00brad00
September 6th, 2010, 11:17 PM
Clumps, daily. Every time you pull on the hair, some will come out.
I have nape-length (all around), I’m a man in early thirties, and I’m positively freaking out. It has been going on for two months, and I can’t believe I have any hair left. Which I do, most people probably wouldn’t notice that anything much has changed, but fact remains that something is very, very wrong.
I live in China, and if you think that stateside greedy companies cut corners any way they can and poison you (with the help and approval of their good and paid off musical-chairs friends/former colleagues in the FDA), you should see what goes on here.
Baby formulae laced with industrial plastic to increase protein content, hamburgers LITERALLY made from cardboard, etc, etc, etc.
So, in some way shape or form, I chalk it up to being here; the only question would be what it is.
I’ll run down the list of suspects.
1. NUTRITION
I am a vegan when I can be. While stateside, I got plenty of vegan protein and minerals; here it’s hard, like everything is in a third-world bribocracy.
Lack of protein, iron and zinc can supposedly contribute to hairloss.
I had a bloodtest done when the problem started, and my iron was just shy of being too low (2.03; the normal range is 2.00-5.00).
Regardless, I immediately got US-made multivitamin pills (Costco’s Kirkland brand) which contain daily value of both iron and zinc among 29 others.
I also started carefully counting protein grams in my food and do my best to get the 70 mg (50 would probably suffice) daily, which is not an easy task without animal protein. It’s mostly soy-based, obviously, which is supposed to be as useful to the body, if not more so than animal-based protein, without any of the penalties. I do occasionally eat meat, like when invited for a meal, which happens fairly frequently in this country of very friendly people.
So nutrition’s off the list, I guess. One doctor mentioned online that the hair would be falling out a few months AFTER the nutritional deficiency because of the hair growth cycle. My diet was likely protein and iron deficient a few months back, so that might roughly correspond. But the fallout has been ongoing on for 2 months of likely adequate nutrition, so this explanation seems unlikely. Not to mention that I never counted protein grams when I was younger, and thus must have got far less than the RDA, but I never experienced abnormal hairloss.
2. SULFATES
Upon reading the many SLS-related posts on this forum, I discontinued using shampoo and replaced it with glycerin soap, once weekly.
Not sure if the soap might have SLS in it; the wrapper only listed “major ingredients” (all natural) and the manufacturer (Pacific Image) didn’t reply my inquiry about a full list.
I also switched to gel from mousse (which, being foam, is full of SLS). Have to use one or the other, without it my hair would look so bad I couldn’t leave the house, unfortunately.
Despite these changes, hairloss continues unabated.
I have used SLS shampoos all my life, and mousse/gel for a decade at least, and the same brand of mousse in China for a year and a quarter, all without the Hiroshima-victim hairloss that I have been experiencing since July.
I plan to switch from the glycerin soap to soapnuts as soon as I can get them. Thank you, Mellie.
3. STRESS
Nope. No change, nothing special.
4. BENZENE et. Al WALL PAINT
I live in a brand new apartment. Had I experienced the hairloss shortly after I moved in (January), I’d bet that’s the cause.
But I hadn’t. I’d been fine for 6 months. Plus, I was more likely to have windows closed back then (I have them open 24/7 now, just in case, though I don’t get much draft, as they are only on one side).
The one change somewhat coinciding with the hairloss would have been finishing my university teaching job; since then, I spend most of my time at home working, but the university job was only two days a week (gotta love the inverted workweek/weekend expat lifestyle in China:)), so it’s not a big difference.
The wall painting was likely all finished before Christmas.
5. BLEACH
I have bleached for about five years (have to because of graying hair), from my lightish-brown to beige, or about 10 minutes per treatment. It started as highlights, and somehow over the last year or so wound up as wholesale lightening. I have used the same blue bleach powder as long as I’ve been in China. I recently bought a new bottle of 12% developer (to replace the 12% developer I ran out of). Both developer and bleach are for salon use. I touch up the roots every few weeks or so.
In any case, I don’t seem to see any broken, brittle hairs, just hairs falling out with root.
My hair texture seems different though, with some hairs curled and bent at sharp angles that indicates a loss of elasticity, especially as compared to some long female Asian hair I sometimes find on the floor of my apartment. Besides being wire-like and strong, they are impossible to bend permanently.
I can see some baby hairs sprouting along the hairline (and, presumably, all over scalp, replacing their fallen comrades). Some are as long as two inches, which would mean a 4-month growth.
Some of the fallen-out hairs are short (with root), though, so that might indicate that the underlying reason for the fallout is ongoing, not something that happened months ago.
6. NOTES
I take 1mg of generic-brand (Indian-made, I believe) Finasteride (Propecia) a day. I have done that for two years. I googled the brand name I have bought most recently (Finmax), and no complaints popped up.
I went to local doctors about the hairloss, but of course it was of no use. European and American doctors, who are used to pampering and tending to the tiniest of real or imagined ailments can do nothing in these cases (based on online testimonies). In a country where most people don’t see a doctor unless they are dying on in excruciating, unbearable, prolonged pain, a healthy person with something as inconsequential as hairs falling out going to a doctor is, well, a joke, and as such, laughed at.
Or, at best, prescribed “Chinese medicine”, the supposed efficacy of which seems directly tied to a universally-known saying in this land of superstitions and arcane beliefs, namely “if it tastes bad/bitter, it’s good medicine”.
It tasted bad, but likely accomplished little beyond the placebo effect most people get out of it.
The thrust of all my theories is that nothing has really changed in my life. Same food, same bottled water, same apartment….
I am all out of ideas. Please post if you have any comment/experience/theory.
Like all of you, I love my hair. I recently turned down a potentially lucrative role in a TV show, because it was a soldier role and I would have had to cut my hair…
I don’t want to play Lex Luthor next time around.
Sorry about the long post:(.
Thank you,
bm
I have nape-length (all around), I’m a man in early thirties, and I’m positively freaking out. It has been going on for two months, and I can’t believe I have any hair left. Which I do, most people probably wouldn’t notice that anything much has changed, but fact remains that something is very, very wrong.
I live in China, and if you think that stateside greedy companies cut corners any way they can and poison you (with the help and approval of their good and paid off musical-chairs friends/former colleagues in the FDA), you should see what goes on here.
Baby formulae laced with industrial plastic to increase protein content, hamburgers LITERALLY made from cardboard, etc, etc, etc.
So, in some way shape or form, I chalk it up to being here; the only question would be what it is.
I’ll run down the list of suspects.
1. NUTRITION
I am a vegan when I can be. While stateside, I got plenty of vegan protein and minerals; here it’s hard, like everything is in a third-world bribocracy.
Lack of protein, iron and zinc can supposedly contribute to hairloss.
I had a bloodtest done when the problem started, and my iron was just shy of being too low (2.03; the normal range is 2.00-5.00).
Regardless, I immediately got US-made multivitamin pills (Costco’s Kirkland brand) which contain daily value of both iron and zinc among 29 others.
I also started carefully counting protein grams in my food and do my best to get the 70 mg (50 would probably suffice) daily, which is not an easy task without animal protein. It’s mostly soy-based, obviously, which is supposed to be as useful to the body, if not more so than animal-based protein, without any of the penalties. I do occasionally eat meat, like when invited for a meal, which happens fairly frequently in this country of very friendly people.
So nutrition’s off the list, I guess. One doctor mentioned online that the hair would be falling out a few months AFTER the nutritional deficiency because of the hair growth cycle. My diet was likely protein and iron deficient a few months back, so that might roughly correspond. But the fallout has been ongoing on for 2 months of likely adequate nutrition, so this explanation seems unlikely. Not to mention that I never counted protein grams when I was younger, and thus must have got far less than the RDA, but I never experienced abnormal hairloss.
2. SULFATES
Upon reading the many SLS-related posts on this forum, I discontinued using shampoo and replaced it with glycerin soap, once weekly.
Not sure if the soap might have SLS in it; the wrapper only listed “major ingredients” (all natural) and the manufacturer (Pacific Image) didn’t reply my inquiry about a full list.
I also switched to gel from mousse (which, being foam, is full of SLS). Have to use one or the other, without it my hair would look so bad I couldn’t leave the house, unfortunately.
Despite these changes, hairloss continues unabated.
I have used SLS shampoos all my life, and mousse/gel for a decade at least, and the same brand of mousse in China for a year and a quarter, all without the Hiroshima-victim hairloss that I have been experiencing since July.
I plan to switch from the glycerin soap to soapnuts as soon as I can get them. Thank you, Mellie.
3. STRESS
Nope. No change, nothing special.
4. BENZENE et. Al WALL PAINT
I live in a brand new apartment. Had I experienced the hairloss shortly after I moved in (January), I’d bet that’s the cause.
But I hadn’t. I’d been fine for 6 months. Plus, I was more likely to have windows closed back then (I have them open 24/7 now, just in case, though I don’t get much draft, as they are only on one side).
The one change somewhat coinciding with the hairloss would have been finishing my university teaching job; since then, I spend most of my time at home working, but the university job was only two days a week (gotta love the inverted workweek/weekend expat lifestyle in China:)), so it’s not a big difference.
The wall painting was likely all finished before Christmas.
5. BLEACH
I have bleached for about five years (have to because of graying hair), from my lightish-brown to beige, or about 10 minutes per treatment. It started as highlights, and somehow over the last year or so wound up as wholesale lightening. I have used the same blue bleach powder as long as I’ve been in China. I recently bought a new bottle of 12% developer (to replace the 12% developer I ran out of). Both developer and bleach are for salon use. I touch up the roots every few weeks or so.
In any case, I don’t seem to see any broken, brittle hairs, just hairs falling out with root.
My hair texture seems different though, with some hairs curled and bent at sharp angles that indicates a loss of elasticity, especially as compared to some long female Asian hair I sometimes find on the floor of my apartment. Besides being wire-like and strong, they are impossible to bend permanently.
I can see some baby hairs sprouting along the hairline (and, presumably, all over scalp, replacing their fallen comrades). Some are as long as two inches, which would mean a 4-month growth.
Some of the fallen-out hairs are short (with root), though, so that might indicate that the underlying reason for the fallout is ongoing, not something that happened months ago.
6. NOTES
I take 1mg of generic-brand (Indian-made, I believe) Finasteride (Propecia) a day. I have done that for two years. I googled the brand name I have bought most recently (Finmax), and no complaints popped up.
I went to local doctors about the hairloss, but of course it was of no use. European and American doctors, who are used to pampering and tending to the tiniest of real or imagined ailments can do nothing in these cases (based on online testimonies). In a country where most people don’t see a doctor unless they are dying on in excruciating, unbearable, prolonged pain, a healthy person with something as inconsequential as hairs falling out going to a doctor is, well, a joke, and as such, laughed at.
Or, at best, prescribed “Chinese medicine”, the supposed efficacy of which seems directly tied to a universally-known saying in this land of superstitions and arcane beliefs, namely “if it tastes bad/bitter, it’s good medicine”.
It tasted bad, but likely accomplished little beyond the placebo effect most people get out of it.
The thrust of all my theories is that nothing has really changed in my life. Same food, same bottled water, same apartment….
I am all out of ideas. Please post if you have any comment/experience/theory.
Like all of you, I love my hair. I recently turned down a potentially lucrative role in a TV show, because it was a soldier role and I would have had to cut my hair…
I don’t want to play Lex Luthor next time around.
Sorry about the long post:(.
Thank you,
bm