hairloss

[Besos]

I am having problems with my hair falling out....bad. I am not just talking a hair or two, I am losing it by the handfulls everytime I brush my hair. I have been told it was due to rapid weight loss but I have slowed my weight loss down and started biotin daily but it hasnt slowed down at all. Is this normal and what can be done to stop it. I also take a multi vitamin a day also. I have lost 70 lbs since the beginning of March.

I'm experiencing the same thing and by another trusted member of this site, it was suggested to me to up my biotin to 5000 mcg per day and to start OTC rogaine. She said this helped her too. Like you, my loss was rapic..102 in 7 months..congrats on your loss!

[Besos]

Wow MandyDee congrats on your weight loss!!!
Thanks for your help. I will up my biotin....I was only taking 1450 mcgs a day. I will also give the rogaine a try.

Thanks again,
Cathy

[DBrown8614]

I have only lost 44 pounds in 7 months, but I am having the same amount of hair loss!! However, I didn't realize the dosage of biotin should be that high.

Thank you for the tips!!

I didn't either..but I trust the person who told me that implicitly I don't think it needs to be that high routinely, maybe only if one is suffering the extreme hair loss?

Mandy

[CartBabe]

I started taking 3000 mg of biotin a day a few months ago, and my hair has stopped falling out....feels thick again The stuff really helps!

That's great to know! ty for posting..how long before you noticed an improvement?

Mandy

[beachfires]

MANDY!!!!

You look AWESOME!!!!

Just wanted to say hi!!

[redslipper47]

Since I started doing Atkins 18 month ago. I noticed my hair was a lot thinner on one side. I still had a lot hair but still I didn't like what was going on. I just thought it was due to getting older. In Feb. I started taking Carb Smart with biotin. Sometime in May all of a sudden noticed that no longer was the one side way thinnner .
so I think for some people even just a small amount will work. . good luck to all of you.

[Atkins_Nutritionist]

Your situation is actually a typical occurence that is not directly caused by doing Atkins. Although you are correct, it can be diet related.

Hair loss can occur due to insufficient calories, hormone changes and a number of other underlying conditions.

In addition to ensuring adequate calorie consumption, you may want to discuss this and using supplements, with your doctor.

Essential oils, Biotin and L-Cysteine are supplements that may help the symptoms you describe.

Could you please elaborate on what other underlying conditions may exacerbate this problem? None of what you listed applies to me.

Thanks
Mandy

[evilellie999]

OMG! When I saw how much the two of you had lost...I was in shock. That is so good! Do you have any words of advice that maybe you could give to me? I need to lose 106lbs now and it would be great to hear about your successes. Thank you!

[jhmart]

I too was having a great deal of hair loss..between 150-200 hairs lost that I knew about per day. I was taking biotin and a multi and it wasnt helping. I upped the biotin to 5000 micrograms per day and also added zinc which was suggested in one of the articles I was reading. In just a week my hair loss has slowed down considerably to 50-60 per day. It is so scary I feel for you ladies. Congrats on your weight losses they are increidble
Jeni

[jhmart]

MandyDee,

I am certainly not an expert but I promise I have spent countless hours researching this as it hit me really hard and scared me terribly. Here what I know:

The hair loss is most likely TE or Telogen Effluvium which is temporary and reversible. There are many good sites out there that talk about it. Do a search. Basically in this condition, you suffered a stress about 3-4 months ago that triggered a great many of your hairs to go from growing phase to resting phase. What is odd that now the stress is gone you are seeing the hair loss. This stress could be anything from stress at work or home, changes in hormones from taking or stopping birth control or having a baby, starting or stopping certain medications, too much vitamin A, or unfortunately a change in diet. The neat thing that I found out was you can date the time of the stress by looking at your fingernails. There should be a crease in your nails at the time of the stress. if your fingernails are growing at normal rate it takes 5 months for a nail to grow from base to tip (halfway would be 2 1/2 months) I had the crease and dated my stress back to March (which was before I restarted my WOE but was a very stressful month) Anyways what the article I read said was that usually after 3 months of losing hair the process is decreased and you will start to see sprouts of new hair (thus the fingernail thing was a reassurance for me). After 1 year you should be back to normal hair thickness. That is provided the stress is now gone and if it was a nutritioinal problem it has been corrected (anorexics will continue to lose hair until they correct the nutritional deficicency).

All of that being said hair loss can also be a medical condition or a genetic condition. A doctor can diagonise you for sure. If you see the sprouts growing back it was most likely TE. If not you might want to see you doctor to find out if there is something else you need to be doing for treatment. I know a thyroid condition can also cause the hair loss and meds will help that.

For me upping the biotin and zinc greatly helped. I hope it works for you too. And again congrats on your fabulous weight loss!!!
Jeni

[bethany]

Hi, I lost about 50% of my hair due to stress, and the one thing that really helped was a product called Viviscal. (I also tried Rogaine, but it was too messy and stripped my haircolor)

Basically, the Viviscal stopped the hair loss, and made my hair grow about 3x faster....I've actually stayed on it for at least 6 years because I still haven't fully resolved the stress issue (my scalp tingles when I'm stressed, and I also take anti-depressants to help with the situation). However, making sure that I was eating enough protein and calories, as well as taking a multi-vit were my very first steps.

Here is a link where I buy mine....they have a section on the right that points to the clinical studies in case you want to read more about Viviscal.

http://www.hairvitamins.net/viviscal/

Here is a link to a discussion on Viviscal on heralopecia.com (a hairloss site for women)...I post there under bmockler.

http://www.heralopecia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7449

[Atkins_Nutritionist]

Wow! Thanks Jeni, I learned something today.

Let me just add that hair loss can also be caused by a poor functioning thyroid.

I would speak to a doctor to try and determine what the underlying cause actually is before you use supplements that may or may not work for your particular situation.

[Diana]

I heard of people losing hair from other diets too, not just Low Carb.

[realtor]

A few things I learned in my trip through a hormone jungle! I also put my hairloss as a side effect of my diet.It wasn't despite the timing.I ended up at a dermatologist.My hormones were so out of whack-almost all of them,that I'm lucky I have any left!If you have extreme hairloss please at least go to the doc and get checked out to make sure it is just the weight loss causing it.Also,hair grows in a three month cycle,so no matter what you do to help put a stop to it,it won't be immediate so don't get discouraged.
My hair loss was actually male pattern baldness brought on bt testosterone 3x the norm.Hard to say those words as a woman,but glad I had it looked into so it could be treated.
Amber

[bethany]

Realtor is right....if you know you are getting enough protein, calories, etc., be sure to have your doctor run all the appropriate blood tests (thyroid, sex hormones, etc.). Otherwise, you may be delaying the correct treatment!