My Hair's Falling Out - Eek!

[CommonSenseSuze]

Hi all,

For the past couple of months I've noticed that my hair feels 'thinner'. When I wash it, plenty of strands come out and often when I run my fingers a few hairs come away.

I don't seem to have any bald patches. It's just coming out generally.

At first I wasn't bothered, but I can really feel the difference now.

Does anyone know what could be causing this, please? I'm 33, have DD (aged 2 yrs 3 mnths), varied diet etc. My mum's hair was always very thick, but started to thin out when she was in her fifties. My dad started to go bald in early twenties.

Thanks all.

Could be low iron. Take some normal iron supplements from Boots for a few weeks and see if that makes a difference.

Strangely, I've recently started to take a multi-vitamin regularly. It almost seems to have coincided with me taking the pills. .

Actually, I've had blood tests recently and nothing iron-related was picked-up on.

Sorry, I meant multi-vitamin with minerals.

Lack of certain minerals & vitamins can cause this, i.e Iron, Folic Acid,Zinc, Vit B etc, maybe your GP could give you blood tests to see if you are lacking in anything.

I'm pretty sure I'm not lacking nutritionally, and have had blood tests recently for a liver condition.

I've also been taking a multi-vitamin/mineral daily.

Have you by any chance been ill recently or had any major event in your life eg pregnancy, bereavement, accident, operation?

It could be telogen effluvium.

My ds2 had this about 3 months after he had pneumonia. His hair just seemed to be constantly shedding. There were no bald patches, but he lost over half his head of hair and went from having lovely thick curls to flat thin hair. It started to grow back after a few months and now twelve months later he has his full head of hair back.

I would go and see a dermatolgist in that case, they can see by looking at your scalp if there is anything abnormal happening.

moosemama, I haven't had anything major recently. I have an ongoing liver problem (something to do with the alkaline phosphate level), but I don't think it's serious or anything.

Thanks for the link.

I'm very glad that your son's hair grew back again. It sounds gorgeous!

chinghehuang, that's interesting as I presumed it would be a trichologist.

I always seem to be in the doc's about something or other so try to avoid it. I think I'll book an appointment though, just in case it's something avoidable.

My uber thick hair fell out constantly when I was seriously low carb dieting. Very worrying time! Stopped as soon as it started about 4 months later.

Both overactive and underactive thyroids can cause hair loss, althought its more common with an overactive thyroid.

If you google alkaline phosphatase and hair loss you also get quite a few references to a problem with levels of ap causing hair loss. So it would definitely be worth a trip to your GP to check it out.

I had telogen effluvium, and my hair did grow back. Eventually. What it didn't do was to grow as long as it used to. It stops at my shoulder blades now. The hairdresser I visit infrequently says this is par for the course at 50+.

Here's a thing , though. As a teenager, my hair stayed at just below shoulder length, but the moment I left home and went to uni, it just grew and grew.

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your advice.

I'll go and see the doc, I think.

Thanks again.