Hair loss - so worried and scared. Anyone with any experience of this or suggestions? Desperate!

[MrEzraGoldberg]

Another shower and another huge amount of hair fallen out. I'm so worries about this - been going on for a while but has gone crazy over the last few months. Iron levels fine (100) though want to get up to 150, thyroid tests all fine.

Anyone have any ideas what might be going on here, or similar experiences? GP says hair loss does occur and seems unconcerned. At my suggestion he has referred me to a dermatologist.

I'm 50, not yet menopausal, and tried HRT over a year ago and because my hair fell out even more, had to stop it.

It's so depressing and on my mind all the time.

There are lots of reasons. Happened to me too. I think it's quite common. Not that that is very reassuring!

Is it all over or in patches? Is your head itchy or does your scalp feel like it is burning?

Mine was a combination of stress, hormone changes (only sign of impending menopause) and a scalp condition. I have had stuff from the Dr to squirt on my scalp, use vile coal tar shampoo, sorted out my stress. It stabilised after a few months.

I definitely have less hair than I used to. It's not obvious and the excess hair loss has stopped. I asked I think on MN at the time. Some people felt thinning hair was normal as women age. Others felt they had a full head of hair.

It is very stressful and I'm glad your Dr is doing tests to rule out certain causes.

Mine was due to lack of vitamin D and I also had low folic acid levels.

Have you been under a lot of stress? Are you going through menopause or perimenopause?
I had big bald spots through my scalp about a year ago which I assumed were attributable to stress (and I am sure it didn’t help) and I was probably also going through peri or actual menopause. (I had a hysterectomy years ago, so hard to tell!) I went to the GP who did some blood tests that didn’t show anything exciting, so she referred me to a dermatologist who specialized in scalp disorders. She did a biopsy, and worked out that I had a combination of female pattern baldness and gelogen effluvium (from the stress) and prescribed a capsule that combines spironolactone and minoxidil. It took a while, but it’s growing back!!! (Of course it will fall out if I ditch the meds, but worth it!!!)

How's your Ferritin?

Are you on any medication? As loads of medication have hair loss as a rare side effect so check every medication you are on.

I had this from around age 40 after I went through a very stressful period. In desperation I started on a multivitamin with iron and within 3 weeks my hair had stopped falling out. I've stayed on the multi vitamin/iron and have been fine with no hairloss for 10 years, but had brain surgery a few months ago and had to stop taking zinc/iron as it interracted with medication I was taking, and within a couple of weeks I was losing hair again - which resolved itself once back on the vitamins...

I hope you find something this simple to sort it out for you...I know how distressing it is!

Ask the GP to check your ferritin levels. You can have a normal haemoglobin but a low stored iron which can cause hair loss.

Get the results of your blood tests. I was told my ferritin was fine at a lower level than I personally needed to stop breathlessness by one GP. In fact I needed a higher level and this also stopped my hair level.

loss not level

I had this around perimenopause. I’ll say, very cautiously, that it’s stabilised a bit now. I think it was down to hormonal changes. But my hair is not the same - have changed styles which has helped it look fuller, and I’m using a hair tonic/vitamin supplements, but it’s a slow job. Weirdly, I no longer have to shave my legs either!

Mine started around late 40s. I’d had 5 years of bereavements, a dreadful divorce, being made homeless. By 52 my scalp was showing and my usually fine and thin hair getting even finer and thinner. My GP took bloods which he said were normal but referred me to a dermatologist.

Ferritin was 35 and Vit D was 54. Dermatologist put me on ferrous fumerate and said ferritin levels need to be 70+ for hair health and wanted it as near to 100 as possible. Also
put me on a loading dose of Vit D. Very slowly my hair stopped shedding and it thickened up more. It took about 18 months to go back to not being see-through.

Definitely get ferritin level checked and see if you can get a referral to a trichologist or dermatologist.

My shedding seemed worse on HRT too.

I had the same two years post birth. Gp said my irons was fine but they referred me to a dermatologist as I was so upset about it. The dermatologist told me my irons wasnt ok. The gp is looking for a normal range but the other Dr said all that meant was that I wasnt dead. I had no spare iron to grow hair. I was recommended iron with vitamin d or c? I cant remember now but I had to take for months before it stopped falling out. Now I try to keep it topped up via pregnacare as it's akind kinder on the digestive system

I've been having this for 2 years, I'm 44 and my hair is now awful, it's shoulder length but hundreds of hairs especially on my crown are anything between 1cm and 2 inches long and stand up like a crest.

Blood tests show I'm perimenopausal and low in folic acid, the doctor told me the results were clear 18 months ago and it was my nurse last month who looked and said they weren't.

I then saw a different doctor and have started taking B7, folic acid and Citalopram for anxiety and after 6 weeks it's almost stopped.

Mine is fine now, sparse on top, post chemo. So fucking depressing! Yy I should be grateful I'm alive but...

I've just started taking ferritin supplements - recommended on here actually - and new growth has been immediate, even though I can only take them every two or three days because they're hard on my digestion.

Fine as in thin!

tilder - funny you should mention the burning and itching - yes! Not consistently but frequently. What does this mean??

It's overall hair loss, diffuse I think it's called. No specific bald patches. It's grown particularly thin on the right temple and is getting worse. Also thinning around the crown of the head.

sameatiteverwasantiques - I've just started taking vitamin D as heard it could sometimes contribute to hair loss, and my last test was normal but low. How long did it take before you started to see results of your supplementation?

Hawkmoth - my ferritin is currently 100, normal range is 11-317 (!) and a few years back it was 11, so it's much better now. I take iron ferrous fumarate every day as without it my levels start dropping quickly.

At 50 you could very well be peri menopausal. Hair loss was a huge factor for me and may friends. It stabilises so try not to worry.

I definitely lost half my hair which was a huge shock.
Get a good hair, nail and skin supplement to support you.

Fine to say not to stress, I did terribly, and was very very upset. Thank god it settled and while my hair is definitely thinner, it's fine.

Get the supplement and a BComplex supplement which can really support your nervous system and stress levels.

The menopausal thread on MN is worth reading 💐👍

justilou1 I suffer from anxiety so am almost always stressed. Must be perimenopausal as am 50! Periods still regular though, and not heavy. It's great to hear that you got your hair loss dealt with so well, and that it's now growing back. Gives me hope!

springydaff - Is it ferrous fumarate you take? I'd heard dreadful things about effects on the system from iron supplements, but this one is great. I take it with vitamin C though, so perhaps that counteracts any tendency to 'bung up' the system. I believe there are different types, so if one doesn't suit, perhaps try another?

ColaFreezePop I'm just on a low dose steroid inhaler for asthma. I avoided steroid inhalers for years but my asthma got so bad I had to. I don't trust them, but I'm told that the inhaled steroids do not cross into the blood stream, just straight to the lungs where they are needed.

Anything steroid has bad connotations for me, always associate them with weight gain, hair loss etc, but I know they can be miracle workers in the right circumstances. As I've been on this inhaler for about three years now, it's probably not that. Probably.

Yes, billy1966, it's really stressful, isn't it? So glad to hear your hair loss settled after a while. I guess I'd be happy with that, just for it to be a reliable amount of hair! At the moment the slightest touch seems to cause a cascade of hairs. I'm forever picking up hairs from surfaces and have taken to wearing a silk cap around the house just to contain the buggers.

I got shampoo from the doc that helped. I had dry scalp and the follicles were basically not strong enough to keep the hairs in so they fell out. Over half my hair. Also stress and age related as I am peri too.

I had diffuse hair loss in my late 30s. I'm sorry you're going through this, it's really distressing. We never really got to the bottom of it but I definitely had itching and burning - so possible scalp issues at work so get shampoo that treats fungal infections, something like Nizoral, pharmacists are usually really helpful about this. I was also very stressed although the hair loss was compounding that, so not clear how involved it was. I'd also had proper flu a couple of months earlier with a really high temperature and this can apparently cause (temporary) hair loss due to some kind of abnormal reaction with the follicles. It starts a few weeks or so later and carries on for a while. There is also a history of thyroid issues in my family but I've been tested a few times and results are always within normal ranges, otherwise that would have definitely been a red flag. To be honest I'm a bit dubious of a lot of 'normal ranges' that come back form standard blood tests, normal isn't normal for everyone. My hair stopped falling out and came back, although the same thing happened again to a lesser extent a few months later. I was completely paranoid about it for a long time. The areas I seemed to shed the most hair also were the first to start going grey a few years later. Not sure what that means! I do hope you manage to sort it out OP x

I bought this after recommendations online, and it's helped a lot. No longer finding huge piles of hair on the floor or in the sink/bath.

Thanks, RemusLupins - I tried that shampoo a while back and didn't get on with it - it left my hair dreadfully tangled and the untangling process was so laborious it caused more hair to fall out. Have tried on called Roots too, and whilst it was fine to use, it sadly didn't stop the hair loss.

I had this 3 years ago and it was entirely stress related. For six months prior to leaving my then employer I lost a significant amount of my hair - each time I washed it the equivalent of a small birds nest would accumulate in the shower plug hole. It was so distressing to see. Luckily my hair is both thick and bountiful so it wasn’t obvious to others. I settled my differences with the company through a lawyer and almost immediately felt better. My hair took a lot longer to recover, although it stopped falling out almost immediately, the regrowth only started to come through last year, almost 2 years after the event.

Try not to stress about it - almost impossible I know. Washing it less frequently does help. And I found using a high quality oil based shampoo helped too.