If you lost hair, did it grow back?
 

After looking through all the topics on the hair loss factor and noticing there is about 7:1 ratio for people that say they lost hair to people that say they got it back. So heres a poll to help, please do not vote unless it has been at least 3.5-4 months since the hair loss started that will give us a more accurate count.

If you want more info on the hair loss and suppliments that help I posted something in the Newbies questions forum. For those of you who need more info you could try to do a search there, otherwise let me know and I will try to find the websites again. They were pretty informative and helpful. If you can't find it under newbies try searching this one too, my memory isn't all that great. :D

For all the people voting could you share some of your story with the rest of us? Did you quit low carbing for it to grow back? Did any of the people that vote NO quit low carbing and still didnt have it grow back?

I lost a LOT of hair and consulted my dermatologist. She suggested taking Biotin, which is a B vitamin. It's supposed to be good for hair and nails. Well, it worked. Took about 4 months. Hair and nails are growing like crazy!

As long as I keep taking biotin, I'm fine. It has grown back and I'm no longer losing it like crazy. :)

I got all freaked because it was falling out a LOT. But after a few months, the loss slowed to normal levels and I definitely have millions of new little flyaway short hairs sticking out of my head, meaning it is growing back.

My biggest problem now is that I stupidly cut off all my lovely hair and hate my new short do. So I am scarfing biotin hoping it will grow out faster.

Low carb probably isn't responsible for your hair loss. I've seen people lose hair any time they drop a lot of pounds quickly. I remember people complaining about it on Nutrisystem years ago.

Someone described the life cycle of hair and yes, it will regrow about 3-4 months later.

perhaps but 33% of the people that voted have not.

How much biotin do you take?

After I started taking vitamins Atkins I noticed thicker hair. It took a few months. I remember it only seemed to be the first 3 months of the diet my hair fell out slowly.

I've been on it almost 2 years and am fine now.

I was pretty healthy coming into this WOE. Even though I had metabolic problems, nutritionally speaking I got adequate amounts of everything... I ate lots of whole or fortified foods. Though my hair was already thinning from PCOS, my nails were pretty strong and never split.

Needless to say, after a few months of inadequate nutrition compounded with rapid weight loss and lack of supplementation, my hair started falling out at an alarming pace. My nails were splitting right in half, peeling, and they were weak and brittle.

I started to realize that what I was eating was not supplying all my nutrients, so I made a more conscious effort to eat good food. I also began supplementing most all vitamins and minerals. I slowed my weight loss down too.

My nails have made a dramatic recovery. Though I still experience some slight problems with peeling, as the nail grows out the amount it peels and propensity to break gets less and less. Is uspect the nail I am growing right now is completely healthy. I think my nails are thicker and stronger than they were before. Pre-lc though I had a very "solid" nail with a strong structure, it was very flimsy, like paper. Now my nail is slightly more brittle and tends to peel (which I think is growing out, I was probably very D & calcium deficient before the supplements), but it is much much thicker than it was even before LC.

As for the hair, it still isn't back to its fullness, though I think it's getting better. I certainly am not losing any more hair which is good.

After two full months on Atkins, my hair loss begain. HUGE hair loss, at that. It lasted four months before new growth showed. It did grow back after the four months of very heavy hair loss.

I've been on Atkins for 8-1/2 months now. I've taken a boat load of supplements from day one. I've been eating all my veggies and drinking all my water. The hair grew back without benefit of any special hair stimulating supplement. What worries me now though, is that I've read on another board that someone is going through the same hair loss for the second time. Now I'm paranoid and checking my brush and drains for a repeat. If it happens to me a second time, I'll keep on keeping on. I have no intention of quitting. No retreat. No surrender.

Hmm, It "may" be finally coming back. I noticed that my shower drain no longer looks like a fuzzy lil creature, ewww, hated that.Not sure if it's "growing" back yet but the loss has FINALLY stopped.

I started atkins for the first time Dec 2003 and I noticed my hair significantly falling out by the end of February. It slowed down to normal after about 4 months. When I stopped Atkins for about 6 months, I didn't notice any hair growing back. I re-started Atkins for the 3rd time this year at the end of March and this time I have not noticed hair falling more than normal, but it still hasn't grown back. I have been waiting for the hair to grow back that's shinier, healthier and more luxurius like some people reported but at this point I'd just want any hair to grow back. I'm looking a bit sparse.

Protein is key to growing healthy hair, nails, and skin. No way around it. Atkins emphasises fat over protein. If you're really concerned about hair loss, see if you can't add more protein to your diet.

My hair became fragile and broke off at the scalp constantly during a 2-year attempt at being a vegetarian. It stayed thin when I first eliminated refined carbohydrates and started eating meat again, but has been growing back nicely now that I have upped by protein intake.

However, it never fell out at the roots, which yours may be doing, and I have also started using Nioxin shampoo and conditioner to improve my scalp.

anyone else?

Yup, my hair is falling out at the roots and I have about half the hair I had 18 months ago. I eat 80-120g of protein a day so I think my protein intake is fine. I take Atkins vitamins and there's biotin in there to help with hair. I guess the next step is Nioxin. Women in my family have great hair well into their 80s so I don't think that this is hereditary.

Hair loss can be associated with vitamin deficiencies but it also a result of any form of sustained weight loss. It is NORMAL and it SHOULD grow back! You don't need to quit lowcarbing for this to happen, but you may need to adress vitamin deficiences and you may need to stop losing weight before it wil happen.

I notice 14 people say it hasn't grown back. Perhaps, they are still losing weight and in that situation of stress on body it may not grow back straight away. Also, I think the difficulty with something like hair loss is that so much of it is PERCEPTION. You notice losing it but not it growing back, and it can also affect you're self image. After starting dieting we may look in the mirror and see ourselves as still FAT FAT FAT, even if we've lost weight. After losing hair, we can look in the mirror and still see our hair as THIN THIN THIN, just awful, even if it is thickening up as it grows back!

My point is, unless there is a serious medical problem it will grown back. Wait until maintainence when you're body is under less stress, and then see where its at.

My experience:
I lost a lot of hair. Couldn't wear my hair out becuase I was shedding. I would run my fingers through my hair and pull out large amounts of it. It clogged the drain. It also clogged my vacuum cleaner! Which freaked out my SO who discovered this and and cleaned out the blockage!

However, with me I was definitely able to notice it growing back becuase I have very fine hair whose natural state is 'boofy' - i.e. stands out of my head, not down. And all those short fine hairs stood straight up! That was worse then the hairloss in some ways!

little info on biotin
 

Biotin is a water-soluble member of the B-complex group of vitamins and is commonly referred to as vitamin H. Biotin is necessary for both metabolism and growth in humans, particularly with reference to production of fatty acids, antibodies, digestive enzymes, and in niacin (vitamin B-3) metabolism. Food sources for biotin are liver, kidney, soy flour, egg yolk, cereal, and yeast. There are suggestions that biotin is also capable of curing baldness, alleviating muscle pain and depression, and functions as a cure for dermatitis, although there is no substantial evidence for any of these claims. Biotin deficiency results in fatigue, depression, nausea, muscle pains, hair loss, and anemia.

I havent lost any hair thus far lcing thankfully.
But in the past i have almost gone bald from losing weight via low fat, low calorie, and vegan and vegetarian woe. After my weight stabilized the hair always has grown back. Losing hair is not just a problem with low carbers most definately.

My hair has fallen out heavily over the last two years. The first time was when I quit taking my thyroid hormone and it fell out to the point of bald spots where I pulled on my hair styling it. It took about a year before my hair looked thick again. The second time was this year I had serious stress and my hair fell out for 4 months. It took 6 months after it stopped falling out for my hair to look nice again, my hair stylist said it will be growing return fully to a normal growth pattern in a year from when the fallout stopped. I had a friend who did a liquid diet 500cal/day who lost 120lbs and had hair loss also. 2years later her hair is really thick again and shes still slim.

Yeah, Atkins made my hair fall out like crazy for ~3 months. I believe it was the shock of going into ketosis that did it since I was already pretty LC for a year and didn't lose much weight afterwards. Anyways, my poor hair had already been getting very thin over the past few years from PCOS - a hormonal imbalance caused by insulin resistance - and I was scared I was going to go bald someday (just slower than this). So I figured the hair was screwed either way and I may well lose some weight.

WELL, the drain stopped clogging after a few months, and a year after starting Atkins my hair looks better today than it has in years (and so does my body). The hair lost from the shock grew back and some of the OTHER hair, the hormonally damaged hair, is healing and growing back too. This ordeal was totally worth it and I'm feeling very optimistic about having great hair again soon!

I could pull out as much hair as I wanted by just running my fingers through it. (First time on Atkins.)

No problems with it now, but I am taking a pretty good multivitamin. I don't think it's Atkins per se that causes the loss, I think it's the extreme change in metabolism.

Thanks for the info on biotin - just checked my vitamin label and it only has 20% of what I need.

i take "one a day carb smart", do i still have to take additional biotin? or that amount in "one a day" is enough? if yes, how much should i take?
thanks

PS: i like my hair:D

Hair loss
 

I recently went for my checkup at the Doc's. He asked if my hair loss had slowed any. He questioned my eating habits. He put me on a multivitamin plus the Omega's. He said my hair loss should stop. I'm happy to say it did. Evidently, the Omega fatty esentials are important. I take one every day now without fail. My hair has stopped breaking and falling out. I love it. :wave:

I lost alot of hair. My hair has always been very thick. My co-workers lovingly called me the hairless wonder. My hair dresser could not believe has thin it was getting. After a month or so it started coming back in and I haven't had any trouble since then. :thup: Hang in there.

Hello, and Season's Greetings! I experienced minimal hair loss during my first few months of LC. I was taking a vitamin/mineral supplement for hair and nails, and that really seemed to help. My hair was healthy and shiny, and my nails were strong.

Nevertheless, a couple of months ago, my hair started falling out like crazy (like chelles, just running my fingers through my hair could pull out several strands). That was also about the time I fell off the LC wagon and gained back a few pounds. I guess the change in my metabolism contributed to the hair loss. But I have very fine, thin hair and don't need to lose any more!

Now I'm back on Induction again. I'm still taking hair vitamins in addition to my other supplements, and I've added biotin to the arsenal. I've also had my hair cut (about three inches) to help it look a little thicker and livelier while my hair grows back. Most of your comments have assured me that it will, so I'm going to hang in there!

Anicka65

It Grows Back!
 

My hair is growing back with a fury.

I have tiny, wispy curls in a halo around my entire head! At least the new hair didn't come in gray!

I've been doing this for two years, so far, my hairs the same as it's always been.

I think I'm loosing my hair ;-( I've only notice in the last month that everytime I brush it or wash it, a good bit more than usual seems to end up in the brush ;-( The weird thing though is that for the last two months, the weight loss has been very very slow or non existant, but in this period the hair loss started.... I started taking Biotin tablets last week and also some omega oils, so we'll see how that goes.

Hope for the best!!

Gagalina

PS: I saw a woman with my hair colour (medium brown with reddish) on the bus this morning and her hair was very very thin, so petrified I'm going to look like that in a while. Seing her made me think of giving up LC ;-( which I dont really want to do!!