I have been under some stress, but most of it was from about 2 years ago. Life threatening injuries with multiple hospital stays followed by losing my job. I'm still being treated for the injuries. Then my mom had major health problems and I've moved in with her to help.

chinsinsi

I had a worrying few months of hair loss around my menopause - my plug hole looked very like yours! But I'm over it now - without intervention. You can check if all will be well by feeling your scalp for the short regrowth.

tomatoey

Nanogg55 wrote: »

I think so; I eat cheese, avocado and olive oil just about every day. My thyroid levels checked out as normal too. I have been under some stress, but most of it was from about 2 years ago. Life threatening injuries with multiple hospital stays followed by losing my job. I'm still being treated for the injuries. Then my mom had major health problems and I've moved in with her to help.

Whoa. Yeah, that's a lot of stress, chronic and acute and ongoing and probably a lot of which is happening right now.

Life event stress scale:
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTCS_82.htm

Which thyroid tests did they do?

middlehaitch

Hair loss can happen at menopause. If your mother or siblings have shown signs of thinning hair at menopause, it could be genetic. You are quite stressed too, another common factor.

However, if I were you I would look for further diagnosis from my doctor. There are too many variables to ask for advice on a forum.

Cheers, h.

Nanogg55

Just the one in the cbc diff test. I specifically brought up the hair loss with my doc and she wasn't concerned. Neither was my hair stylist; she just commented that I had recently lost a lot of weight so it wasn't surprising.

cafeaulait7

Mine was from anemia, but now that that's been fixed for a long while, I'm losing a bit above the temples, and that's probably from high testosterone. I'm not menopausal yet, but I definitely have high testosterone (have for years and years). When your estrogen drops in menopause, the balance shifts, and the effects of testosterone show more. They have Rogaine for women, and men's hair loss is related to testosterone.

I lose a ton of hair each time I wash it! I started out with like 3 times the normal amount of hair, so it's not obvious to others, but it's even freaking me out, yeah! I may try to see about blocking the high testosterone a bit if it continues to be a problem and see if that's it. You could get yours tested, if they will for that. I got mine tested for hirsutism, but that hair grows in the wrong places, lol. I wish I could switch my extra hair with my thinning kind

I do like the extra testosterone for building muscle more easily than most women. That's a big plus for someone who needs to gain strength. I'll probably just use Rogaine on my temples if need be.

cafeaulait7

Oh! Did you actually get to see your own results? I'd had anemia for over a year before my doctor mentioned it and had me tested in-depth for why. He waited until my hemoglobin went down past abnormally low. That's not terribly uncommon. You might want to make sure that your numbers are strong. All I ended up having to do was take an iron supplement daily (but never do that unless you know you are low).

Nanogg55

My CBC results had normal iron; the only thing flagged was a vitamin d deficiency. I will double check on anemia though; thanks.

MelodyandBarbells

How many grams of protein and fat do you tend to consume per day? Are you very active?

Nanogg55

I'm not very active other than walking an hour each morning. I'd like to start lifting but i'm still dealing with a back injury so that's on hold for now. I tend to consume roughly around 70-80g of protein and around 40-50 g of fat each day.

Nanogg55

Edit-whoops, it's more like 60-70 g of protein on a daily basis.

rasharadi

This happened to me the first time I lost quite a bit of weight I realised I was not getting enough vitamins especially iron so now I take a multi vitamin which helps my hair has started to grow back but I have definitely lost a lot of volume I also had very thick curly hair it will grow back you just need to eat better especially protein which is what I'm trying to do now.

Orphia

Has anyone checked your food diary? Have you been undereating for a long time?

I'm going to quote this post from another thread as a wakeup call for anyone lurking with the same problem who is starving themselves even if this does not apply to you:

Faithful_Chosen wrote: »

Losinandmovin wrote: »

Faithful_Chosen wrote: »

Two weeks is not a lot, so be patient and keep at it... But just to be sure: do you weigh everything in grams? Do you eat back all you exercise calories? Weight loss is a simple equation: calories in vs calories out: eat at a deficit and you lose. People tend to underestimate what they eat (especially when weighing in cups and pieces) and overestimate their exercise burns (do not trust MFP or your device. Heart rate monitors for steady-state are the only things even close to accurate). Weigh and log all your food in grams on a digital scale up to your goal as set by MFP and eat back 50 to 75 percent of you exercise calories (75% for HRM) and you will lose. It's science.

What is HRM? WHY would one eat back their exercise calories? Wouldn't that deficit lead to weight loss? What are you reading and basing your advise on? I really want to lose this weight, but some of the advise I'm reading on MFP confuses me. I'm a registered nurse, and fairly intelligent, but some of the acronyms I see on here are foreign. Thank you.

Thanks, everyone, for the answers already I am just going to add that MyFitnessPal calculates your projected loss (so, the amount you have set to lose a week) into the net goal you recieve. It assumes that if you want to eat more, you have to move more to stay in that deficit. Makes sense, right?

Now, especially newbies have a tendency to up the cardio and decrease the food to make a bigger deficit, assuming they will lose faster--and they might! I am not gonna sit here and say that you won't lose more. It's probably not going to show up on the scale due to water weight, but they will lose more. The question is: at what price? And what are they losing?

The MyFitnessPal method (built in deficit based on your numbers, especially plus purposeful exercise) is designed to steadily lose fat and preserving as much muscle as possible. You see, there is a (science proven) limit to how much fat a body can convert into usable energy during any period of time. If you go over that limit, it turns to muscle for fuel instead. You will always get a little bit of muscle tissue loss when eating at a deficit, but if you undereat and up the cardio (or even strength training!) like I see a lot of people on here do, you are forcing your body to canibalize its muscle tissue on top of the max level of fat it can burn. Not to mention that meeting your macro and micro nutrient goals with this method is virtually impossible, creating massive hormone imbalances (leptine, for example) and vitamins and mineral deficits.

The long term effects of crash dieting and deprivation dieting (which is basically what happens when you become one of the people who net in the low hundreds to negatives day after day for an extended period of time) can be really severe. Basically, you are systematically starving yourself, after all. The results tend to be this (one example, hypothetical you):

- your body burns fat, then muscle tissue to sustain itself. You become weaker and sore. You also start having cravings because your brain is sending out warning signs: 'I am starving! Feed me!'. So, you either binge and up your overall net a little, or you persevere and pat yourself on the back for a job well done! You wanted lots of fatty food, but you fed it a celery stick instead. Sadly, your whole timeline congratulates you on your willpower. You start to wonder, though, why your willpower is not being rewarded! The scale doesn't budge! You fail to realize it's because of water weight due to too much exercise and the body's inability to recover due to a lack of nurishment. The solution is often to eat even less and work out even more to get the scale to move.

- the body is further unable to sustain. It changed the body's chemistry to preserve all it can--after all, it needs to protect vital organs from becoming affected and keep you going so you can hunt and gather for food! At this stage, the body becomes its own worst enemy: it no longer tells you you are starving so you can make a last ditch effort to get food. You think you are fine on 1000 calories a day, burning 1200, because your body shows no signs of hunger anymore, but basically, the little neutrients you are providing your body with get sucked towards your vital organs, leaving nothing for the rest. You become more tired, and cranky, and your muscles no longer recover from all the stress you put them through working out. As a result, they break down even faster and hold on to even more water to prevent that breakdown from affecting your ability to throw a spear at a prey animal (hey, I can't help it your body still thinks we are living in caves!). The scale drops oh so slowly--if at all--but meanwhile you do see you are slimming down! Your measurements are less! MyFitnessPal celebrates! 'Hurray! The weight must come off in a 'woosh' soon now! Keep doing what you are doing!'. Note that (thankfully) many people drop out at this stage. The psychological burden becomes too great, they feel *kitten*, and life isn't fun anymore. They stop dieting, start binging, and gain even more weight. The jojo'ing has begun.

- you keep doing what you were doing. We are a few months in now. You develop headaches, fatigue, and you start finding more and more hair on your pillow in the morning. In fact, you start finding hair everywhere. You also get hungry again, not in a way that makes you binge but a sort of steady nagging: a gentle reminder that time is running out. Fail to meet it (MyFitnessPal people pat your back when you tell them you went to bed early instead of having more food) and slowly, your body gives up its protective hold on more systems. You can survive without full function to certain organs, so your body throws them to the wolves: nutrients go towards your brain, heart, and lungs. Pretty much all other organs start running at half capacity. You hold on to more toxins, which start chipping away at your system, and your ability to process food (get nutrients out of them) suffers greatly, so you are truly starving now. This is the point where the weight starts coming off, and pretty quickly, too, usually. A big whoosh! (MyFitnessPal people cheer in the distance). What you are really seeing is your body giving up on protecting muscle tissue completely: the water weight falls away, showing you that you actually did lose a lot of fat and muscle tissue. More cheering! It must be working! Keep at it! Work harder! Eat less!

- now you are in serious *kitten*! Your organs are not keeping up, your muscles are breaking down, and the body has to start looking elsewhere for fuel: your organs and the more vital muscles, including your heart. At this point, your nails will become brittle and start falling out. Your hair falls out. Your period stops. You experience bouts of nausea and muscle weakness. You might find yourself pulling into a run and suddenly blacking out. You still function, but on the inside you are shutting down.

From here on out, it all depends on if you start eating again and stop exercising or not. If you don't, you can end up killing yourself. If you do, it is a long road to recovery, sometimes lasting years and it sometimes includes permanent damage to the function of certain organs, especially the liver and kidneys. Worst of all, this entire crash diet hasn't taught you how to sustain weight loss, so as soon as you crash and burn, the weight flies back on! And trust me, it takes a fraction of the time it took to lose it to gain it back.

I am not saying this to frighten you (well, I am a little), but as a nurse, you should be aware of the ramifications of crash dieting. Those of us that do realize the effects therefor recommend you lose weight slowly, at a sustainable rate that gives you the best ratio of fat loss vs. muscle loss. Stick to your MyFitnessPal calculated net, take the time, eat back your true exercise calories (which is probably 50 to 75 percent of your machine or database given calories), and learn how to eat (and what to eat) for weight loss you can maintain for years to come. It might not go as fast, but you will be able to see it on the scale, and best of all, it will be safe. That is my very long winded answer to 'why' you should eat back exercise calories.

callsitlikeiseeit

my hair is crazy thick and i shed like a dog unless i have it thinned out every couple of months. even then, i shed crazy LOL

but if its NOT normal for you, it could be a vitamin deficiency, under eating, stress, or any number of other factors.

Pawsforme

Did your doctor check your thyroid? Hair loss is a common symptom of an under-active thyroid, and it's a common diagnosis for women around menopause. You'd probably be having trouble losing weight if that were the cause of the hair loss, though. But it's something to keep in mind.

booksandchocolate12

Big hair was out of style by the early 90s. It's probably good that you're losing it.

Seriously, you've gotten good suggestions here: stress, menopause, thyroid. A trip to the doctor may be in order.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

Amberonamission

It may not be diet related. I had noticed over the last 3 years that no matter the shampoo or conditioner I used, no matter the state of my nutrition I was losing hair rapidly. 10 shampoo/conditioner later I found a pin on pintrest about washing with baking soda and conditioning with Bragg apple cider vinegar (1/3 strength). No more hair loss and it is softer and shinier than it has ever been. There was a few weeks transition where my hair looked a bit oily. But, it is all worked out now.

lilpickle683

look up "telogen effluvium" - basically, it's when a large portion of your hair is prematurely pushed into the telogen, or resting phase; which means all those hairs fall out at the same time. A big cause is stress (which it sounds like you've had a lot of recently); also thyroid issues, anemia, other vitamin deficiencies. It's usually self-limiting (meaning it goes away on its own).

ruqayyahsmum

trauma can cause hair loss

3-6 months after i had surgery my hair started falling out rapidly, it was so thin i looked rediculous. about a year after surgery it started to grow back and now i have 3 inch long regrowth in several areas

i had been warned pre surgery that this would happen as i was having major surgery

Liftng4Lis

Nanogg55 wrote: »

Edit-whoops, it's more like 60-70 g of protein on a daily basis.

Add more, lots more! 0.8-1 gram of protein per pound of LBM

azulvioleta6

We've had plenty of Vitamin D opportunities in Oregon this summer!

I like to think of myself as not a very vain person, but when I lost a lot of hair after brain surgery, it was a little traumatic. I think that your reaction is normal--it can be alarming to suddenly lose hair.

I agree that more protein is a good idea. Of course hormones have a big effect on hair and menopause is part of the equation...but I think that in your shoes, I would be going back to the doctor to make sure there wasn't something else going on in addition to the things that you already know about.

Are you seeing a GP, GYN or endocrinolgist?

gaelicstorm26

Good suggestions...if it continues they should probably also run a test for any thyroid-specific antibodies. You can have "normal" TSH levels and have thyroid antibodies floating around.

I lose hair like that every day. I also have Hashimotos (autoimmune thyroid disease). Luckily I have LOTS of hair.

Nanogg55

Orphia wrote: »

Has anyone checked your food diary? Have you been undereating for a long time?

I'm going to quote this post from another thread as a wakeup call for anyone lurking with the same problem who is starving themselves even if this does not apply to you:

Faithful_Chosen wrote: »

Losinandmovin wrote: »

Faithful_Chosen wrote: »

Two weeks is not a lot, so be patient and keep at it... But just to be sure: do you weigh everything in grams? Do you eat back all you exercise calories? Weight loss is a simple equation: calories in vs calories out: eat at a deficit and you lose. People tend to underestimate what they eat (especially when weighing in cups and pieces) and overestimate their exercise burns (do not trust MFP or your device. Heart rate monitors for steady-state are the only things even close to accurate). Weigh and log all your food in grams on a digital scale up to your goal as set by MFP and eat back 50 to 75 percent of you exercise calories (75% for HRM) and you will lose. It's science.

What is HRM? WHY would one eat back their exercise calories? Wouldn't that deficit lead to weight loss? What are you reading and basing your advise on? I really want to lose this weight, but some of the advise I'm reading on MFP confuses me. I'm a registered nurse, and fairly intelligent, but some of the acronyms I see on here are foreign. Thank you.

Thanks, everyone, for the answers already I am just going to add that MyFitnessPal calculates your projected loss (so, the amount you have set to lose a week) into the net goal you recieve. It assumes that if you want to eat more, you have to move more to stay in that deficit. Makes sense, right?

Now, especially newbies have a tendency to up the cardio and decrease the food to make a bigger deficit, assuming they will lose faster--and they might! I am not gonna sit here and say that you won't lose more. It's probably not going to show up on the scale due to water weight, but they will lose more. The question is: at what price? And what are they losing?

The MyFitnessPal method (built in deficit based on your numbers, especially plus purposeful exercise) is designed to steadily lose fat and preserving as much muscle as possible. You see, there is a (science proven) limit to how much fat a body can convert into usable energy during any period of time. If you go over that limit, it turns to muscle for fuel instead. You will always get a little bit of muscle tissue loss when eating at a deficit, but if you undereat and up the cardio (or even strength training!) like I see a lot of people on here do, you are forcing your body to canibalize its muscle tissue on top of the max level of fat it can burn. Not to mention that meeting your macro and micro nutrient goals with this method is virtually impossible, creating massive hormone imbalances (leptine, for example) and vitamins and mineral deficits.

The long term effects of crash dieting and deprivation dieting (which is basically what happens when you become one of the people who net in the low hundreds to negatives day after day for an extended period of time) can be really severe. Basically, you are systematically starving yourself, after all. The results tend to be this (one example, hypothetical you):

- your body burns fat, then muscle tissue to sustain itself. You become weaker and sore. You also start having cravings because your brain is sending out warning signs: 'I am starving! Feed me!'. So, you either binge and up your overall net a little, or you persevere and pat yourself on the back for a job well done! You wanted lots of fatty food, but you fed it a celery stick instead. Sadly, your whole timeline congratulates you on your willpower. You start to wonder, though, why your willpower is not being rewarded! The scale doesn't budge! You fail to realize it's because of water weight due to too much exercise and the body's inability to recover due to a lack of nurishment. The solution is often to eat even less and work out even more to get the scale to move.

- the body is further unable to sustain. It changed the body's chemistry to preserve all it can--after all, it needs to protect vital organs from becoming affected and keep you going so you can hunt and gather for food! At this stage, the body becomes its own worst enemy: it no longer tells you you are starving so you can make a last ditch effort to get food. You think you are fine on 1000 calories a day, burning 1200, because your body shows no signs of hunger anymore, but basically, the little neutrients you are providing your body with get sucked towards your vital organs, leaving nothing for the rest. You become more tired, and cranky, and your muscles no longer recover from all the stress you put them through working out. As a result, they break down even faster and hold on to even more water to prevent that breakdown from affecting your ability to throw a spear at a prey animal (hey, I can't help it your body still thinks we are living in caves!). The scale drops oh so slowly--if at all--but meanwhile you do see you are slimming down! Your measurements are less! MyFitnessPal celebrates! 'Hurray! The weight must come off in a 'woosh' soon now! Keep doing what you are doing!'. Note that (thankfully) many people drop out at this stage. The psychological burden becomes too great, they feel *kitten*, and life isn't fun anymore. They stop dieting, start binging, and gain even more weight. The jojo'ing has begun.

- you keep doing what you were doing. We are a few months in now. You develop headaches, fatigue, and you start finding more and more hair on your pillow in the morning. In fact, you start finding hair everywhere. You also get hungry again, not in a way that makes you binge but a sort of steady nagging: a gentle reminder that time is running out. Fail to meet it (MyFitnessPal people pat your back when you tell them you went to bed early instead of having more food) and slowly, your body gives up its protective hold on more systems. You can survive without full function to certain organs, so your body throws them to the wolves: nutrients go towards your brain, heart, and lungs. Pretty much all other organs start running at half capacity. You hold on to more toxins, which start chipping away at your system, and your ability to process food (get nutrients out of them) suffers greatly, so you are truly starving now. This is the point where the weight starts coming off, and pretty quickly, too, usually. A big whoosh! (MyFitnessPal people cheer in the distance). What you are really seeing is your body giving up on protecting muscle tissue completely: the water weight falls away, showing you that you actually did lose a lot of fat and muscle tissue. More cheering! It must be working! Keep at it! Work harder! Eat less!

- now you are in serious *kitten*! Your organs are not keeping up, your muscles are breaking down, and the body has to start looking elsewhere for fuel: your organs and the more vital muscles, including your heart. At this point, your nails will become brittle and start falling out. Your hair falls out. Your period stops. You experience bouts of nausea and muscle weakness. You might find yourself pulling into a run and suddenly blacking out. You still function, but on the inside you are shutting down.

From here on out, it all depends on if you start eating again and stop exercising or not. If you don't, you can end up killing yourself. If you do, it is a long road to recovery, sometimes lasting years and it sometimes includes permanent damage to the function of certain organs, especially the liver and kidneys. Worst of all, this entire crash diet hasn't taught you how to sustain weight loss, so as soon as you crash and burn, the weight flies back on! And trust me, it takes a fraction of the time it took to lose it to gain it back.

I am not saying this to frighten you (well, I am a little), but as a nurse, you should be aware of the ramifications of crash dieting. Those of us that do realize the effects therefor recommend you lose weight slowly, at a sustainable rate that gives you the best ratio of fat loss vs. muscle loss. Stick to your MyFitnessPal calculated net, take the time, eat back your true exercise calories (which is probably 50 to 75 percent of your machine or database given calories), and learn how to eat (and what to eat) for weight loss you can maintain for years to come. It might not go as fast, but you will be able to see it on the scale, and best of all, it will be safe. That is my very long winded answer to 'why' you should eat back exercise calories.

Am I undereating? -I consume 1200 to 1400 cals every day and it's usually closer to 1400. As I mentioned in my OP I'm losing 1.5 to 2 lbs most weeks and have lost a total of 51 lbs since I started in early April. I'm 5'2", SW was 230 lbs and I'm going through menopause. I'm not terribly active due to this blasted back injury.

lyndahh75

Weight loss, large weight loss can cause hair loss too.

Nanogg55

Thanks for the responses everybody. I will increase my protein and I'm going to follow up with another doctor. My GYN was the one who ran the CBC differential. I had read about the resting state of hair and I suspect this probably is stress related but I'd like to rule out any other issues. I just hope it stops soon.

htimpaired

My mother lost a bunch of hair (she's now 64 post menopause). I believe it first started at least 10 years ago. For her, it turned out she had a scalp infection, and needed to use this gel on her scalp each day. Unfortunately, by the time they caught it, there was permenant damage to her hair follicules and therefore there will be no regrowth for her. I'm not saying this is what's going on with you, but in addition to what people have mentioned above, this is another cause for hair loss in women.

Follow up with your doctor. It has been heartbreaking for my mother, who used to have gorgeous, thick wavy hair. It's very thin on the crown. I took her to my hairdresser this weekend to try to find a hairstyle that might hide some of the loss, but there's very little that can be done. I'm going to be helping her look at wigs next. :-(

ki4eld

Providing you're eating enough cals and proteins, it's probably stress or natural loss. It's scary. Have a friend or stylist take a look to see if you're losing all over evenly or in patches. Usually, patches means nutrient issues. All over is just natural loss or added loss from stress.

I too had long, thick hair. I went into a doctor-ordered starvation mode and lost 70% of my hair in the spring. It's coming back; I have fine baby hairs in the bald spots. However, that was due to ultra-low cals.