I'm losing my hair. Theories?
 

Okay, my hair has started falling out. It doesn't look like it's getting thinner, but at the rate it's coming out now, it's only a matter of time!

I know others have had this problem, but I honestly didn't expect to because of how much my fingernails have improved since beginning Atkins. I can see the difference between my old growth and my new growth, and I figured the same thing was happening with my hair. In fact, a few weeks ago my husband mentioned that my new hair (the few inches closest to my scalp) was looking quite healthy. Shortly after he said that, though, I noticed the increased shedding.

I have a theory about LC hair loss. Someone please tell me if this sounds crazy. I naturally have fine hair (though quite a bit of it); I am guessing that the individual hair shafts growing out right now are thicker than in my pre-LC days, just like my fingernails and toenails. If you think of a hair shaft like a steel rod, then if you bent a steel rod that went from a smaller diameter to a large diameter with no gradation, it would probably break right at the point where the size changed. I think that might be what's happening to my hair.

Any thoughts and/or suggestions?

Thanks! That would make the timing about right. I figured it was temporary, but I didn't understand the cause.

It doesn't really bother me, except—ugh!—there's hair everywhere, and I have to be REALLY careful when cooking.

This could be interesting as I have worn a wig for years because not only is my hair babyfine, it sparse too. Maybe if it eventually thickens up enough I can have bad hair days like anyone else :lol:

Yup, any time you lose lots of weight you're subject to hair loss too. Dunno why. I remember on Nutri-systems, years ago, they warned us of that.

yeah, when u loose weight, your body tries to shut down "un-necessary" processes like hair growth--so a majority of your hair goes into the "resting phase" and 3 months later, falls out :( It's called telegum effluvum or something like that....if anyone's got treatment suggestions, do tell!

Well, I guess we could superglue the strands to our scalps until the hair starts growing back.

I lost a lot of hair after my dramatic weight loss, however recently I've noticed it growing back in. There are a lot of those little new growth flyaway hairs, very comforting to see indeed.

Don't worry about it. The hair loss has to do with the stress of shedding a lot of body fat; your body doesn't understand what a diet is, it views the weight loss as a mini-famine. It is very stressful to the body, and like any kind of stress, it results in hair loss. When you stabilize your weight or slow down the rate of your losses, the hair will return.

Isn't it funny that what my body considers stressful and what I consider stressful are two entirely different things?

A friend of mine lost about 200 pounds and most of her hair! :p

anyone try any hair vitamins/formulas?

I think it can be from going into ketosis. I LC'd for months at moderate levels, but 3 months after finally getting strict and going into ketosis I had this. Yes it has mostly stopped now three months later. I haven't really lost much weight - about 8 lbs since starting Atkins in September- so that wasn't it, and my carb intake was already pretty low then so going from 80-100 down to 20-25 wasn't a huge drop. I just don't think my body has EVER burned fat for energy instead of glucose in my entire life, and that was probably my big stressor in this.

My profuse hair loss lasted for four months before it slowed down. It does grow back in. I got the brown along with the gray. It did not come back healthier and shinier, etc. than before, it just came back as it was before. As such a huge quantity of my hair fell out at an incredible rate, the hair I managed to hold on to grew in length at an unprecedented rate. I had more hair cuts during this time than normal. Less hair but longer hair for the original. The new growth did not seem to grow as fast.

I'm just happy to have hair left. :yay:

http://www.pg.com/science/haircare/hair_twh_toc.htm

Read about hair growth cycle page 20!

Hair has a growth cycle and many things can affect it. This article can explain it better than I can. Don't worry it is doing its own thing.