Help with thinning hair.

[sarah8484]

My hair is getting so thin lately. I wash it daily (have to as hair gets so greasy) and blow dry it to try and give it a fuller look, but it still just looks so flat and thin. Do the hair vitamins actually work? Any tips and tricks very much welcomed

Have you been to the gp for a blood test recently? They can check for iron deficiency anaemia and /or low folate. If you are anaemic they'll give you high dose iron tablets.

Anaemia can cause thinning hair.
So can stress & other things so it's good to check in with your gp before anything else.

Agree with getting bloods taken. Unfortunately you’re making your hair worse with you current regime. Blow drying your hair is fine, but doing it everyday is overkill. I’m not surprised your hair gets greasy if you wash it every day then blow drying, you’re actually just damaging it. You’re essentially stripping it of all its natural oils so it’s producing extra oil to overcompensate. Damaged hair can break and fall out.

You absolutely need to wash it less frequently. Just tie it up for a few days or use dry shampoo - even if you look rough and oily, the integrity of your hair is more important. Put the blow dryer down and let it air dry too.

After you have done this for a few weeks, use a clarifying shampoo on occasion to remove all product build up. This will stop it from being limp and weighed down. This won’t really help your hair in its current state though - It’s not going to look healthy, voluminous and full right now because it isn’t, and needs some time to recover.

Basically focus on bringing your hair from damaged to healthy first, then worry about volume later on.

Thank you both Will arrange to have a blood test. Have previously suffered with low iron levels so you may both be right xx

My hair was thnning,but in the last 9 months has all but fallen out in patches,i have regular ferritin tests but usually not very high,i questioned tis and was told it was "within normal range" had thyroid tests all apparently normal, i take biotin and the hair i had left grew almost overnight, and good condition, but then went onto HRT and even more fell out,
Try Biotin,

hairclinicaltricho I would appreciate some advice from you,if you wouldn't mind, could stress cause my hair loss as well as the hormone problem ,do you think?
I had a year of stress,and upse when my relationship ended suddenly, and more recently my little dog died suddenly which is still very upsetting even to talk about it
I have even considered getting a hairpiece,as i am having to wear a hat all the time, to cover the bare patches
I am desperate to know what to do for the best, and of course i am even more stressed now
Mainly is it likely to grow back,after spending a fortune on sprays and shampoos, now taking viviscal?
Even considered getting a hairpiece, ,but would prefer my own hair
Thanks in advance

A hairpiece is not the end of the world. I think it was ILoveCherries who got one and I saw it wasn’t so bad.
There are worse things.

I should add I have very fine hair too!

Yup, it was me :). I lost all my bum length hair over a three week period at 19, and since then it’s been a relapsing/remitting picture, getting worse every time. Now my head is buzzed as I have next to nothing top and sides. I either go bald or wear a wig. I have about a dozen, different styles and colours, so my look changes daily :). I do understand it’s traumatic initially but this solution works well for me, and is better for my mental and emotional health than trying to preserve a few strands and finding my hair everywhere. I’ve gone bald most of this summer, but it’s starting to feel a bit chilly so I will be back in wigs soon.

Love your confidence and style ilovecherries!

You absolutely need to wash it less frequently.

This always gets trotted out and it’s such bollocks.

My friend went without washing it for one year. After two days it began to look crap and greasy and continued to do so.

Some hair needs to be washed every day. Fact!

Love your confidence and style ilovecherries!

Thank you :). I don’t want to minimise how shocking it can be initially, and I have been on that treadmill of buying ALL the snake oil, rearranging strands of hair, spending a fortune on trichologists, dermatologists and endocrinologists. There comes a point though where a choice needs to be made about how much power you want to give to alopecia, whichever type it is. And androgenic alopecia, for example, is hugely common amongst women. For me, it was immensely liberating to say ‘enough’. I won’t pretend that some days I don’t think ‘I wish..’. But then I sometimes wish for all sorts of things I can’t have, but these are just passing thoughts, they don’t rule my life, and neither will my baldie head.

Agree re ferritin.

Also get thyroid checked.

Biotin; there can be an issue with taking biotin and thyroid tests in some labs.

It can create a false result (hyperthyroidism result in normal people, euthyroid in hypothyroid people.)

As it's hard to know who / where uses that test, to be on the safe side don't take any for a week before a test. Usually what to have a thyroid test as early in the morning as you can manage.

www.btf-thyroid.org/information/109-hair-loss-and-thyroid-disorders

Try using castor oil in your hair overnight. Also, fresh onion juice is supposed to work great. There are many videos on YouTube. You put the onion juice on your scalp and leave overnight and then wash it out. The before and after videos are really good! I started doing it but I gave up as it was too much hassle so I can’t say if it really works. But I will start doing it again.

@ilovecherries

I remember you posting a pic of you wearing a hair piece - don’t think it was a wig - but anyway the point is it looked amazing. I would definitely not hesitate if I needed to.

I have read the link above re throid and my hair isn't in that pattern, it looks fairly thick from the front and the bald patches are kind of inder a layer of hair from the crown down, and it seemed to happen fairly suddenly. especially after taking the HRT which i now know has the type of progesterone more likely to cause hair loss, ,
I don't need a whole wig, but looked at Toppers, even then a lot of my hair would be underneath it
Could be stress related in my case, but have an appointment with a dermatologist next month,but i believe it is more hormone related, as it coincided with going on the first HRT i was on,or combination of both
Caster oil wont even grow my eyebrows, as tried that too

The hair loss after pregnancy is sort of Male pattern baldness style; lots around the fringe. I get it badly. Perhaps it is hormonal?

Damaged hair doesn't 'fall out' it snaps and splits. You'd know if all your hair had broken off. I would be very surprised if your was damaged enough from daily blow drying to break off in large enough amounts for you to notice. Generally, only bleach is damaging enough to cause severe breakage.

Washing your hair every day is fine. I wash mine every day mostly. Just make sure you use a gentle, moisturising shampoo and always condition Use less friction on your scalp when washing as friction stimulates the oil glands. If you want to bow dry your hair everyday, do so, just use as low a heat as possible and a thermal defense spray. Hair thins with age, sadly, and there's not a great deal you can do about it. Bouncy bobs look good on thinner hair. And yes to the blood test. Loads of deficiencies and silent illnesses can cause hair loss.

Hairclinicaltricho thank you got your message and replied, scalp is very itchy again, which is what happened when this hair loss started,
It was suggested it was the start of menopause by someone, but obviously not as well post meno

PrincessTiasmum, I have the same itching burning sensation, what was it caused by?

Meera8 still don't know what caused it,i have tried everything under the sun as I said in previous posts
I have resorted to trying Minoxiodil, but still no improvement after 4 months
I do think it could be stress related,as still fairly stressed,and this Covid situation doesn't help
Is your hair thinning or falling out,?

Hi PTM, thank you for getting back to me so promptly. Since April. Mine was all of a sudden. It's diffused too, but mostly crown. I got the itchy burning sensation before the hair fell out from the area where the itching / burning started .

I've been to a derm and gynea. I had really thick hair, so you can't really tell, but the crown is more noticeable now. Both drs couldn't find anything, besides low iron.

I've had low iron before, infact lower, butt never lost hair, so I don't think it could be that, also low iron does not explain the burning sensation. I'm on iron tablets. I can see new hair growth all over, but can't feel any near the crown area, where I need it the most.

As the scalp was tingling, I thought it might be menopause, so now I'm on HRT bio. It was explained that during perimenapause, free testosterone DHT increases, attacking the hair follicles, causing the tingling burning sensation, so HRT was to decrease the DHT. The shedding seems to have slow down. I still lose hair, but not as much.

Are you still losing loads?

May I ask how old you are? I'm 37. My mum and gran both went into menopause early. Mum was 42 and gran was 25, yes 25.