Losing my hair?????

I have this problem too.

:laugh: I believe you mean you HAD the problem and never found the solution! Seriously, OP, I lose chunks of hair when my T4 (thyroid hormone) is low. I find that, aside from adjusting my meds, evening primrose oil is good. You have to take it for a couple of months for it to start working, though. Good luck. :flowerforyou:

My mother had this problem and come to find out it was her thyroid. Something that can also cause weight gain. Have your doc test you for it.

My friend had that problem and her doctor said she wasn't getting enough protein. She started drinking a protein shake that also has a bunch of viatmins in it that he prescribed and her hair is coming back.

I just went to Hopkins three times in the last month, and had two rounds of blood work done for the same reason. Trying to weed everything out yourself could take a LONG time (equating to more hair loss). And on your own, there's no way for you to test whether it's hormones, thyroid, etc.

If I were you, I'd see a dermatologist so they can run some blood work since there are SO many potential reasons it could be happening. For me, it was a combo of an extreme vit. D deficiency (since I don't eat meat) paired with the stress of the loss of my closest loved one.

Good luck!

My hair never fell out, but I noticed breakage on the top layer, almost to the point where it looked like i had bangs all the way around my head! I was getting really worried, especially since my hair is naturally very fine, but never raised the concern to my doctor. In an annual physical, bloodwork showed that I had an underactive thyroid. I am on medication for it now and the breakage areas seem to be growing back (although I'm not sure if underactive thyroid caused it because I never said anything). My mom has noticed that my hair is shinier now, too. Get it checked out, its probably something as simple as that

I would suggest talking to a doctor about it. I had been having the same exact problem, for a couple years.. first I thought it was normal, then my mom commented that my hair looks a bit thinner than it used to be, and I reached a point where my hair was everywhere in my apartment. I live alone, but I couldn't take all the hair being everywhere anymore.

People, and different hairdressers, gave me lots of suggestions: stress, hormones, birth control pills, bad shampoo, everything, etc..


I finally talked to my doctor about it, and she ran some hormone tests, but also other blood tests including iron and ferritin tests. Even though I took in enough Iron and had normal blood iron levels, she realized that I had very low, chronically low, ferritin. Ferritin is related to iron storage.

That was about a month ago. She didn't give me any prescription medications, but suggested the following:
1) go back to taking my multivitamin, since it should give me 100% of my iron. I stopped because it makes me nauseous but now I take it with food.
2) Get on an iron supplement, slow release (to avoid constipation), because even with getting 100% my body is not storing as much as it should.
3) Take biotin, which has a ton of stuff that improves your hair and nails.

I've been doing this for 3 weeks now and I can promise you that I have already seen a difference in my hair loss when I brush and shower. She wants me to do it for 6 months and then run another test and see how I'm doing. She said that some people just have to be on iron supplements forever,... but I'm willing to do it if it will help return my hair to its former awesomeness.

I would really suggest going to see a doctor -- you might not have an iron or ferritin problem; it might be hormones or some other test that we don't even know of (I didn't know what ferritin was before this).

If you can't afford a doctor or don't have the time to see one, I would suggest to make sure that you are taking a multi-vitamin AND biotin. Skip the iron supplements because it's alot of iron and they can cause constipation and other problems if you don't pick the right one (which your doctor can tell you).

Good luck I know exactly how you feel and wish you the best.

I just went to Hopkins three times in the last month, and had two rounds of blood work done for the same reason. Trying to weed everything out yourself could take a LONG time (equating to more hair loss). And on your own, there's no way for you to test whether it's hormones, thyroid, etc.

If I were you, I'd see a dermatologist so they can run some blood work since there are SO many potential reasons it could be happening. For me, it was a combo of an extreme vit. D deficiency (since I don't eat meat) paired with the stress of the loss of my closest loved one.

Good luck!

That's the other thing, my vitamin D was low too! I'm noticing that consistently here.

Just curious as to why you're taking a prenatal vitamin everyday? Those have extra iron and folic acid in them. Where it is true that low iron causes hair loss....having too much iron can do it too. I was still taking prenatals after the birth of my son, because I was nursing him, but when they did a blood test my levels were too high, so I got moved down to a regular multi-vitamin.

I lose quite a lot of hair, but have anaemia and that's normal for me and it's still relatively thick. But probably around June last year at the height of my weight loss obsession I lost a large amount. Again not so you'd really notice but now that I've started to eat more and put weight on and my hair has started to grow back, I have this halo of shorter hair! Literally a 3 inch length of hair around my whole head, made worse by the fact that my hair is curly when short! I would definitely put it down to the weight loss in my case, and hadn't really expected it to happen!

I guess just make sure that you're calories are good, dense, nutrient rich calories and that you're not eating too little/eating back exercise calories!

I should also note that a few years ago during the most difficult time of my life I was losing my hair badly ... but not like what I have been experiencing lately. Mine was due to malnutrition back then.

Today I am actually balding and along with high testosterone I also am borderline hypothyroid. So yes, like others have pointed out, you might want to get your thyroid checked just to be sure too.

Protein and B vitamins :drinker:

Hair dye isn't usually a problem for most people unless you are bleaching your hair often :noway:

And also it might help to switch to a shampoo and conditioner that doesn't have harsh sulfates in them. You might already know this but just in case I thought I'd mention it Good luck girlie!