Nutrition & Your Hair…a cautionary tale
I wanted to share my experience on just how profoundly nutrition can play a role in hair health as a cautionary warning to everyone on their hair journey because while my situation is unique & uncommon, this may help others.
Very one short kind of surmised, I began having stomach issues around this time last year which resulted in occasional vomiting. It began increasing rapidly until end of summer it was happening after eating most things I eat which would be protein, fruits & vegetables. Along with that case profound pain. After getting in touch with my doctors & having a scope done, the results were severe bile reflux causing gastritis. As bad as I’ve had it, the only cure was surgery to bypass that area of the stomach & cut it off. Unfortunately, the local hospital still had Covid restrictions of not doing anything other that life or death cases so I was waitlisted early fall.
In the meantime I was put on meds to coat my stomach to help ease the pain & vomiting. It didn’t ease & as months went by I eventually wound up taking 20 pills a day to get by.
So during this time, roughly October I began noticing my always healthy & hennaed hair breaking off when I combed it. I’ve been sulfate free, cone free & using nothing but Nightblooming’s salves, oils & henna for years. So my routine & hair was healthy. I had one trim at a salon in the summer & she raves about how healthy my hair was../she actually was afraid she’d damage it. Now suddenly breakage. And a notable amount. Every. Single. Time.
Still time carried on.
The beginning of this year it came time to henna again & low & behold my Fire Gensai resulted in golden blonde roots. I was dumbfounded & heartbroken. And it’s the same henna I’ve been using successfully for years. Well in my state of panic, I then for the first tine I. Many many years, threw a boxed dye on top to just have hair that didn’t look ultra strange. And days later I figured I’d try to fix the issue so i used Color Oops to remove that box dye. Years ago I’ve used Color Oops successfully with no damage. This time oh my stars! My length was profoundly damaged & it took a majority of years of henna out plus made many different shades from nearly platinum blonde to shades of medium golden brown. Sigh. I was heartbroken. Roughly two decades of long healthy hair destroyed in days. And still I was dumbfounded.
After loads of back & forth with Melissa from Nightblooming we realized it was most of a year of sever nutrient loss & getting in next to no protein all that time. Well protein is part of the building blocks of our hair. The end result is so little protein that the henna wouldn’t stick. And also the Color Oops was able to do damage to my ultra fragile hair that it normally wouldn’t.
Suffice it to say I found a deposit dye of a shade of brown closest to what I’m assuming my hair should be. It still looks very multitonal & weird & it’s ultra damaged but at least it doesn’t look as weird as it once did.
I was able to get the deposit dye from bleeding out using tons of Hask keratin conditioner mask as a leave in every other day for a few weeks with tons of Nightblooming panacea salve as a leave in. You can feel the damage on it.
The good news is that I just had my surgery two weeks ago & am on the mend. The issue is resolved & my nutrition is picking up. I hate that it’ll be years before my hair is really back to the condition it was in but my Nightblooming products are maintaining it decently. Not sure if:when henna will be an option in the future. Right now is too soon.
So clearly, most people aren’t going to experience this extreme but a word of warning on just how our health & diet can play a role in the health of our hair.
Re: Nutrition & Your Hair…a cautionary tale
Glad to hear it's past you now. While reading when first talking about "damage", the first thing that popped into my mind was the poor nutrition. Food is *everything* for the hair, if that's not OK, the rest isn't going to be. And imagine if it does that to your hair (last on the list), imagine what that does to the body. :(
Re: Nutrition & Your Hair…a cautionary tale
Glad you are finally on the mend. Covid really did a number on a lot of people with delayed treatments and care. Best wishes for healthy regrowth!
Re: Nutrition & Your Hair…a cautionary tale
All the best wishes for a healthy body and healthy hair. <3
Re: Nutrition & Your Hair…a cautionary tale
Quote:
Originally Posted by
lapushka
Glad to hear it's past you now. While reading when first talking about "damage", the first thing that popped into my mind was the poor nutrition. Food is *everything* for the hair, if that's not OK, the rest isn't going to be. And imagine if it does that to your hair (last on the list), imagine what that does to the body. :(
You are absolutely right with this. For me the hair breakage was the first thing aside from actual symptoms but by the end of things, little proper nutrition & a diet of mainly bland simple carbs really did a number on my skin too. Thankfully I’m quickly gaining ground in healing up. Whew!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
embee
Glad you are finally on the mend. Covid really did a number on a lot of people with delayed treatments and care. Best wishes for healthy regrowth!
Thank you so much! The wait was insane but I was one of the first people on the list they scheduled as soon as surgery resumed…thank the stars! :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gwendolynn
All the best wishes for a healthy body and healthy hair. <3
Awww I really appreciate the well-wishes! Thank you so much dear!
Re: Nutrition & Your Hair…a cautionary tale
Scary story! I have nonreactive hypoglycemia that went undiagnosed for many years and it was a similar experience of continual, seemingly causeless nausea and vomiting. Not being able to keep food/meds down really screws with your overall health. Glad to hear that the surgery was successful <3
Re: Nutrition & Your Hair…a cautionary tale
Thank you for sharing your experience with us, Maelyssa, and glad to hear you're recovering from your ordeal. Take care and best wishes for good health!
Re: Nutrition & Your Hair…a cautionary tale
What an awful time. I hope you heal thoroughly and with minimal complication!
Re: Nutrition & Your Hair…a cautionary tale
How dreadful for you. Hugs.
When I became menopausal my hair really suffered. I lost a lot of it. Taking a lot of vitamins, drinking herbal teas and being very careful with my diet made a big difference to the state of my hair.
Wishing you good health.