SO. MUCH. HAIR LOSS! UC Ladies - Where are you?!

Alright guys.

I've seen this subject tossed around here and there but haven't seen any recent threads that actually attack/question it head on.

Being a female, this is REALLY hard for me. I've tried to brush it to the side (literally) and just deal with my symptoms as they come and try not to beat myself up too bad over it. But enough is enough. My hair is normally so outrageously thick and even difficult to handle because of it.

But now it's SO THIN and just barely there. Every morning I wake up and brush my hair and more and MORE of it comes out. It's ALL over the place. You can't notice it too much by looking at my scalp, but it's so SO incredibly thin it's driving me insane.

I bought some Biotin gummies and some vitamin shampoo/conditioner which have some really good reviews and should help eventually but has anyone else experienced this? In googling around I read that months after having a REALLY bad flare, your hair can begin to fall out, because the flare causes your hair to go into a strange dormant state. Once the flare begins to diminish your hair "wakes up" and begins falling out/making room for new growth.

Any thoughts on this? It's so upsetting, I want to cry. My fiance is trying to keep my spirits high and tell me "Don't worry, I'm balding too and we can be twins" but it's making me want to slap him.

Not a lady, but hair loss can happen when you are anemic since your body uses nutrients for essentials rather than hair.

Make sure you check all your vitamin and iron levels and get those back in order. It's a natural part of a flare sadly.

What meds have you been on over the past year?

Remember 100-200 hair a day are shed. Longer hair will seem like more.

Hormones, anemia, medication and extreme food changes are factors.

The process of hairloss takes a long time and starts before one notices. One point to remember....a new hair coming in pushes the dormant hair out. Usually, it's the dormant stage that's prolonged, hence the panic when more hair is shed than normal....

It will take months to see little ones cropping from the scalp, and at half an inch a month growth rate, get ready for it to be a while before they come in to recognised thickness.

Hang tough.....what hair products do you use?

q

Current medications: Uceris and Entyvio

My medications over the past year are *so* extensive because I was in hospital care for so long and they tried so many different things. I was on 20 different prescriptions within a years time, while in hospital care I took about 8 different pills a day meanwhile I was in an IV drip of several things. I can't even really list them all because I'm not sure?

The ones I am sure of:

Prednisone, Tacrolimus, Valcyte, some sort of antibiotic thing that began with "suf" and had an X in there somewhere? Yes I'm bad at this. Iron tablets, Celebrex, Gabapentin, hydrocortisone suppositories, hydrocortisone enemas, Bentyl, Remicade...Had an iron infusion on the 13th and one on the 20th; Xanax, Klonopin, potassium tablets to counteract the Lasix I was on....Umm..Morphine...A lot of it, for a long time...Contrave, Zaleplon, Codine, Escitalopram, Bupropion, Pantoprazole, Etodolac...

UC is currently hiding. Solid stools, zero blood, zero urgency. I get a little bit achy here and there but it's almost like I forget I have UC at all. So I'm doing REALLY great.

In terms of hair products, I just use Aussie. I try not to wash/condition so much because it seems like it makes it worse. Just like sleeping and rolling around in bed make it worse...

I had the same thing happen to me towards the end of my first (and worst) flare. I was also low on iron, so getting my iron back up (I took ferrous sulfate for a few months) and just plain old recovering from my flare was all I really did. I took a supplement containing Biotin, but who knows how much that helped. There's not a lot more that you can do, but I do hope that it helps if you know it is just temporary. My hair did eventually return completely to normal.

I went through quite a few months with extremely bad hair loss. My hair would fall out everywhere! I flared all last summer, I had just started on Remicade, and was finally finished with Prednisone. My dr. told me that it was probably from tapering off of Prednisone and that it was pretty rare that it was from Remicade. I was hesitant to start Prednisone again and the three months before I started it (before Remicade) I was on Uceris, which didn't do anything for me. I chalked my hair loss up to stress and my body getting used to being on Remicade.

Here's what I did to help with the hair loss:

1. I started taking a prenatal vitamin, a biotin supplement, and a hair skin and nails supplement. I took them each every single day. I doubled up on a biotin supplement sometimes too. My dr. did check me for iron and other bloodwork but nothing came back low or abnormal. I even went to my family dr. and he tested me for everything under the sun, thyroid, iron, etc. Everything was in normal range.

2. I stopped washing my hair so frequently. I now wash my hair twice a week. Wednesday and Sunday.

3. I stopped brushing my hair except for after my shower on days that I washed it. I wore my hair down the next day after it was washed and up loosely the rest of the week.

4. Recently I got my hair cut. My stylist shaped it in a way to help hide the new hair growth, which I am so proud of! The new hair growth is behind my ears and sticks out so far. My stylist actually told me that when she washed my hair and brushed it hardly any fell out so that made me feel really good too. Just a few months ago fist fulls would fall out if I even touched it!

5. I stopped stressing! My boyfriend and I were going through a tough time during the bulk of my hair loss days. He has since moved in with his parents to give me some space, we are still together and things are going much better than they were before. I think the stress of our relationship caused a lot of my hair loss however I really have no idea. I know this option is not going to work for everyone but it did help me, no judgement.

6. I bought Biolage Biotin Shampoo from my stylist. I have no idea if this works because I just purchased it recently and have only used it a few times but my stylist said that her older clients with hair loss swear by it.


Hopefully some of these suggestions help you! Good luck!!!!!

Hair loss for women sucks ;( i’m a hairdresser, and I’ve seen many women suffer through medication, illness, general thinning because of age.

A range of products i really think helps, is Nioxin, it helps balance out the scalps oils, and remove any unwanted build up from the follicles allowing the new hair to have a good clean place to grow …. have a look on the website, it will explain the science bit.. i won’t do it justice at all.

But I’ve had many clients use it after having chemo, and although it won’t make your hair grow quicker, it will certainly help with density and quality of what you already have while waiting for the new hair to come through, annoyingly it is a game of patience as healthy hair starts from the inside out.

I would suggest a good hair cut, keep it looking as bulky as possible throughout the ends, don’t try and hold on to long length if its just wisps of hair. It will make it look thinner. Go for quality over quantity right now.

They’re also many treatments you could try. For instance if you colour your hair, you might want to add something like olaplaex into the mix. This will prevent any damage, and also give your hair a massive boost of strength.

The vitamin selenium helps support hair growth, so does sea kelp. But look into those and check they’re ok for you.
I take selenium, Vit D, multi Vit, and occasionally throw in some folic acid also.
I have really fine hair anyway, so i’m holding on to it for dear life… otherwise i’ll be left with two hairs and nit if i’m not careful.
Try not to worry, your hair will grow back…. Just never as quick as we want x