Interesting info on hair loss

I had my diet class last week and in our little book was some info from a patient that i found interesting and sheds some light on the hair loss issue so I though I would share !

Just wanted to share something that I learned about hair loss. My hair's been falling out by the handful , and I was so confused by all of the different answers I'd been getting from my dietitian, surgeon, this site, and others. So I made an appointment with a dermatologist to get the straight story. Here's what he said: Our hair basically has two "states" -- anagen and telogen. At any given time, about 90-95% of our hairs are in the anagen (growing) stage, which lasts anywhere from 3-8 years. The remaining 5-10% are in telogen (resting) stage, which lasts 3-6 months. It's the telogen hairs that are the concern here, because hairs in this stage fall out as new anagen hairs push them out of the follicle. He said that major shocks to the body (surgery of any type, delivery of a baby, rapid weight loss, emotional upset) can cause those perfectly happy, growing anagen hairs to switch prematurely into a telogen cycle. He went on to say that there isn't anything at all that can be done about it. Not more protein, vitamins, special shampoo, nada! Those hairs that have gotten "confused" and have gone into the telogen phase are destined to come out. The reason that we see the hair start to fall out at the three month mark is because that's the length of the average telogen phase. But I guess the good news is that the new hairs are right behind 'em. He showed me under a magnifying glass how he could tell if the hairs that were coming out were telogen -- these hairs have the "bulb" on the scalp end. (If there is no bulb, that means that the hair was in anagen phase when it fell out... basically it broke off in the follicle, rather than coming out cleanly with its bulb. When anagen hairs fall out, that's a bad thing.) So now you can bet that I'm checking every one of my falling hairs for a bulb! (just kidding.) FYI -- the name of this condition is telogen effluvium. There's plenty on the 'net about it. Anyway, thought this info might be comforting to those of us who are dealing with this awful hair loss.

Hope this  helps a bit. I myself am not looking forward to this part of the journey. I had my preop physical the same day  and was happy to find out that i didnt have to do the liquid diet sence i have lost 44lbs preop, made me happy ). But I am already having hair loss , im thinking its because of  the weight i have lost already and stress factors... good thing i have lots of hair, its very thick... cause after surgery i wounder if i will be double wammied, at 3 months, lol....

Just though I would shair !

Grace

Thank you! 

My daughter went through a divorce recently and lost a lot of her hair.  She has always taken very good care of her hair.  She did lose 100 pounds in less than a year and not by having wls, simply, she quit eating, was depressed and as soon as she came back around emotionally and took control of her emotions and life, she has been doing awesome and her hair is coming back in thick and strong.  I had to laugh though when she exclaimed....it's coming in RED!  And it is. 

Great info, thank you again!

Good info... Guess I was lucky 'cause I never lost any hair... I expected it to happen but it never happened.

Thank you so much for taking the time to share a very interesting and informative post.
I am almost 6 weeks out and just purchased the Nioxin (spelling?) system.  I guess I will be saving my money!
I will just have to let it take it's course and see what happens.
Thanks again, I really appreciated this.

Thank you for sharing this Grace...I have been very curious about this as I am coming up to my three month mark and expect hair loss soon.  I decided not to take additional Biotin because I am getting it in my multi-vitamin.  I suspected that the loss was inevitable. 

My doc recently did a YouTube video about hair loss, and he mentioned that it is best that we wash our hair often as apposed to thinking less hair would come out with less washing (which I was thinking).  Apparently, its good to keep the blood flowing from the massaging action of washing the hair/head.  Perhaps it speeds up te Anagen/Telogen process....

Ann

Thank you so much for sharing that!  I kept wondering how a dermatologist would explain the hair loss. 

Given it's inevitability, may I would need to focus on how to promote recovery quickly instead of how to prevent. 

It's not inevitable. It just happens to some people- nothing they can do about it. It doesn't happen to everybody. If you make it to month 5 without hairloss, you are not likely to be one of those people.

EXACTLY what my dermatologist said a couple of weeks ago. So much stuff about hair loss is bogus that I generally don't read it. I'm glad that you had some good, factual info. The vitamins can help with what you got, but if your body decides to do the 'shock' thing- it will do it. Right now, I'm approaching 3 months. My hair is fabulous. I'm not going to worry about what I can't control. If it falls out, it will grow back.

BTW, my dermatologist said that his wife shed like a dog after having a baby.  Somehow, I think that she would not like to know that is how he explains it.

So happy that your classes addressed this issue with real information vs all that "if you eat your protein or take this $$ supplement you won't lose your hair" bs!!

Kudos on getting the correct scoop! 

I shed like mad after any stressful event.. major health scare=shed. Lose job=shed. Lose a lot of weight=shed. I ended up heading to a derm years ago when I didn't have a clue about what was happening, and she explained this process to me..