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CryssieWillow
November 27th, 2009, 07:13 AM
I have no idea if I spelled that right....

Anyhoo.
Those who hang around in the weightloss support thread know that I have lost about 40 pounds in the last 1.5 year or so. What I haven't really shared yet, is that with that weight came out a full quarter of my hair. I lost an inch in circumference.
It is growing back atm.
I cut quite a bit of hair of... I'm probably at about 26 or 27 inches now. The loss was just too much for my already heavily tapered hair. it looked so pathetic.
But I'm just wondering.... Am I the only soul here who experienced a connection between hairloss and weightloss?
If I'm not, please share your experiences!

Lemur_Catta
November 27th, 2009, 07:30 AM
Hi. I am currently trying to lose some weight (not really successful till now, hope for the future :D) and I was worried my hair would suffer from it.
40 pounds in 18 months doesn't seem too much to me, I mean, I would see the point if you had lost a lot of weight very fast, but you seem to have done it slowly, so you shouldn't have had many problems... (losing weight fast has many disadvantages, for example stretch marks :D)
Have you taken vitamins during your diet? Were you followed by a doctor? Maybe you didn't eat enough protein, fruit and vegetables, or something else.

CryssieWillow
November 27th, 2009, 08:14 AM
Hmn.... you are giving me some food for thought here.

Most of the weight was lost in about 11 months. The rest was a bit of dwindling.
I did not take vitamins and I was not followed by a doctor. And also I should mention that I decided to go vegetarian a few months after I started.
I naturally have a low amount of iron in my blood, so I have to be carefull with what I eat to make sure I don't go aneamic. Now I take floradix regularly which supplies iron and B vitamins and I take extra vitamin C.

Losing weight is easy, once you just flip a certain switch in your head. You'll get it done ;)

Lemur_Catta
November 27th, 2009, 08:20 AM
It is quite easy to have an unbalanced diet when going vegetarian. If you just ate cheese and eggs instead of meat and fish, all the time, that would have been very unbalanced, because cheese and eggs are fatter than most meat, and dairy products also interfere with iron absorption.
I am glad to hear that your hair is growing back, anyway :)

missjessiecakes
November 27th, 2009, 08:48 AM
I did. I lost about 60 pounds one year and my hair went from iii to i, I dont know why but now that I am growing out again I've noticed I am a whole lot thicker in the hair department. Maybe its just one of those things like losing the fat in your boobs before you lose any of the rest of it.

Heidi_234
November 27th, 2009, 09:17 AM
Restricting your diet can definitely affect hair for the worse. Cutting out types of foods or generally eating not enough - all in all, unbalanced diet which does not even support your weight and makes your body extort from it's resources can definitely lead to deficiency in important minerals and vitamins, protein and possibly stress your body and make it direct resources to organs other than hair follicles.

Bottom line, yes, weight loss can affect hair, especially when not done right. Good news are, all the shed hair is not gone forever, and thickness will grow in eventually. It won't be quick, but at least it's not gone for good. :)

Speckla
November 27th, 2009, 09:20 AM
I lost a lot of hair after going vegetarian because I wasn't getting enough iron, protein, and b vitamins. It started to grow back after I started eating more eggs and taking vitamins.

Tinose
November 27th, 2009, 10:19 AM
Yes, as a general rule of thumb, dieting will affect your hair negatively. At least you lost it gradually so it shouldn't be too bad. But what dieting basically is is starving your body of so many nutrients that it has to go into its own stores of fat to survive. Hair's a luxury to your body, so it's one of the first things jettisoned when it thinks it's in a famine with not enough food to eat.

Rebelkat
November 27th, 2009, 10:52 AM
I think that it depends mostly on HOW you lose weight. If you make major changes in your diet, you can expect major changes in your hair. If you lose weight through exercise and being more active, I'm sure it would actually improve your hair's condition. I think the key to not losing hair while dieting is to make sure you get at least as much of the essential nutrients (protein, b-vitamins, etc...) as you did before, and cut out the crap. Most foods that contain the nutrients needed for healthy hair are lower in calories and carbohydrates than junk food anyhow. Although that's not really dieting so much as it is eating better quality food.

turtlelover
November 27th, 2009, 04:32 PM
I lost well over 40 pounds a couple of years ago and it didn't negatively affect my hair at all....in fact, since I was eating HEALTHIER food and less junk, it helped my hair and especially my skin. But, I did a lower carb diet where I got plenty of protein, and a lot of fruit and veggies. I also took a lot of supplements....especially B vitamins, which can be lacking in a low carb diet.

danacc
November 27th, 2009, 04:36 PM
A little off topic, but thank you for the reminder to take my iron and B complex vitamins!

justme
November 27th, 2009, 07:12 PM
I lost 50 pounds in 9 months (most in the first 6 months) due to a poor diet from living in a new country with food I didn't care for. My hairloss was delayed a bit - that was 3 years ago and my hair is still thinning from bs/waist down. I went from ~4.25" circumference to 3". I'm back up to 3.5", but the regrowth has only reached my collarbone to bs area. I guess I'll keep losing those longer hairs until I don't have them anymore and/or my regrowth catches up.

I trimmed from knee to classic because I couldn't handle the thinning ends. I really hope I don't have to trim that drastically again, but I will if the ends thin out too much more.

I have gained 25 pounds back, which is mostly good - my lowest weight was way too low for me. I'm at a healthy weight and eating good food, although I could lose ~10 pounds and still be healthy. I'll never again willingly give up good food! :)

pdy2kn6
November 28th, 2009, 01:51 PM
Yeah definately, I lost alot of weight (not in a good nor healthy way) about 2/3 years ago, when I would end up not eating much at all everyday. The weight dropped off, but my hair started to come out much more too. It became limp and lost alot of the colour it used to have (my hair was much richer, perhaps it has just changed with age) but anyway...luckily in finding LHC and in wanting to grow healthy hair, this was actually one factor which encouraged me to seek help and recognise what I was doing to myself. I am trying to include more things in my diet now (ie nuts, seeds and maximum protein). I think as long as you do it gradually, and healthily you will have no problem at all. Congradulations on the great results so far :) Phil

basak
December 1st, 2009, 07:46 AM
Yes, as a general rule of thumb, dieting will affect your hair negatively. At least you lost it gradually so it shouldn't be too bad. But what dieting basically is is starving your body of so many nutrients that it has to go into its own stores of fat to survive. Hair's a luxury to your body, so it's one of the first things jettisoned when it thinks it's in a famine with not enough food to eat.


Do you really think that's the only way to lose weight??? You don't have to starve yourself of nutrients to lose weight. More than a certain amount of calories is bad for everyone, so when you cut that back you lose weight. Like, not eating a slice of cake every day. Cake has very little nutrients. Just an example. I suggest you check out the health and body forum, there's lots of great information on nutrition there, because what you said here is simply incorrect.

Snowflakey
December 3rd, 2009, 02:15 PM
This same thing happened to me. I lost what seemed like a quarter of my hair and 15 lbs when I went on the raw food diet half a year ago. I was pretty foolish; I didn't pay any attention to nutrients or take any supplements at all. I'm now back on a normal diet but I haven't seen any regrowth yet...

Lemur_Catta
December 3rd, 2009, 03:02 PM
Do you really think that's the only way to lose weight??? You don't have to starve yourself of nutrients to lose weight. More than a certain amount of calories is bad for everyone, so when you cut that back you lose weight. Like, not eating a slice of cake every day. Cake has very little nutrients. Just an example. I suggest you check out the health and body forum, there's lots of great information on nutrition there, because what you said here is simply incorrect.

It's not really true. You lose weight because you use more calories than you need. But when you gain weight, you start needing more calories, because the fatty tissue needs blood vessels, because you need more energy just to move around...so, if you eat X calories a day, you will eventually reach a point when you don't gain weight anymore, because those X calories, which were too much for your starting weight, are now the exact amount that can support your current weight.
When you eat less and\or exercise more (the two things have different effects on our body, but in the end, you lose weight) you are actually starving your body, because you are giving your tissues (all tissues; muscle, brain, everything) less energy than they need to survive. So they start using the energy stored in the fatty tissue, which would not have been stored there if you haven't eaten more than you needed in the first place.

Exercising more is healthier than eating less, but if you just exercise more, you will lose weight very slowly, and you will not learn how to eat correctly anyway, so most people also start eating less, which is also good AS LONG AS you eat all nutrients, including carbohydrates. If you just eat less, you might not eat enough vitamins, iron and other important things for our body.

I am sorry if I used incorrect words or if I wasn't clear, but I don't know all the scientific terms in English :)

heidi w.
December 3rd, 2009, 06:03 PM
Are you on a completely fat-free diet, that is no fat of any kind whatsoever?

If yes, then the body needs some fat to absorb and use various minerals and vitamins.

Even if you're eating well, if you aren't including a trace amount of fat in the diet, then you're effectively starving your body of some nutrition.

How about your iron levels in the blood? Do you have any history with anemia, even borderline anemia?

IF yes, this can lead to a chronic condition of hair thinning that is imperceptible until some time has passed.

The best way to improve iron levels, unless there's some other health condition that would affect these levels, is to be SURE that at each meal, somehow, you're getting an appropriate amount of protein. Some people who go vegetarian (no this is not a diatribe against vegetarianism) have a bit of a problem at least initially with ensuring they're getting sufficient supply of protein.

But there are tons of vegetables and grains that have protein. And there's always the soy bean.

Here's the thing on protein. Our body manufacturers, oh, something like 24 or whatever amino acids a day. Rather, that's how many amino acids we need per day to function. BUT a subset of those amino acids, with names, MUST come from the diet. The body doesn't manufacturer those 8 on its own (if you will). A complete 8 amino acids = a complete protein. Example: many of the world's diets are rice and beans. Why does this work? Because the one amino acid that most beans or legumes don't have, rice does have; and the one amino acid rice doesn't have, legumes have. They complement each other and form a complete protein.

So you may have to look after that protein thing.

It's not uncommon in RAPID weight loss to experience hair loss increases, actually. This is typically because someone went on a rather stringent diet and is not taking in the proper nutrients the body needs, and can rather be starved nutritionally if this keeps up. (This is one of the issues with anorexics. Not only are they not eating enough, they aren't eating enough of the right things, a little fat, a little something in the way of protein, and so on...that kind of thing.)

But you report having lost 40 pounds over 1.5 yrs, so this is very gradual and slow weight loss.

Finally you might want to go have a doctor's checkup, say, an ob-gyn clinic. Just double check that you don't have any issues, low potassium, low iron levels, and specifically any issues with thyroid. Thyroid issues can absolutely lead to hair loss and hair breakage! (There's 2 types of thyroid concerns - hypo and hyper -- check it out on the internet.) Hyper can cause hair breakage; hypo hair loss/thinning, especially if falling out in clumps.

It's a bit unusual for a 25 yr old to have thyroid problems; however, it's not impossible either. It's been know to occur and a bit more frequently than most understand.

Just rule these things out to be certain.

Finally, age 25 is about the timeframe when we have one of our first big sheds. Even though you trimmed back it's possible you're in a phase of loss to prepare for major growth. Look for a lot of hairyelles all about the head, a halo effect, or a halo effect over the length. New growth and a good sigh.

But 25 or so is about the time we lose some volume as part of how hair grows and wanes over time. We tend to lose that luscious thickness a bit from our earlier years in our teens and early 20s. George Michael reports on this and many other hair growth books posit this as well.

heidi w.

heidi w.
December 3rd, 2009, 06:05 PM
A little off topic, but thank you for the reminder to take my iron and B complex vitamins!

Easy on the iron. It can cause constipation and can build up and have too much and become toxic. In the worst cases, especially with young children, too much can lead to death.

Better to work with a multi-vitamin that includes SOME iron. Better yet to get it through your food each day.

Check with a qualified physician on taking iron pills. This should be appropriately moderated with qualified physician oversight. (It's used in cancer patients since they lose a lot of iron; used after surgeries with high blood loss.)

Just beware.
heidi w.

Em_Faye
December 8th, 2009, 10:48 AM
Aaah! I think I might have finally found the thread that is helping me! I lost70 pounds in the last year, restricting my diet severely 3 days a week, walking 2 or 3 miles a day, eating 'healthier'--no fast food, etc. But I didn't take any supplements or anything....

Then, about two months ago, I noticed shedding like I've never dealt with before. I started to take a multi, biotin, MSN, garlic, pretty much anything I had ever heard would help with shedding.
I went from 2.5 circumference to 1.75 so far, and things don't seem to be stopping yet. I've been applying diluted castor oil three or four nights a week, and that helps a tiny bit (those days only) but really this doesn't seem to be responding.

I know it sounds like I'm cheating, but is there any certain miracle food that might tell my hair that I'm going to take care of it now!?

Thanks for your help....

justme
December 8th, 2009, 12:48 PM
Unfortunately I think it's a delayed reaction. Therefore anything you do now won't show up for a few months (or longer). This has been my experience at least. However, eating well and taking supplements to fill in the gaps if you're still losing weight will help your regrowth be stronger and thicker when it does come. Also it will make it come more quickly. I read something about flax seed oil (you need good fats for health) and of course protein is important.

Tressie
December 8th, 2009, 02:46 PM
As others have mentioned, it was probably the dietary changes, that shocked your hair folicles a bit. If you are not eating a well-balanced diet, (guilty here) "they" say it will show up in your hair! (o:

I'm glad your hair is recovering and congratulations on the weightloss! I wish I could get my mind set again to do that!

talecon
December 8th, 2009, 07:47 PM
I have to agree with the loss of nutrients being the cause of your hair loss. since I've struggled with eating disorders (*cough cough*) my hair has been incredibly thinned out. And since 8 months ago when I had my baby my shedding has doubled tripled quadrupled lol I'm surprised I have any hair left on my head. But I should have been taking prenatal vitamins anyway. I just don't like vitamins. But everyone around me says its because of the loss of nutrients. Your best bet would be to take vitamins while dieting but since your hair is growing back then it was probably temporary. :)