Hair Loss??

[5kiddos]

I have been eating LC since Feb. I have noticed in the last month or so I have been losing more hair than normal. I have medium length hair and it is quite fine and so I feel like I don't have a lot to lose...ugh! Anyone have this happen?? What did you do and how long did it last?? Right now when I have it in a ponytail I can wrap the band 5 times to get it tight! I can't even think of wearing a big barrett. In fact I could pull my hair back in small barrett. (you know the kind we used to wrap with ribbons in the 80's)

Thanks for the info.
:help:

[Rosebud]

Hullo 5kiddos,

Hair loss happens from time to time to people losing weight by any method, and possibly happens even less to low carbers. The main thing to know is that this hair loss is definitely temporary.

There are things you can do to help. The Low Carb Luxury website has some answers here: http://www.lowcarbluxury.com/newsletter/lclnewsvol02-no07.html#letters
You can also try searching "hair loss" for members here who have had this problem.

Rosebud:rose:

[kathleen24]

5kiddos,

I would be worried about this myself right now, except that I've gone through this twice before in the past, both times when LCing, and both times in the summer. Hair seems like it's coming out in handfuls, and yet it doesn't seem any thinner, if that makes sense. I figure my hair follicles feel like I've got enough protein to do a regrowth? Who knows--I feel healthier in almost every system in my body, and so I figure this is some rejuvenating process going on as well. I've just come to think of it as seasonal shedding, like the dog goes through. HTH?

[Sallee]

Telogen Effluvium

At any given time, about 85% to 90% of the hairs on the average person's head are actively growing (the anagen phase) and the others are resting (the telogen phase). Typically, a hair is in the anagen phase for two to four years, then enters the telogen phase, rests for about two to four months, and then falls out and is replaced by a new, growing hair. The average person naturally loses about 100 hairs a day.
In a person with telogen effluvium, some body change or shock pushes more hairs into the telogen phase. Typically in this condition, about 30% of the hairs stop growing and go into the resting phase before falling out. So if you have telogen effluvium, you may lose an average of 300 hairs a day instead of 100.
Telogen effluvium can be triggered by a number of different events, including:
• Surgery
• Major physical trauma
• Major psychological stress
• High fever or severe infection
• Extreme weight loss
• Extreme change in diet
• Abrupt hormonal changes, including those associated with childbirth and menopause
• Iron deficiency
• Hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism
• A new medication

Because hairs that enter the telogen phase rest in place for two to four months before falling out, you may not notice any hair loss until two to four months after the event that caused the problem. Telogen effluvium rarely lasts longer than six months, although some cases last longer.
Although losing a great number of hairs within a short time can be frightening, the condition is usually temporary. Each hair that is pushed prematurely into the telogen phase is replaced by a new, growing hair, so there is no danger of complete baldness. Because hair on the scalp grows slowly, your hair may feel or look thinner than usual for a time, but fullness will return as the new hairs grow in.

I had this in 1998 when I lost 80 pounds on a semi-starvation diet. (We can see how that worked for me....now that I regained 50 of it.) But anyway, my hair all grew back with time. I was scary though because the drain would be just chock full of hair when I showered and washed it. I was diagnosed by a dermatologist, who said it would grow back. You can find all kinds of info on it if you put it in your search.

Hope this helps.

Sallee

[Enomarb]

Sallee- that is great. I also lost a lot of hair when I went on CALP- even my hair stylist commented. My hair has grown back, and that more rapid loss has stopped, but the texture changed. I had really wavey hair pre-CALP, but now it is much straighter. New haircut has taken care of new hair and new face for a new look!

[bunks]

Hi 5kiddos, this also happened to me last summer. I too had started my diet in Feb and lost a lot of weight - got sick - and then started losing hair in August. Freaked me out just like you because I also put my hair back into a pony tail and I could feel the difference. The only thing that helped me from totally freakin was that I could feel the new hairs growing in when I brushed my fingers along my scalp against the grain. Made me realise that I wasn't going bald :)

I'd say it's taken about a year for it to grow back in. It was slow but it is coming back. I'm at an age when you start thinking about hair loss but it was totally the diet change/shock to the body. Hope this helps.

[ItsTheWooo]

I have been eating LC since Feb. I have noticed in the last month or so I have been losing more hair than normal. I have medium length hair and it is quite fine and so I feel like I don't have a lot to lose...ugh! Anyone have this happen?? What did you do and how long did it last?? Right now when I have it in a ponytail I can wrap the band 5 times to get it tight! I can't even think of wearing a big barrett. In fact I could pull my hair back in small barrett. (you know the kind we used to wrap with ribbons in the 80's)

Thanks for the info.
:help:

Hair loss is normal when one loses weight. The energy deficit caused by weight loss, especially rapid weight loss, encourages the body to reduce thyroid hormone activity to conserve energy. Being in a low energy state (losing weight) will cause mild hypothyroid symptoms, and the most common one is some hair loss. Please don't be alarmed and know that it is temporary. Once you start eating enough to maintain weight your body will stop the conservation and your hair will go back to normal.

[kathleen24]

Hi folks,

Just went in for my semi-annual trim-it-and-forget-it haircut, and the woman who's been cutting my hair for the last twenty years off and on said that my hair was healthier than she'd ever seen it before. I know that all my hair hasn't grown since I started LCing, but I still attribute a lot of the improvement to all the protein and lack of junk I've been eating. Go LC!

I also asked her about hair loss, and she ran her hands through my hair and said that nothing was coming out in her fingers, and it didn't seem thin on top--it seemed thick and healthy.

Don't know if that's any reassurance, because everyone's experience is different, but I'm convinced that it was a way of getting rid of stuff that wasn't premium because my scalp was ready to grow even healthier hair.