Hair and Iron

[njshep]

Horrendous periods for 5 years due to a fibroid has resulted in iron deficiency and wreaked havoc on my hair. Thinner, weaker, etc.
I have been supplementing on and off for the last few years but doesn’t really do anything to improve the situation. It’s like trying to fill a bath tub without a plug!
At worst 1.5 years ago my ferritin was 4 and my hemoglobin was 98. Today my ferritin is 23 and my hemoglobin in is 125. Im always told to take iron- dr never says what kind or how much. So frustrating.
Im 52….. periods are thankfully slowing down the last couple of months. Further apart and lighter than what has been a crime scene situation every 20-25 days.
Anyine have any improvement with their hair after getting g iron under control?

Take vitamin c with ferrous sulphate. Avoid tea/coffee/grains ah hour or two before and after There’s a lot of iron pills and liquids which are rubbish.

I take one Ferrograd-C every other day (avoid taking it within 2 hours of drinking tea or coffee). It took 6 months but my peri-menopausal hair has improved dramatically and is now the best it's been since my 20s! (and my hairdresser who's known me all that time agrees).

I discovered I had low ferritin by accident (it was in some blood tests for something else). Wish I'd known 30 years ago!! Bloody hell!

You can buy Ferrograd-C online / over the counter. It was recommended to me by a friend who's a qualified nutritionist.

Oh wow! Ok. Had your hair thinned due to low ferritin?
I’ve been taking iron this whole time but the numbers Have not budged due to excessively heavy periods.

@njshep Yes, low ferritin was definitely the source of my hair thinning and fragility. I have tried so many things for years and nothing made a difference. Then I read that your hair doesn't grow unless your ferritin levels are 70 or above. Mine were in the teens! So I started Ferrograd-C and the difference feels like nothing short of a miracle!!

Even taking iron, you need to take it 'correctly' for it to work (assuming that's the source of your problem). It's advised that you get better results taking iron every other day. There's a lot more detail re quantities and types of iron (heme vs non-heme) and timings etc online. It's not just as simple as 'take iron'.

Wow! This is great to hear. Mine hasn’t been above 24 in a few decades. Mostly sitting in the single digits. 4 back to back pregnancies and then straight into perimenopause for the past 5-6 years left me with zero hope of budging these low ferritin scores. I’m holding out hope that now that the insanity of the flooding periods are coming to an end I may finally be able to work on getting these numbers up high enough…… and then hopefully discover I might see a benefit to my hair!