The hair-loss side-effect

So, I thought after 3 months I was not going to lose hair. It was great. Losing weight, more energy, fantastic! Well, this last week I've been losing hair like crazy. I'm thankful I have a lot of hair, but yah, I'm losing quite a bit of hair now. Just thought I'd share this with those thinking about the surgery. The irritation of hair loss is still worth the surgery. I'm so much happier and healtheir and just enjoying life. Shedding...well, meh, I have to clean out the shower drain more often. But I have the energy to do it!

I noticed the same thing around the 3 month time frame. I was told by my doctor that if your protein intake is low then you can loose your hair. It takes your body 90 days to show the result of the low protein intake.
    For me I had an issue with the protein drinks the 2-3 weeks after surgery. Loved them before...after surgery....YUCK!!  

  I had my RNY the week before Christmas 2011.

The hair loss after RNY has to do with a lot more than decreased protein intake.  Google telogen effluvium to read about it.  Getting all your protein in will not prevent hair loss, but NOT getting enough protein in will make it worse.

Lora

My protein was at 75g to 100g per day for 6 months prior to WLS andd from day 3 onwards postop it was 75 - 100 g. I still lost half my volume.

You can google "telogen effluvium in women after gastric bypass surgery" and this will tell you about this directly resulting from this surgery.

hair loss usually begins about three months post op. 

The thing about hair loss is, the damage has been done a few months before it starts to fall out.

Here's how it works.  At any given time, about 10% of your hair is in a "resting phase."  It rests for about three months, then falls out.  The rest of your hair is in a growing phase.  Well, general anesthesia can cause more hair than normal to go into the resting phase, about 30%.  It's called telogen effluvium.

Lack of protein and vitamins can also cause hair loss, but again, they cause hair to go into the resting phase, so it falls out a few months later.  So the hair you're losing now hasn't been damaged by lack of protein or vitamins or anything you've done recently.  It's old damage.

Make sure you're getting your protein, at least 60 grams a day.  It usually lasts for about three months or so before it stops falling out.

Thanks so much Kelly and everyone else!

I was expecting the hairloss, but I guess I thought it would start sooner. I'm thankful I have a lot of hair. Just gets annoying when I wear a white t-shirt and see many strands sticking to my chest and sleeves.

I am finding it difficult to get in all my protien these days, now that I'm introducing more new foods--and a lot of those foods don't always agree with my pouch. I will be upping my protien shake intake for sure.

Thanks again everyone! This site is always so helpful, everyone is great with info sharing.