Question for Those Who Have Had Stress/Illness Shedding

[kittengirl]

I seek some advice from those who have been through this. My first major shed was last fall after stopping 3 months of prednisone, and it was a huge shed. I had been having severe Ulcerative Colitis and was on Asacol (shedding side affect) as well as the prednisone. The shedding was tapering off when my health plunged downward in Nov/Dec, and I ended up having very major surgery, massive blood loss, and an infection in Dec/Jan. All my levels were screwed up: very anemic, low vitamins, etc. I have gotten my health back now and recently had a ton of bloodwork done and everything is perfect: Iron levels are fine, B12 is great, thyroid is great, electrolytes are normal, etc. I also lost about 30 lbs during all this, at first unintentionally and then by maintaining a healthy diet. (I was a bit overweight before all this, for the first time in years I now have an ok BMI). The Doc tested for a ton of stuff. But now I'm having a major shed again, which I kind of expected considering all the stress that took place 3-4 months ago. My question for all of you is-when will it stop? In your experience, how soon after getting your health back/getting it under control did you start noticing the shedding letting up? I have a ton of baby hairs from last fall's shed so it is wanting to grow back. I have a nice halo of fuzz when it's humid. :p So this is the end of my medical story....thanks so much for listening. It's nice to be able to talk to people who understand the hair aspect of ill health. I think DH thinks it's all in my head....no pun intended. :cheese:

[kittengirl]

NO one else? Or does it never end and you're afraid of discouraging me?:bigeyes:

[ravenheather]

I haven't had a stress or illness shed. My shed was vitamin d deficiency related and let up when I started supplementing. I still have thin ends. I mostly wanted to say don't give up. If you have fuzzy halo then you are regrowing. Patience is the name of the game. Stay healthy and the hair with come back.

[truepeacenik]

Yep. Fuzzy halo is a good thing.

Do you still notice large shed amounts?
Or is that moderating?

I've had some illness/trauma sheds, and my larger issue comes months later with my waffling about a cut (not chop), trimming or letting it all just grow.

[MsPharaohMoan]

Might help to check out https://www.youtube.com/user/DieSushiBitch this youtube channel.

[catasa]

Sorry about all your troubles :flower: I haven´t had nearly as serious a physical illness as you but I have had some stress sheddings, mostly due to psychological stress. The worst took about three months to get completely back to normal as I remember it, though the shedding wasn´t consistent all that time, it was heavier in the beginning (as expected I guess) and slowed down as the time passed.

I hope your health will continue to get better, and also that the shedding will stop soon and that your hair will grow back like weeds! :)

[kittengirl]

Might help to check out https://www.youtube.com/user/DieSushiBitch this youtube channel.

I will check that out, thanks so much!

[kittengirl]

Sorry about all your troubles :flower: I haven´t had nearly as serious a physical illness as you but I have had some stress sheddings, mostly due to psychological stress. The worst took about three months to get completely back to normal as I remember it, though the shedding wasn´t consistent all that time, it was heavier in the beginning (as expected I guess) and slowed down as the time passed.

I hope your health will continue to get better, and also that the shedding will stop soon and that your hair will grow back like weeds! :)
Thanks so much! I feel like mine had let up and seems a bit heavier now....I know it will take time; I'm not a patient person lol.

[kittengirl]

Yep. Fuzzy halo is a good thing.

Do you still notice large shed amounts?
Or is that moderating?

I've had some illness/trauma sheds, and my larger issue comes months later with my waffling about a cut (not chop), trimming or letting it all just grow.

It's a bit heavy right now, but not the heaviest it has ever been. I'm not patient enough lol! I keep telling myself at some point when my hair gets longer it will suddenly be very thick due to the fuzzy halo catching up to the rest!

[kittengirl]

I haven't had a stress or illness shed. My shed was vitamin d deficiency related and let up when I started supplementing. I still have thin ends. I mostly wanted to say don't give up. If you have fuzzy halo then you are regrowing. Patience is the name of the game. Stay healthy and the hair with come back.

I have started taking some good supplements so hopefully that will help! I will embrace the fuzzy halo and wait!

[lapushka]

I had hormonal shedding when I was 13/14. It fell out 1b/c and came back 2b/c... about a year later. It took a year, but I had a few bald patches where clumps had come out. And excessive thinning. I took supplements (Pill Food was "in" at the time). And used Bioscalin lotion on my scalp. Good care and patience, and that's all it takes. And staying healthy.

[hopefullocks]

Whenever I'm stressed, my hair is usually the first to show it. I've dealt with many stress induced sheds from age 21 to now, at 31. Things can really take a toll on the body. When I was younger the loss was more noticeable because I was doing damage via heat and unsuitable products. Now that I take better care of my hair, it isn't as noticeable when I have a shed. I fully understand and support the claims of medication and stress induced hair struggles, and my heart goes out to anyone in that boat.

[Cg]

Your shedding will stop. Both illness and medication cause stress, and once those are resolved (not necessarily eliminated, just when you achieve stasis) your hair will respond too.

It's distressing to go through a shed, but be patient, keep up your healthful diet, and be sure to get enough rest. Deep breathing also has surprisingly strong positive effects.

Whatever you need to do to take care of yourself, do. And ignore anyone who claims to know you better than you know yourself.

[Horrorpops]

I don't have any advice but I'msorry to hear your hair is suffering, I hope the shedding let's up soon but I do agree with PPs that the fuzzy halo has to be a great sign of new growth! :cheer:
Sending you good vibes :o

[kittengirl]

Thank you so much everyone for all the hope!
Lapushka, I'm not familiar with Bioscalin, perhaps I will look it up.....patience seems to be a common factor....I should try to get some ;)

Hopefullocks, thanks for the sympathy! I hope your hair continues to do well too!!

Cg, thanks for the tips. I have been trying to do more yoga/relaxing exercise so maybe that will help.

Horrorpops, thanks for the good vibes! I can certainly use those!!

[lapushka]

Thank you so much everyone for all the hope!
Lapushka, I'm not familiar with Bioscalin, perhaps I will look it up.....patience seems to be a common factor....I should try to get some ;)

This was like 30 years ago. I don't even know if they still make that lotion. Wait let me see... Yep, found something. Mine came in a bottle, these are lotion capsules, it seems.
http://www.farmapiel.com/en/anti-hairnloss/bioscalin/bioscalin%C2%AE-anti-hair-loss-capillary-lotion

Mine was exactly this:
https://www.haarcentrum.nl/media/catalog/product/cache/2/image/650x/040ec09b1e35df139433887a97daa66f/b/i/bioscalin-haar-lotion-tegen-haaruitval.jpg

[yogagirl]

I don't have personal experience with this, but i really like this blog and she talks about recovering from hair loss regularly: http://haselnussblond.blogspot.de/?m=1 (German with English translations in each post)

I'd say your fuzzy halo is GREAT news, so I'm sure you hair loss will slow down soon. Also, not sure of your climate, but many folks also experience seasonal sheds in the springtime, so that might be playing a role here as well.

[Sarahlabyrinth]

My stress shedding lasted for 6 weeks and during that time I lost almost an inch in circumference. It began regrowing fast though, but of course then it takes years for the regrowth to reach the ends. Not there yet ;)

[Kimberly]

After I had cancer surgery (no chemo) my hair thinned for around two years, until I'd lost about half of it. It looked like crap for a few more years (thin, bald spots, very wide part, receded hairline and all edge wispiness gone all the way around). My length stalled at tailbone. About five years after the surgery, when I had given up, I started to sprout the fuzzy halo. About eleven years after surgery, maybe a little longer, the stall ended and I started gaining some length again, the halo turned into a bit more thickness and lots of edge wispies, my part is normal, hairline is back where it was, and the bald spots are gone or improved and can be hidden. My hair isn't as thick as it was, but it doesn't look like crap anymore, and I have no idea how much it will still improve. Other things besides my hair are still healing, too ... my recovery has generally had years-long progress plateaus, and my hair's situation seems to mirror what's been going on with the rest.

I hope your halo signals a complete recovery. :-)

[stahil]

Sorry to hear about your health issues. Hopefully all is well now.

I have had 2 major sheds in my lifetime and both were after pregnancies. As soon as the kid turned 3 months old, my hair started coming out in clumps. Very distressing and not to mention annoying as the baby hairs grew out. I didn't do anything special other than stopping coloring my hair because I was afraid of damaging the baby hair. I ended up with the same amount of hair in the end.

[nakima]

yes embrace the halo I was so excited when I realized all that fuzzy hair was new growth and it would only be a matter of time before it caught up with the rest of my hair. I feel your pain because I was there once, My shed was due to stress and hormone imbalance it took awhile but all good now :) I do take my vitamins which consist of multi v, fish oil, vitamin c,folic acid,biotin and stinging nettles. I eat healthy most of the time and I really think a spinach drink every day for about 2 months helped a lot! I also drink protein shakes I love them! anyway be patient it will all get better. Try not to think about it once I was able to just accept what was happening I stopped stressing and changes came about. Good Luck!

[mindwiped]

I've had stress losses, sadly multiple round. There are a bunch of us over on these two threads, if you're not, we're friendly, c'mon over-

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=134545

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=137023