Covid hair loss

[SummersBreeze]

I read before that covid can cause hair loss.

Is that still happening after vaccinations too?

I am nearly 2 weeks since my symptoms developed and I tested positive. I think I am getting better.

I don't want to lose my hair.

I used to have a reasonably good diet filled with eggs, cheese, vegetables, some fruit and meats here and there but my diet consisted mainly of eggs and vegetables. I added supplements every day too
Vitamin c
B complex with iron
Vitamin D
Cod liver oil
Magnesium every night.

These are my main supplements. I add in extra from time to time but I don't keep up with them like biotin, zinc and other supplements.

My diet turned to pure trash since getting covid. I wasn't able for half of the supplements I was taking. I continued with the vitamin c every morning but that was it. The diet was mainly carb heavy.

How can I best avoid covid hair loss? Naturally I will have to reverse the trash diet and go back to eating better. Add in the supplements that I was taking.

Is there anything else I can do to help support myself after covid and maintain hair health.

I don't want to wake up in 3 months time to the possibility of hair loss and perhaps even a reinfection of another dose of covid too.

I had hair loss after covid, I read that its a stress response that can show up a few months after covid. Did you have a fever? I think the fever is what causes it x

Oh god, I had fever as high as 39.8 on and off for 3 days. It was mainly in the 38 to 39 mark. Paracetamol brought it down but it sat at 38/38.1/38.2 for 3 days after paracetamol and ibuprofen. It was very stubborn.

I think I can be vain. I love my hair. I don't want to lose it or let it thin.

Did your hair loss come back?

I had hair loss 3 months after covid. It was scary and very upsetting how much hair came out. The trauma of being seriously ill in hospital, fever and concoction of drugs was to blame. It is growing back now, about 2 inches but will take a few years to get back to normal because my hair is long. Hair loss is minimal now

It does grow back, Google telogen effluvium.... that's the name of the type of hair loss. It made me feel better to read and understand it! Xx

You didn’t get alopecia areata from both covid and the vaccine - was vaccine related for mr & I had no fever. Try not to stress it doesn’t affect everyone. X

Duh… sorry I meant you ‘can’ get it, not ‘didnt’

Sorry to hijack but I was googling and found this! How do you know it’s from the vaccine @BlackSwan? And how have you found it since? I had a diagnosis a few months ago but it’s improved since then. I’m worried it’s coming back as I can feel the tingling though!

I took Biotin in a spray from Amazon and it has come back. My sister saw a dermatologist who prescribed a shirt course of steroids and it has grown back. He said he has seen so many similar patients with the same condition. Cost her £150 in total for appointment and prescription.

Neither of us had been jabbed back then, hair loss was a few months after having covid. He said it's an auto immune stress response that changes the shape of the hair follicle. But is easily remedied.

Hi Bertha, just saw your question - I saw a dermatologist privately (decades of NHS experience too) who said it happens sometimes with vaccinations...it's an auto immune response. I had my third covid vaccine and another vaccine within a week or two of eachother. He said I 'poked my immune system too many times'.
I hadn't had covid before my hair loss. But I did have it after & didn't experience more hair loss. Actually a few weeks ago I had covid again. If I have hair loss again, perhaps there's more to the story.

hi. this thread has really helped my mother in law, so thank you. she had the most gorgeous hair. But after the 2nd vaccine, and even worse after the 3rd, so much of her hair has fallen out. it is now is thin and sparse, and she is very upset by it. we know it wasn't caused from covid because she hadn't caught covid until a few months after her 3rd vaccine. does anyone know of a treatment for the vaccine induced hair loss - i read that the condition following vaccination is slightly different than the one following covid, so i'd love to steer my MIL in the correct direction. many thanks.

Peppa I am sorry your MIL is going through this. Im happy to share my dermatologist’s details (London based) if that’s any use. PM me if you like.
The derm prescribed steroid ointment/shampoo and antihistamines (fexofenadine). He advised me not to have any non essential vaccines & for instance if I was thinking of holidaying somewhere exotic requiring vaccination to go elsewhere instead.
There have been case reports (you may have seen online) of people having hair loss where the onset was after covid vaccination and it can get worse with each successive vaccine dose.

I reported my post vaccine hair loss with the yellow card system. I think drs were v reluctant to admit any potential link because it is hard to prove and inconvenient. Also ‘only cosmetic’. But it is terrible if it happens to you.
I can tell you I had a ‘worse’ medical diagnosis last year also but the hair loss was far more traumatic for me.

I didn't have fever with covid and I lost hair noticeably from 3 to 9 months after covid. I don't think a diet of trash for 2 weeks is an issue but eating well is benefiicial anyway. I don't think there is anything for the covid loss. The good news is that my hair grew back the bad news is that I think I recently caught covid again. I'm not vaxxed.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8673931/
“Alopecia areata after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination”
Interesting case reports.
Has this to say:
“Hair loss following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination is an increasingly reported phenomenon in the United States and globally…”

I was very ill with covid, spent a while in hospital. 3 months later my hair was coming out in handfuls. Nothing to do with vaccination, it was early in pandemic and my hair recovered just fine.
It's a thing with serious illness. My sister had sepsis and the same happened to her.
Small inconvenience rbh compared with the serious illness.

Thanks everyone for info, it’s really helpful to know where it might have come from for me, and in that weird way reassuring that it’s happening to others - though of course I’m really sorry for all who’ve gone through hair loss (and worse, of course). I’m surprised we haven’t heard more about this but I guess if it’s caused by the vaccine it’s not helpful press… For me it was 5 months after covid and nearly a year after the vaccine so I’m pretty sure it was the virus itself. I also had borderline iron levels so got a prescription for that, which I’d initially thought brought growth back, but perhaps it was always going to grow back. Who knows. Had covid again 5 months ago so waiting to see if anything comes of the tingly scalp…!

@BlackSwan
thank you very much for your kind message. my mother in law was very worried about covid, so she had 3 doses of the vaccine and unfortunately has lost so much hair since. i called her last night just to double check, but the hair loss definitely occurred post vax and pre her bout with covid. her last vaccine was over a year ago and her hair has not recovered, so she is very upset. she is a stunning woman who has always taken great pride in her appearance, so, mentally, this is really weighing on her. she lives in switzerland, but i will forward her the info you all have kindly shared with me. i'm so sorry this has happened, but hopefully the locks will return to all of you even more beautifully than before!! xoxo

Some hope also for those with alopecia areata as a new treatment may soon be approved in the UK, so called “JAK inhibitors” are being considered by NICE:
www.alopecia.org.uk/blog/jaks-where-are-now-and-where-might-we-be-heading