HAIR LOSS

I had surgery first of June, and have lost about 48 pounds...slow going because I started out at 197.  In the last 3 months, I have really slowed down but my hair is falling out in fistful...almost.  Since surgery I have taken Biotin, Flaxseed oil, & Pro Omega and eat about 80 grams of protein a day....550 calories, 20 gr. carbs, about 70-90 oz. of liquid...mostly water.  

I had thick hair fairly long.  Now it is very sparce and short without having it cut in over a year, because it doesn't stay on my head long enough to get long.  Every brushing & esp. shampoo I loose wads of hair.

I have about 22 pounds to loose still, which at my rate will take another 4 months at least.  Unless I can figure out what to do, I will be bald before then.  (Somehow I feel even worse as I will be traveling in Mexico & Spain....I know, female vanity)    

I need to hear from those with this experience.  How long does the hair loosing last?  Is there anything I am not doing that might stop the loss?  How long after I have reached my goal and am on maintenance before it grows back thicker?  Does it grow back thicker?  (I live over 300 miles from the nearest "hair" facility...nearly impossible to go to any, if they even work)

thank you very much to those *****ply

This is the cause of the hair loss -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telogen_effluvium  

It's pretty much inevitable, and it will stop.  You might consider asking your stylist for a different hair style that will hide the loss better.  Most people seem to experience their hair loss between 3-6 months.  It eventually will slow down and then stop.  And then it will start to grow back.  

My hair started thinning around 3 months post-op and finally stopped at about the 1 year mark. A few months later my hair started coming back in with a vengeance. At 22 months, my barber used his hair thinning shears on me for the 1st time since surgery. Pre-surgery, he had to use them at every haircut.

The hair loss is a possible side effect of a starvation diet, it's documented in the medical literature.

All of our post surgical diets are considered starvation level diets.  You won't be immune to possible side effects because of the VSG surgery.  All the surgery does is make it possible for you to tolerate a starvation level diet for an extended amount of time.

Eventually, for the best health, you'll have to stop the starvation levels and eat higher calories in a more balanced fashion.  Otherwise you'll be skinny but not necessarily fit.

There's a lot of variables when it comes to hair loss ie. age, condition of hair before surgery, post-menopausal or not, etc.  I will tell you that I was someone who lost TONS of hair too.  My hair guy says I lost at least 50% of my hair, maybe more.  

The odds were against me:  I already had fine/thinning hair, was post-menopausal and have always suffered from telogen effluvium after surgery (you can Google that).  I took all the fancy supplements months before surgery and after...none of it works.  If you're going to lose hair it will follow it's own trajectory.  

What does work is treating your hair gently and having patience.  If you had good hair before surgery it will probably come back to it's former glory.  At 18 months post-op I'm just getting my hair back to where it was before.  It's not better than before, but about the same.