Remedy for thinning hair on Azathioprine / Imuran?

Hi & welcome. I wish I could offer some advice, but my hair loss due to meds or flare ups has always ended up improving eventually. Either it regrew after a period of time on the medication, or the flare up ended and my hair stopped falling out. I know often people recommend biotin, but I am not sure how much it actually helps. Have you seen a dermatologist for the dermatitis? I have used jason brand dandruff shampoo for a dry itchy scalp, but I don't know if it is recommended for your particular condition. Might be worth seeing a dermatologist. Is your UC controlled? Have you had your vitamin levels checked?

B12 1000mcg one tab daily helped me quite a bit. it is over the counter

Thinning hair or hair loss is often a delayed-reaction to a UC flareup with or without medications. A flare up is rough on the body and we can loose a lot of nutrients and loose weight rapidly resulting in malnutrition and hair loss. Do you know if you are anemic, have low vitamin B, B12, or D as any one of those things can cause hair loss? It's possible medications can cause hair loss as well, however, other things must be ruled out as well.

Hair Regrowth is often a delayed-reaction to healing from a flareup. The loss will slow, stop, and then reverse itself after a month or two assuming the underlying problems are resolved (you are no longer malnourished, not anemic, and have normal vitamin levels). Regrowth is a slow process (hair grows at a slow rate), but you should start seeing the formation of new hairs after a while.

Hair is something the body sacrifices first when things start to go downhill. You're body is going to put nutrition and healthy blood to the areas in that crisis first. So that's the main reason why hair can thin out.

I find that high doses of steroids combined with blood loss thins my hair like nothing else. Usually once bleeding is under control, my food intake is better, and I've received some iron IVs, my hair begins to get thicker.

I've noticed recently though that as I increased my dose of DHEA to counter adrenal depletion from steroids, my hair and beard have become a lot darker and thicker. Friends have noticed. So maybe there's a hormone component to this too. I saw a Chinese medicine doctor a while back who said that adrenal fatigue usually thins the hair.

I've been on azathioprine for years now and the hair loss stopped at some point on its own.

Thinning hair and hairloss happens to those who are not on any medications, and those who are on anti-inflammatory mesalamines, those on thiopurines, and those on biologics despite them all having very different active and inactive ingredients, and different mechanisms of action. We can loose hair due to anemia, low vitamin b, b12, and d. Hair loss is a delayed-reaction to a uc flareup.

Here's a video explaining it

http://www.med.umich.edu/ibd/school/video205.html

Hair regrowth is about a 2-month delayed reaction to a recovery from your flare.