What specifically is causing my thinning hair? Need it fixed ASAP!!

[Blondieee]

My hair has been thinning for a while now. I want to go blonde but my hair stylist doesn't feel comfortable bleaching it cause it's so thin at the moment. I don't know if there's a specific culprit out of these results or if it's a combination of the three.

Ferritin: 7 (hematocrit and hemoglobin are normal)
Vitamin B12: 346 (this was in March and I was still eating ham sandwiches occasionally at the time and now I'm not so I'm pretty sure it's went way down since then)
Vitamin D: 31.3 (this was in March also but I'm sure it's gone down since then)

What are your experiences with these three in relation to hair and the other symptoms I'm having: extreme tiredness, exhaustion, shortness of breath upon mild exertion, pale nails, cold feet, and really bad anxiety? (I have anxiety but it's never been this bad)

For the Ferritin, I am getting ready to take Walgreens ferrous sulfate 325mg. I'm very nervous about side effects though so if anyone has taken it before and can let me know how it is, that would be great! The more feedback, the less anxious I'll feel about it.

For the B12 and D, I really do not want to take a supplement. I don't have a choice for the iron since I don't eat many foods rich in iron but I do eat foods rich in B12 and D. And I'm pretty sure you can get the levels up easily through food (unlike with iron where it takes forever). I used to drink milk every day twice a day (a couple years ago) and my hair was extremely thick at the time. A few months after stopping that, it started to thin and just got worse as the years went on. So I've had cereal and milk the past few days and I'm trying to figure out another time to add in milk, maybe with my oreos.

But please tell me your experience with these vitamins in relation to hair and other symptoms and what you think is doing what or if you think it's a combination. And if anyone has taken ferrous sulfate 325mg, please let me know how it worked. And any other advice/suggestions is welcome! I really need my hair to get thick ASAP cause I have been wanting to go blonde for 2 years and it's really making me sad that I can't do it and increase my confidence. And even once these levels go up, the hair has to grow out thick starting at the roots so it will take a long time. Plus I'd really like to go out and have fun instead of sleeping all the time. So I really need to fix these deficiencies quickly.

Thanks everyone!

[Agnieszka]

Hi! My ferritin was 20 when I started taking iron pills. After couple of months its now 112 (got my blood tests results yesterday) I could not stomach ferrous sulphate (gave me stomach pain and other unpleasant symptoms) I have no problem what so ever with ferrous fumerate. I took ferrous fumerate 325mg with 250mg vitamin c on empty stomach at night or first thing in the morning 30 min before breakfast. I was dealing with horrible hair loss after pregnancy which didn't stop till a month ago ( baby is 11 months old now). I see some regrowth, but need to be patient and wait bit longer for more visible improvement. I hope I helped a little.

[yogagirl]

I'm so sorry about your hair loss. I don't have any advice unfortunately, because I am dealing with the same issue. I will get my blood levels checked later this month. I've started taking my multivitamin more regularly again and I feel like that helped (it has iron so that might be it). Also washing my hair more often helped in my case, oddly enough. I'm pretty sure I have SD though, because when I let it get too oily I shed sooo badly at the next wash (and get itchy bumps on my scalp).

Do you find you shed a lot each day and/or at each wash? Have you counted the shed hairs?

Wishing you best of luck in figuring this out!

Oh also, I keep wondering if it's just my age in my case. I feel like my hair was at leat twice as thick as a child and teenager and has just gotten thinner and thinner as time went on. It makes me sad and I will try to combat it if it turns out my iron/ferritin levels are low (which I'm pretty sure will be the case due to other symptoms). I'm just trying to be realistic and prepare myself for the fact than maybe my hair will job go back to where it was 5-10 years ago. I'm 31 now.

ETA: another thing that frequently seems to cause hair loss are thyroid issues. With a low iron level though, it seems like that would be the first issue to tackle. Just wanted to throw it out there in case the iron/ferritin doesn't do the trick. Unfortunately I think the cause for hair loss can be rather hard to pin point

[Madora]

Blondieee, please, for the sake of your health, get to a doctor as soon as possible to have a full blood panel done. You might have anemia, which should not be self medicated. I was losing hair and had many of the symptoms you described. I finally went to the doctor and was put in hospital for several blood transfusions. My anemia was due to a wretched diet (brought on by depression). I never regained the thickness of hair I once enjoyed. Make that appointment pronto. My doctor told me that if I had waited another 2 weeks I could have been dead because one of my iron components was so depleted. Good luck!

[In2wishin]

For the Ferritin, I am getting ready to take Walgreens ferrous sulfate 325mg. I'm very nervous about side effects though so if anyone has taken it before and can let me know how it is, that would be great! The more feedback, the less anxious I'll feel about it.

For the B12 and D, I really do not want to take a supplement. I don't have a choice for the iron since I don't eat many foods rich in iron but I do eat foods rich in B12 and D. And I'm pretty sure you can get the levels up easily through food (unlike with iron where it takes forever). I used to drink milk every day twice a day (a couple years ago) and my hair was extremely thick at the time. A few months after stopping that, it started to thin and just got worse as the years went on. So I've had cereal and milk the past few days and I'm trying to figure out another time to add in milk, maybe with my oreos.

But please tell me your experience with these vitamins in relation to hair and other symptoms and what you think is doing what or if you think it's a combination. And if anyone has taken ferrous sulfate 325mg, please let me know how it worked. And any other advice/suggestions is welcome! I really need my hair to get thick ASAP cause I have been wanting to go blonde for 2 years and it's really making me sad that I can't do it and increase my confidence. And even once these levels go up, the hair has to grow out thick starting at the roots so it will take a long time. Plus I'd really like to go out and have fun instead of sleeping all the time. So I really need to fix these deficiencies quickly.

Thanks everyone!

Blondieee, please, for the sake of your health, get to a doctor as soon as possible to have a full blood panel done. You might have anemia, which should not be self medicated. I was losing hair and had many of the symptoms you described. I finally went to the doctor and was put in hospital for several blood transfusions. My anemia was due to a wretched diet (brought on by depression). I never regained the thickness of hair I once enjoyed. Make that appointment pronto. My doctor told me that if I had waited another 2 weeks I could have been dead because one of my iron components was so depleted. Good luck!

1) Get thee to a doctor! I had severe anemia a year ago and had all of the same symptoms. My ferritin was 3 and my hemoglobin was 5.3. My anemia was caused by intermittent small bleeds in the stomach and (like Madora) a wretched diet due to depression and being too weak to go to the grocery, so I ate what I could order in like pizza or Chinese. I ended up in the hospital and received 4 units of blood and 1 unit of IV iron. It has been a year and my health is so good that I donated a pint of blood on the one year anniversary and my hemoglobin was 14.8!

2) Thinning hair can also be the result of not getting enough protein and fat in your diet.

3) I am taking 325 mg of iron, and have for a year. I take it with breakfast so there is no nausea. The slight constipation is taken care of by making sure I eat enough fat and fiber and staying hydrated. I recently started taking 1250 mcg of B-12 and 5000 IU of D-3. My hemoglobin went up[ from 13.5 to 14.8 in the 3 months since I started taking them.

[Agnieszka]

hmmm ferritin 7 qualifies for doctors visit for sure. It's very low...

[meteor]

Madora, In2wishin, Agnieszka: I'm pretty sure Blondieee has already gone to the doctor, otherwise how could she have her blood-work numbers and her prescription on the ready?

Blondieee, ferritin at 7 is low, and qualifies as iron-deficiency, and I recommend following your doctor's prescription strictly and IF you get some digestive issues, call the doctor and ask him to prescribe another form of iron. There are different forms of iron out there, and some of them are easier on the gut but others a bit stronger, so the doctor can change your prescription if you encounter issues. And yes, other symptoms that you mentioned are typical of anemia, I suffer from them too, but they get better with supplements and iron-rich diet.
You'll need to be coming back to your doctor every 3 months or so to see if you got your ferritin up with your supplementation and nutrition.

A few simple cooking tips that will help you get your iron up, since you mentioned that you don't like taking supplements:
- get yourself an iron skillet and do stir-fries in it;
- eat more organ meats, especially liver;
- whenever you eat iron-rich foods, combine them with vitamin C (vitamin C helps iron get absorbed better) - for example, liver cooked with red bell peppers and spinach, and drink your iron supplements with orange juice;
- whenever you eat iron-rich foods, avoid coffee and milk around that time (caffeine and calcium inhibit absorption of iron) - generally, try to consume less coffee (I know it's hard, alas!);
- try to eat heme (animal-sourced) and non-heme (plant-sourced) iron foods together, they work better combined.

By the way, you mentioned your vitamin B12 and vitamin D numbers, but I believe they are within the norm, right? (unless you are using some unusual measurement units) Or at least, they would be considered within the norm in my country.
Having normal B12 with low ferritin at least rules out "pernicious anemia", which is great news, as it means that you just need to get your ferritin up (via supplementation and diet) to fix this iron-deficiency anemia. Anemia could also happen if the hemoglobin is used for something else inside the body: for example, some bacterial growth... but only further tests could show that. First, get those supplements and increase your intake of iron + vit. C and see your doctor regularly to re-measure ferritin.

Oh, and hair care is the same for anemic people and everybody else, except that gentle handling is probably even more important.

Best of luck to you! Happy recovery! And happy, healthy growing!

[Mimha]

Hi Blondieee.

What you describe here bloody sounds exactly what I underwent one year ago. I was so exhausted that I could hardly cope with my every day workload. I had pains everywhere in my muscles and articulations, had difficulties to sleep and got no rest out of it (woke up more tired than when I went to bed). I could not concentrate anymore on my work, start getting depressed and confused, etc. etc. I suffered from severe anemia due to a long lasting and undetected yeast problem which turned out to create many problems such as food intolerances and bad absorption of oligo-elements. I decided to go to the doctor when I stated to shed hair so much that I got in a panic. Actually, my hair almost saved my life !

A very bad intestinal candidiasis was diagnosed as the cause of all my problems, and I was put on a drastic diet (no sugar or sweet stuff at all of any kind, no starch, no gluten, no lactose, and as much as possible green organic stuff), take lots of complements (iron, all range of B vitamins and other vitamins, omega-3, etc.) and tons of probiotics to restore my intestinal flora. It's now my second year following this protocol, and I feel much better, but I am not yet out of it. Please, don't neglect to check this possible cause : it's getting a major public health issue but it's still ignored by a lot of practicians who prefer to give pills than to search for the causes of the people's sickness.

Good luck and all the best !

[Blondieee]

Thanks for the advice and suggestions everyone!

I have changed my mind about taking the Walgreens ferrous sulfate. I bought it and found out the pills are dark green/black. That freaked me out so much, I just couldn’t take it. My doctor didn’t actually prescribe it, it’s available over the counter. She just told me I need to take an iron supplement of some kind. I started thinking how if I could take something that would help with all my issues, that would be great. Then I started thinking back to when my doctor recommended I take Flintstones chewable with iron. I looked it up and it contains 100% iron in the form of ferrous fumarate like someone mentioned, as well as 100% Vitamin B12 and 150% Vitamin D. It also has 50% Vitamin E which is good for hair. Along with a few other vitamins. I think I am going to take this. I mean, I assume it can’t be that bad since it’s made for kids. And it’s a way to help everything at once and help myself and my hair get better quickly. Has anyone taken this or given their children this? If you have, I’d love to hear feedback.

The only things I’m worried about are:
-Is the amount of iron going to be enough? 100% (18 mg) is the amount you need daily so if I’m not already getting 100% iron daily in food, then all this will do is maintain my ferritin where it’s at rather than making it go up. But my doctor did recommend this so I assume she feels it will help.
-I’ve read a couple things about it staining your teeth gray. I know this happened with children who probably don’t brush nearly as well as I do but still the thought scares me. If I brush after I take it, will I be okay?

I’m not actually shedding hair at all, I’m not losing it. It’s not coming out in the shower or in the comb except for the normal amount. It’s just that my hair is overall thinner. Like the hair growing in from the roots is growing in way thinner than it used to be.

I do have a thyroid condition, high antibodies (Hashimoto’s) but my doctor is just monitoring it and right now, my TSH/T3/T4 are normal so there’s nothing that can be done. My doctor doesn’t act like this is causing the hair thinning since those levels are in range. She thinks it’s my overall nutrition, which I agree with her. But you’re right, the cause can be hard to figure out.

Also, I have already been to a doctor. She recommended I take iron supplements along with B12 and D supplements (or one that contains all of them like the Flintstones). My B12 and D are considered normal but they’re still too low. They make the ranges too low for everything. Like the ferritin range is 10-100 something and my doctor said she wants to see at least 50. My B12 should be in the 700-800 range. Also, a few people mentioned anemia and I just want to clarify I’m not anemic. I’m just iron deficient. The ferritin result is recent, it’s just the B12 and D that are from several months ago.

[yogagirl]

I used to take those Flintstones with iron (purple opaque bottle). I didn't notice it staining my teeth. That it is made for kids does not mean it is healthy unfortunately, often products targeted toward kids are unnecessarily sweet and/or have artificial colors.

I now use Nature Made "Multi for Her" which has iron. Nature Made is that brand with the yellow bottles, they have it at Target and lots of other places. I am not sure how "natural" it really is, but at least it doesn't have artificial sweeteners or colors which I avoid when I can (and some people are sensitive to). I feel like Nature Made helped me more than the Flintstones+Iron, but I don't have any data to back it up with, just how I was feeling and how it helped my erm, women's issues. Like many multivitamins they are rather large and NOT chewable, so if that's important to you and you don't mind the artificial colors, then you might want to go with the Flintstones anyway.

Hope this helps!

ETA: Look up the amount of iron both supplements provide. I think the Natures Made has much more iron per dose, but I'm on my phone right now so it's hard to compare side by side, and I might be remembering it wrong.