The truth about MY hair nearly 2 years out

Biotin is a B vite, and though it seems to help for nail growth, and thickness.. it didn't do a whole lot for my hair that I could tell. It certainly won't help with the initial loss (telogen effluvium) but may help with regrowth when that stage hits..

As far as sig others and hairstyles?.. that hits a chord with me. I guess I am lucky in that my husband frankly couldn't care less how I style, cut.. or for that matter tattoo or adorn my own body. His (and my) personal feelings are all about freedom and appreciation, respect and gratitude of honoring the others wants and desires so far as our own appearances and such. My hair changes from long to pixie to in between, much less my body going from overweight to very obese to normal never phased him. His only concern was he wanted me to live a long healthy life with him, so much as I could have control over.. and when I decided enough was enough and wanted WLS, he was fully behind it. He has benefited from the food changes in turn, so win-win. Take care of yourself, and if all is the way it should be- he will only be happier at your turn for better health.

Nicely said - and your earlier post too.  Lots that I have read helped me to understand that when your body is "panicking" due to issues such as low calorie intake, it uses the protein it has available to keep your vital organs functioning.  That means hair, nails, etc. get shoved to the back and it will stay that way for a period of time (which differs person to person).

There is LOTS of interesting info. on the horizon about calories being processed differently - as in processing protein and fat differently than processed carbs, for example and questions the long held ideas about calories in/calorie out.  Connected to this is all the thinking about gut bugs and how our bodies all differ in that respect.

It all makes sense to me and could be the reason some of us lose our hair and others don't.  Maybe some people make protein available to their hair (even on few calories) and other bodies don't.  I am no scientist, that's for sure....but I read a lot of this type of stuff.

A

I already have thin, fine, flat, limp hair, with a widows peak and receding hairline.  I have an aunt that you can see her scalp on top because her hair is so thin.  I lost quite a bit of hair 22 years ago when I had a cesarean. I've never had thick hair but it's definitely thinner now.  I'm schedule for VSG June 30......I'm freaking out over the hair loss possibility!  I want to be healthy, and thinner, but I'd rather not be thin and bald!  Yikes!!!

Here's more information about what happens to our hair after surgery.

http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/hair-loss/ effluviums

The hair actually dies around the time of surgery and that first month after when our calories are so very low. It doesn't fall out until about 3 months later when the new hair grows in. It takes about 3 months for all the regrowth to occur and after that hair loss drops off. Because the hair is already dead, nothing can stop it. People try all sorts of things and, when the hair loss naturally stops around month 6-9, they may declare whatever they tried around that time "worked" but the hair loss would have stopped around then anyway.

However, some of us experience hair loss sooner or that lasts longer. That is something that needs to be investigated because most likely it has another cause such as hormones or -- more likely -- malnutrition and will not stop without addressing the cause.

Biotin does not stop hair loss. It does make hair healthier. It can also make it grow faster and sometimes people who take it experience hair growth all over the body including unwanted places. That didn't happen to me, thank goodness. But my new hair was so much healthier due to me being so much healthier that I stopped taking biotin anyway.

Hi

i am now a little more than two years out.  My hair is not the same either.  I wear my hair in a shoulder length bob and didn't have the thickest head of hair to start with prior to surgery.  I lost a lot of hair in months 3-8.  I have experienced a lot of new growth but the new hair is frizzier.  And I think the front of my hair is thinner now particularly near my bangs - I can see my scalp a bit more.  I have dark brown hair so i uneasily hide that with a little dark brown scalp powder.  Another issue is that it will take a long time for the new hair to reach my shoulders so the lower half of my bob is thin.  So I frequently cut it a little shorter while waiting for the new hair to catch up.  Some of the issues may not be WLS related - it may just be aging and graying, but I must say the WLS has definitely not helped my hair.  That being said I still would repeat the surgery again in a heartbeat.

So I definitely feel your pain - particularly after I spend a bunch of time blow drying and styling my hair and then looking in the mirror and thinking my hair still looks crappy, effort and all.

Steph

Hi Steph,

I think you and I are definitely experiencing similar hair struggles, at least in some ways.  I keep cutting a bit at a time too....it will continue to improve I am sure.

But - of course - no regrets on surgery at all.

Annie

I was glad to read your post, Annie.  I have struggled mightily with hair loss and for those people who already have fine, thinning hair, or any hereditary hair loss issues, this isn't going to be an easy trip once they have surgery.  I had all of those strikes against me plus I was post-menopausal.  So my hair loss journey is still going at 1-year post-op.  My hair guy says I've lost at least half my hair...maybe more.  

The loss has finally started to slow down and my GP has put my on 100 mg of Spironolactone which she thinks will help even more.  I've been on it for 30 days and I'm hopeful to see some more slowing down of the shedding.  

For newbies I should state that I was on biotin, extra Vit D and zinc well before surgery and that I always got 70-80 grams of protein in from the very beginning.  I made sure of it!  So none of my loss was from malnutrition.  I noticed excess loss right away but it got BAD between months 4-5.  Horrifying actually :-(   I even contemplated a wig, ordered one and then didn't like the way it looked so I sent it back.  But I should have bought stock in Toppik because I use that stuff every day to cover up the bald spots on the top of my head.  

I'm hoping that at 2 years out my story will be similar to yours, Annie!  Here's hoping