Bullimia and hair loss

pyrowill

Oddly enough at the same time small patches of hair might grow on your stomach because their body is trying to keep its core warm because it has no fat left to do it with.

Believe me it has plenty of fat to keep warm!

phoenixoncemore

Thanks very much guys, and yes I am in the UK, I shall see what the NHS will throw my way later this week!

I think it's made worse for me as I've always had quite a red/pink scalp, enough that people always ask if I've got sunburn on it, so as the hair has thinned it looks even more noticeable as my scalp really shows through!

I know my diet (ED aside) is pretty shocking, really lacking a lot of nutrients. I think I will invest in some Multivitamins and supplements, I think VIT D and E are supposed to be quite good?

I maybe wouldn't worry about that until you know what you dealing with. Multi vits are great to stop you going into deficit but once you are in a nutrient deficiency they aren't usually enough to get you out. I was taking about 24 x 100% RDA of iron everyday for about 9 months on the advice of my doctor to get out of my iron deficiency and that got me just to the low end of normal! That being said a multi-vit won't hurt, so if you want to, then go for it.

I had my hair dyed black and red at the time and I cut out the dye, which helped and my natural dark blonde made my scalp less noticable. I also avoided conditioner as I find a lot of my hair comes out when I use it. No scientific explanation for that, there is no reason that it should but personal experience dictated that for me.

I hope you get a nice doctor! My GP guessed (and got it wrong) but when I called him on it got me an appointment with another doctor in the surgery that had specialised in dermatology and she was a big help, so it may be worth asking about that if help doesn't seem forthcoming.

Feel free to add me on here if you want support through this, I wish I'd had someone to talk to about it at the time, so even if you just want to vent at someone by direct message, the offer stands. :flowerforyou:

jsapninz

Oddly enough at the same time small patches of hair might grow on your stomach because their body is trying to keep its core warm because it has no fat left to do it with.

Believe me it has plenty of fat to keep warm!

Although that may be true dear, if you have an eating disorder honestly your judgement can't really be trusted about the state of your body. :frown:

pyrowill

No I recognise the state of my body quite well I think. I was merely pointing out that I'm certainly not losing hair to gain it elsewhere in an effort to keep warm from lack of fat. Thats all

holly1283

There have been some really helpful comments. My daughter was bulimic and is not anymore so be encouraged you can do this. Also, resist coloring your hair or perming it, I don't know if you do or not but when mine was thinning my hairdresser was adamant about that. Mine did come back. I wish you well on your journey.

pyrowill

Thanks very much everyone for your advice and support.

pyrowill

Doctors booked. This'll be interesting....

Skinny_Beans

Hair loss from anorexia, yes, hair loss from bulimia? You're probably still eating enough calories since a characteristic of throwing up is bingeing to make up for it. I was bulimic for a few years, it was more mental than I realized. Wish you'd talk to someone, because honestly this post is just a cry for help.

pyrowill

I do talk to people, this post isn't a cry for help at all, it is nice to talk about it and say how I feel sure. But this is genuinely just about what the title suggests.

But still, thanks for your input.

B21goddess

Yeah I'm going to see a doctor later this week I think.

Im bulimic 20 now and Ive been at it since I was 14 hw-200 lw-100
but anyways I have my bad months and good months. you can message me if you like

but Ive experienced my hair thinning and alot of it fell out when I wasnt really eating anything much or just
throwing EVERYTHING UP.

how many calories do you think you keep in a day.. without throwing up?
I think for your hair to be thinning it would have to be really low.

B21goddess

Hair loss from anorexia, yes, hair loss from bulimia? You're probably still eating enough calories since a characteristic of throwing up is bingeing to make up for it. I was bulimic for a few years, it was more mental than I realized. Wish you'd talk to someone, because honestly this post is just a cry for help.

thats not true at all when I was going through I really rough time with my bulimia-throwing up everything all binges EVERYTHING,I worked at a fastfood restaurant and had all the food I wanted.. I got down to 100 pounds my skin became very dry and alot of my hair fell out.

NocturnalGirl

I've experienced a bit of hair loss from under-eating/purging. It's when you lack nutrients in your body, try taking multivitamins and fish oil capsules and definitely see your doctor. I've been trying to get better and as I increased my intake I noticed a lot of positive things about my health including my hair's texture getting better so it's not a permanent damage. Good luck!

estitom

I'm struggling with anorexia and my hair has definitely become thinner. It falls out easily and overall it doesn't look as good as before. I don't know if there's a difference between anorexia and bulimia but you're probably right. I think if you put a healthy person who eats good food and exercise a lot between someone who eats junk food and never work out, the first one would most probably have better hair.

pyrowill

Yeah I'm going to see a doctor later this week I think.

Im bulimic 20 now and Ive been at it since I was 14 hw-200 lw-100
but anyways I have my bad months and good months. you can message me if you like

but Ive experienced my hair thinning and alot of it fell out when I wasnt really eating anything much or just
throwing EVERYTHING UP.

how many calories do you think you keep in a day.. without throwing up?
I think for your hair to be thinning it would have to be really low.

On my good days I Eat anywhere from 2000-4000 cals, most of it complete junk, on my bad days I can net 100. Very irregular.

B21goddess

Yeah I'm going to see a doctor later this week I think.

Im bulimic 20 now and Ive been at it since I was 14 hw-200 lw-100
but anyways I have my bad months and good months. you can message me if you like

but Ive experienced my hair thinning and alot of it fell out when I wasnt really eating anything much or just
throwing EVERYTHING UP.

how often do you have good and bad days?

how many calories do you think you keep in a day.. without throwing up?
I think for your hair to be thinning it would have to be really low.

On my good days I Eat anywhere from 2000-4000 cals, most of it complete junk, on my bad days I can net 100. Very irregular.

B21goddess

Yeah I'm going to see a doctor later this week I think.

Im bulimic 20 now and Ive been at it since I was 14 hw-200 lw-100
but anyways I have my bad months and good months. you can message me if you like

but Ive experienced my hair thinning and alot of it fell out when I wasnt really eating anything much or just
throwing EVERYTHING UP.


how many calories do you think you keep in a day.. without throwing up?
I think for your hair to be thinning it would have to be really low.

On my good days I Eat anywhere from 2000-4000 cals, most of it complete junk, on my bad days I can net 100. Very irregular.

how often do you have good and bad days?

pyrowill

Well not wanting to go into too much detail as this wasn't what this thread was about. It's far too irregualr to even summarise, but trying to do so I would say the week could be made up of 60-70% good day, 40-30 bad days.

nsblue

I have never had Bullimia but I am sure it is a battle to overcome and wish you all the best in working on yourself to control it in your life.... Myself in once being super morbidly obese have problems with emotional eating.. and it to is something that is a daily struggle but can be overcome with help and committment to overcome it.
In weightlosss where I did lose fast I did lose ALOT of hair. I started taking Biotin daily. It does not prevent hair loss but rather promotes new hair growth. It helped for me. My hair is coming in in leaps n bounds. Remember depending on heredity ..and if one has alot of body hair...it could possible promote that hair growth anywhere it grows. so for example if you have alot of body hair say..on your arms...you could gain some growth there, I was lucky it just grew on my head

pyrowill

Thanks, I've heard some good things about Biotin actually.

PinkAndSparkle

So I'm not a text book bulimic, as I don't have a history of binge/purge, but rather restrict/purge/compulsive exercise, but I can tell you that when I was purging regularly (once a day at the very least), my hair was falling out, my skin was scaly, my nails were peeling, and I had bloody noses every day...not to mention I was a miserable ***** all the time.

Following that, I lived on an extremely restricted diet for years. My hair used to be really thick and curly. Now it's way thinner and pretty brittle, despite my healthy diet now.

I think you are extremely brave to have posted this. I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but most men do not talk about this sort of thing. I think you are on the right track to recovery. I hope you find a good team of professionals to guide you, and have a strong support system outside of that.

If you have any questions or need more support feel free to add me or PM me.
Best of luck!