kpk54 wrote: »

It saddens me this topic surfaces every few months because hair loss continues to be an often avoidable problem.

Are you eating sufficient calories to fuel all your bodily systems/functions? In the scheme of things the heart is more important than hair so the hair is first to go when the body does not receive enough fuel.

^^^^This. I have never had that problem but when I diet. But others I have know have it when they are either too low cals. consistently under 1000 cals or very low protein.

Also you might want to use bone broth and/or gelatin to supplement your diet. Nails and hair love those.

I believe B vitamins - or deficiency thereof - can be responsible for hair loss. Meat is the best source for B vitamins and animal products are the ONLY source of B-12. If your protein is low, then this could be part of the issue.

possibly, IF that is the issue. Sometimes a deficiency is caused by a person's body not properly absorbing it. This could be an ongoing issue or temporary caused by other issues. My wife had to take B-12 shots for a while because she was not absorbing it when taken orally due to something else. That was over 10 years ago, so I can't recall what the other contributing factor was off the top of my head.

nortonme wrote: »

I just started Keto a week ago. how much protein is enough though to help prevent hair loss? I don't want to lose my hair either.

You can google keto calculator and get multiple hits. From there, you can play with the macros to see what works best for you. Across the board, nearly everyone agrees you shouldn't go below 0.8g of protein per kg of LEAN body mass. There are variants which go up quite a bit from there, but that is a minimum. To make that easy if you measure in lbs and not kg, 1 kg is about 2.2 lbs, so that would be about 0.37 grams of protein per lb of lean body mass.

I would take others' suggestions about supplementation and/or increasing calorie limit. It's not that high fat and moderate protein is bad for your hair, it is quite the opposite.

Your hair is made of protein so consuming more protein is good for your hair. You can also try protein treatments which you can purchase (look for natural hair conditioners labeled "restorative", "reconstructor", or "strengthening". By natural I mean, no parabens, mineral oils, petroleum by-products, sulfates, silicones, etc). Or you can even make a protein treatment hair mask yourself with the help of eggs, greek yogurt, honey, avocado, etc.

I would like to point out that

1.) Protein treatments should be followed up by a deep moisturizing conditioning treatment as protein directly applied to the hair, although strengthening, is very drying.

2.) Some people do have protein sensitivities when it comes to hair. For most people, protein helps strengthen hair and should be alternated between protein and deep moisturizing treatments typically one treatment per week for healthier hair. There are some people where topically-applied protein actually causes hair breakage. I'm not sure if this is the case for dietary protein. Something to look into.

Also, healthy fats keeps hair in a healthier, more moisturized state. All water intake is a huge component on hair health. So if anything, be sure that you are eating enough calories and drinking enough water.

I haven't had a problem with hair loss yet, but the last time I was getting my hair cut my stylist said that most of her clients do seem to lose more hair while losing weight.

I went through several months of losing hair but it never got so bad it got thin. It only stopped for me when I stopped losing weight. Maybe I was eating more then too. Who knows. But definitely too low calorie and losing weight can cause it. The good news is it's only temporary. It's not long term damage. Just a little shutting down of non essential functions upon a perceived energy shortage. Just make sure you're never letting yourself go hungry if you're really truly hungry. That kind of shut down could be slowing metabolism. If you aren't forcing yourself to stay under certain calories even when your body is telling you you're for real hungry, then you probably are fine.
My hair loss suddenly stopped one week along with weight loss... but not fat loss!

https://www.dietdoctor.com/can-low-carb-diets-result-in-hair-loss
HTH

Since these specifics weren't all mentioned here already, also wanted to add this comment I made on another post. That being said, it is a copy/paste, so please forgive any repeats - emphasis mine.


Smaller calorie deficits. Less exercise. Anything to reduce the body's stress.

That being said, adding boron/zinc, gelatin/collagen, diatomaceous earth (for the silica), and a few other supplements (biotin is a waste, from what I remember) - and occasional coconut oil/other safe hair oils (like Argan, etc.) massages to stimulate new growth can really help.

I forget which all supps work best, but I can show you the ripple in my thumbnails from my improved nail health from when I added zinc back in to my supplements. I started it in late October. I have maybe 1/4" left before the ripple grows out past the nail bed... Best thing I ever added - but some folks are not deficient and need copper to balance... There are assay tests you can take to determine deficiency or not. My levels tested normal at only 4 days on the supps, but we all know that most serum tests only show what the blood is keeping in balance - not the functional levels in the body of anything (magnesium, sodium, and potassium are the worst offenders in this IMO)... Whatever the difference, my thyroid also seems to be soaking it up!

maybe try MSM - I take it for carpal tunnel and it has made my usually quite thin hair crazy thick.

KnitOrMiss wrote: »

For anyone taking B-12, please be sure you take a standard B-Complex (or super or ultra complex) vitamin, too. Supplement B-12 only will gradually deplete ALL OTHER B VITAMINS...

Thanks.