Nearly 50 hair loss help

[Dolallytats]

I'm 49 soon and need some help with my very fine and now thinning hair. It's always been fine, but in the last few years I've really noticed it getting g thinner. If anyone is experiencing this, do you have any recommendations please?? I've looked into some treatments, but I'm finding it difficult to sort out the cons from the genuine products and it's a too expensive to make the wrong choice!!
I know my lifestyle is not helping, and I'm working on it, but anything I do will take time and I really don't want to be bald!!
I have IBS, which means that a fruit, veg, salad diet isn't feasible. I do eat these things every day, but can't increase what I have. I'm hugely fat and was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes around 2 years ago. I have also been severely agoraphobic for the last 17 years. I literally can only get my daughter to school 10 mins away a few times a week, and even then that's difficult. I have lifelong disordered eating which I'm really struggling with due to being stuck indoors for nearly 2 decades. I have had so much therapy, unfortunately this has not worked for me. I take Sertraline, Amlodipine, Atorvastatin, Metformin and Jardiance daily for the diabetes, blood pressure, anxiety and have started taking an own brand hair, skin, nails supplement.
I know that was all very long, but thought I should give all the details.
Hopefully someone has the answer!! TIA

My hair was thinning and flat too, I think mostly due to an overactive thyroid. My hairdresser stocks these (I am normally sceptical, as was my hairdresser when first approached about stocking) and I ummed and ahhed about buying them. Anyway, in short, they do! My first effect a few weeks in was less shedding but now my hair (I started late Nov) is looking fuller and there are lots of small new hairs visible on my hairline. I really do recommend!
I previously took biotin, zinc and various other vitamins but it didn't seem to make much of a difference. Plus, I didn't want it to grow faster, I just wanted it to stop falling out!

It’s not cheap though is it?!

I’d like to try that but is there a cheaper option?

Dolallytats I’ve read your message properly and just wanted to say well done for managing to get your daughter to school when it’s so difficult for you - that sounds like a really positive step. I sometimes think our children can give us the motivation to be brave! I hope that doesn’t sound patronising because it’s not meant to be.

Are you managing to do much exercise at home? That might help a bit with the anxiety. I’m not very good at doing regular exercise but have found that I enjoy dancing enough to do that a couple of times a week (on my own - no witnesses!), and when I struggled with anxiety a few years ago I found that doing some sort of exercise gave me a bit of respite from worrying.

I also have thinning hair in my early 50s and would love to find something that helps.

@GettingMarriedAgain

It’s not cheap though is it?!

I’d like to try that but is there a cheaper option?

Yes, just Google the ingredients. It's mainly readily available vitamin supplements, the B's, D and C, zinc, niacin, that you can buy fairly cheaply anywhere.

My hair very thin, similar age. I'm considering a decent wig

Some of it could be due to the menopause given your age.
I started the perimenopause in my early 40s & my hair got gradually thinner all over (a lot of body hair disappeared as well).
Once I started HRT things started to improve a bit (my pubes grew back..) although my hair will never be as thick as it once & the baby hairs that are growing back are fragile & snap easily which is frustrating.

You should go and see your GP and get your iron and vitamins B, C, D and E checked out. For hair growth you need to be at the top end of the scale. A good GP will take hair loss seriously; if yours doesn't, then don't be afraid to go and see a different one.

The only topical application that works is Minoxidil (Regaine) – the one for men, at 5%, is perfectly okay for women. Highlights, if your hair is an appropriate colour for highlights, will make it look thicker, especially if you use a decent thickening spray. John Frieda is good, and although it's not the cheapest it's often on a 2-for-1 offer in supermarkets/Boots.

In terms of the disordered eating, it's a bit of a long shot but have you ever read Michael Pollan's In Defence of Food? It is emphatically not a diet book, or a book for people with eating disorders – but what it does is remind us of the point and pleasure of eating and how to eat well and reconnect with good food. There's also an intelligent book on gut health by Gudrun Jonsson, which is useful for IBS – though it does involve an eating plan, which may or may not be easy for you to follow.

Good luck! It sounds as if life is pretty stressful for you right now, which will be making everything else that bit worse, especially the IBS. But maybe making small changes, one at a time, will help ease things.

Thank you all, I shall be looking into all suggestions. Thank you also to the lovely messages about my other issues. Kind words really can make a day great

I'm 52 and in the last year My hair was thinning very badly.

3 months or so ago I started multi vitamins/iron (cheap from Lidl), cod liver oil and collagen supplement daily. I got collagen from Home Bargains so cheap too.

Also started using Minoxidil (cheaper off eBay) twice daily.

I can't tell you the difference, my hair has stopped falling out and is regrowing at the front, I have fluffy baby hairs growing. It already looks so much better, I was getting desperate and was seriously considering hair toppers etc.

I'm going to keep with this regime. Think it's probably a permanent commitment but hey ho it's working.

Forgot to say I also use a caffeine shampoo (again just a cheap one from Home Bargains).

I’m on setraline 100mg and have noticed recently I’m constantly moulting hair! I’ve had a google and it’s a side effect

I'll check those out Ido, thanks. I didn't know this was a side effect of sertraline millymoo. I'm on 200mg, maximum dose, and have been for ages. I'll have to look into that, thank you.