greetings from hair loss girl

I went to my Ob/Gyn nurse practitioner today to talk about my hair loss to see if there was some chance it was related to perimenopause. She said definitely not, especially since it came on so suddenly. She ran labs to check my thyroid but also didn't think that was it. She recommended seeing a dermatologist so I put in for a referral with my GP.

I know I should not obsess and just keep taking my Asacol like a good little girl but I can't seem to let it go. Even my nurse practitioner noticed the hair loss and said "You're too young to be dealing with this." I am now at the almost five-month mark from when I first started shredding like a you-know-what. If I haven't seen sprouts by now, is all hope lost? Will staying on Asacol long term just mean that I am looking at the new normal? Was it the pred? I am so mad I got talked into taking pred if that's what did this to me, especially if the loss ends up being permanent.

I just needed to get this out of my system to people who may understand what I'm going through. Thanks for listening.

I totally hear you! I too had a lot of hair loss and I think it was from the stress of the disease on the body plus the prednisone. I didn't have a lot of it from the Asacol. Are you taking a Biotin supplement for it? Also try a Vitamin D supplement as well. Hope this helps.

Remember me? Year and a half.

I had the same problem until I switched to Colazal. Also take Biotin 5000 not the 1000. Good luck. You can find it at CVS.

Have you had recent blood work to check if you were anemic or borderline anemic? I have hair shedding as well, I usually blame it on the prednisone. But recently I was treated for anemia and once I got my hemo up I noticed that although I am still shedding, it is a lot less than the previous six months. I would say about 1 month after getting my blood levels up my hair loss decreased by more than 50%.

Turns out upon research that low iron or anemia can cause hair loss. I know a lot of us can border on anemic.

Hello Fadoozle and all!

I have been reading up on alopecia (hair loss)... it seems this is too a auto-immune issue.. I am wondering if it is just the auto-immune problems in us that make other auto-immune disorders occur? Any thoughts?

Mine stopped shedding as much when I got to a good health spot and actually lowered my dose of Lialda.. but that was also at the same time I was putting weight back on and obviously more healthy.. Not sure where the improvement came from.
Here lately, I have been shedding more than I had been but honestly thought it was that time of year again..

Try not to go to the place of justifying it could be worse. It's an issue you need to find out why.

I'll assume the dermatologist will do proper testing to find out if it is autoimmune related, but if you took pred in the spring and were on it for a long time, I'd lean more towards that.

Are you losing hair every day?

Do you have patches of loss or throughout?

How long off the pred?

How long on the biotin?

How often do you wash your hair and what products are you using?

Hang tough...it's difficult, but styling/product and colouring/hilighting can add body to the hair.

q

You should be washing it more often....washing isn't a cause for hairloss.It stimulates the scalp and has it looking fluffier.

Highlighting can add body to the hair, it can be done with colour or bleach or highlift colour.

The growth from the follicle to the scalp can take a few months...and then having it come out of the scalp to be visible will take time as well.

q

I used to have thick hair down to my bum. After taking steroids for about a year (oral and rectal) my hair is extremely thin and its up to my shoulders. I actually cant do anything with it. It's THAT thin. It's been about a month now and I have not noticed any change in my hair. I've been told to take biotin.