I am a firm believer that the prednisone is the culprit for most people. I do realize that with this disease and the meds we take, we are definitely prone to loose hair. I was diagnosed in Feb 06 and after completing my first round of prednisone I began loosing chunks of hair. That continued for a few months until I flared and they put me back on the prednisone. Amazingly, my hair stopped falling out for the six months I was on it. When I came off the prednisone the second time, I started loosing hair within three weeks. I have currently been off prednisone since the end of May and my hair is just now starting to slow down with the loss.Now my first inclination was that it was the 5-ASA drugs doing it (i have been on both asacol and pentasa). I discontinued the use of Pentasa approx two months ago, but the hair loss continued. Although I am currently taking Imuran 150 mg, the only common denominator between the first and second episodes of hair loss was the prednisone.
Hair loss is very hard to deal with and I am sure we all know that. I thankfully had thick curly hair that allowed me to hide the loss for a little while. I currently now only wash my hair a couple times a week, I do not blow dry it or put product in it and I also pull it back to hide the thinness. I use Nioxin shampoo which is expensive, but is supposed to strengthen the hair shaft to decrease the loss. I havent really noticed too much of a difference using it, but I was at the point to do anything to help. I also take a prenatal vitamin and biotin b/c they are both good for hair and nail growth. I definitely have hair regrowth, it is controlling the loss that is difficult. B/c the hair loss is slowing, I look forward to getting it cut short and starting to grow it back out again. I wish all of you the same luck.