PDA

View Full Version : HELP! My hair is much thinner on both sides of head and thicker down the middle back?



Lisa R
November 29th, 2017, 06:03 AM
Hi all,

I've been debating to even bother writing a thread about this but I really hope someone on here may know what may be going on with my hair.

I've had blood tests done and also seen a naturopath to help work out what's going on. Nothing has improved my hair so far. It's been like this for nearly a decade.

I'm 37 yrs old now and when I was in my 20s my hair was a normal thickness all over. My hair has never been thick but it's never been terribly thin either. My husband and I went to live in a third world country for 3 years in my mid to late 20s and my hair deteriorated while there (I also went off the pill) It started to look thinner and looked like it constantly had regrowth but the ends were always thin.

Fast forward to now. I've had two kids. My youngest is now 5yrs old. During pregnancy my hair would go lovely and 'thick' and I would hardly lose hair. When both babies were born I would have terrible shedding for a long time. Sometimes it felt like it went longer than a year with shedding lots.

Now when I try and grow my hair I have nice normal thickness down the centre back of my head but at the front on either side of my head my hair is quite see through and gappy. I'm not shedding. It doesn't look healthy or normal. I had my hair trimmed recently and the hairdresser took a few inches off the back but on the sides she hardly had to touch as it hadn't grown. I always seem to have a lot of regrowth going on all over my head but it never seems to reach the ends especially on the sides. I keep my hair shoulder length now as it feels and looks thicker to keep it shorter. I'm just really baffled why my hair is doing this and has been for years. I don't lose much hair during the day so it's not a shedding problem I believe.

I've been a part of this group for many years and know the do's and dont's with hair. There's no rough treatment or breakage going on. I kind of feel like maybe it's hormonal or minerals out of whack? My naturopath didn't think it was hormonal cause my periods are normal and emotions are normal. She thought it was a lack of protein as I'm vegetarian and put me on a protein powder especially formulated for hair loss and hair issues. I've not seen any improvement in hair and I think my protein level is perfectly fine.

Who knows? It's a mystery and kind of annoying as I don't want to grow my hair longer as I hate the way it looks longer as it accentuates my non existent sides! My hairdresser said I have a mullet going on!

Anyway, any wisdom or advice would be greatly appreciated❤️

spidermom
November 29th, 2017, 07:06 AM
All I know to do is take care of your health as best you can - diet, sleep, exercise - all the stuff you probably already know. Sometimes we have to just work with what we have. Hair can go through a lot of changes during different phases of your life, so I hope the next phase brings back some thickness. Best wishes.

lapushka
November 29th, 2017, 07:43 AM
You said your youngest is 5, so normally the hair should have caught up. You said you had had bloodwork done, but what was the outcome of that? Have you asked?

Do you use heat on your hair, harsh brushes, combs (fine tooth are a no-no).

If you are vegetarian. How's your iron?

Alex Lou
November 29th, 2017, 10:34 AM
Have you seen a dermatologist? I think that would be a good place to start. Remember that a naturopathic doctor is not a medical doctor.

sumidha
November 29th, 2017, 10:35 AM
The change when you went off the pill and extra long postpartum sheds sounds like its hormone related, but I'm no doctor so I have no idea how to pursue that avenue... Have you ever considered going back on the pill and seeing if there's a change?

vpatt
November 29th, 2017, 10:44 AM
How long have you tried the protein powder? Diet may take a while to make a difference. And I would ask as lapushka did...did you get the results of your bloodwork? I know very little about being a vegetarian and I'm not putting it down, but people can differ a lot. Maybe you need more of some nutrients than most other people do. It's just a thought.

My bloodwork came back "normal". But I checked out the results myself and found that at least a couple things were on the low end of normal. And if I lived in some countries it would have been considered low, but in my country it's considered normal. Just something to think about.

Deborah
November 29th, 2017, 10:45 AM
I think it is natural for hair to be thinner on the sides than in the back. If you think how our hairlines are situated on our head, there is a lot more space for the hair from the top of our heads down to the bottom of the hairline at the neck than there is from the top of the head down to our ears.

Just something to think about.

Lisa R
November 29th, 2017, 05:12 PM
Thank you all for comments!!

My blood has always come back normal as did the iron results. I'm a very healthy eater, exercise regularly and get at least 9hrs of sleep every night cause I need that!! I've always been conscious how I treat my hair since joining the long hair community in 2006 and even before I joined I always treated my hair with care.

I don't want to go back on the pill and try!! I think my next step will be to look at hormones. If they are ok then I'll just have to acccept that's how my hair is for now at this stage of life and work with that😉

Thank you again for taking the time to reply😘

ghanima
November 30th, 2017, 12:33 AM
I have less hair at the top of my head than in the back, always have, but it's not noticeable. I think distribution is not always supposed to be even. Have you tried massaging the scalp with , I don't know, there are indian oils, or aloe vera, or castor oil, or rosmarin and peppermint essential oil - you'd have to find what product works best for your scalp and stimulates it properly.

(Should you find out you've got hormonal problems, please please get informed before going for mainstream methods of treatment. Mostly, hormonal problems are due to liver not being able to do its job properly, but the drugs you'd be given don't address that, in fact they aggravate it. I have strong opinions about these matters... and I don't expect you to agree, just please get informed before going in that direction.)