Help! Hair and nails affected by Covid I think and seem to be taking an AGE to recover anyone else?

[Graphista]

Always had fine hair, it's wavy/curly so it's not obvious to others necessarily.

Had Covid months ago, and it did seem to affect my hair I had a lot falling out around this time, also nails went very brittle and easily broken. I used to be able to grow them relatively well and I'm struggling to do this now.

But I'm aware age may also be a factor, plus around the same time I had highlights in my hair so I'm aware that may have been an issue too but the highlights were a few weeks before the Covid and I didn't notice any particular hair loss at this time.

So I'm not sure of the cause, but I want my hair and nails back to how they were!

I'm on a low income so I can't afford to waste money trying expensive products that may or may not work and I like using natural/home remedies for things first anyway.

Has anyone else experienced this with Covid?

Any hair or nail experts that can recommend possible remedies?

It's driving me nuts! Especially when nails break right close to the quick and it hurts!

I must also admit that I tend to wear my hair up in a twist secured with a barrette. Which may also be a factor I'm trying to wear it down more or in a gentle ponytail band, scrunchie at home.

I'm using a repair shampoo and a good conditioner (well I like it).

It might be worth you doing a general blood test with Medichecks or similar, just to check your vitamin levels? I did this when I had (suspected) long covid right at the start and I was looking for answers. I can't remember much about my hair, but do remember my nails being really weak and breaking off easily.
You'll probably find low levels of vitamin D at this time of year anyway, and I'm not sure if this has an effect on hair and nails, but I found I was low in B vitamins, and taking supplements seemed to improved things. You could just take a B multivitamin anyway, without doing a blood test, like B50 from H&B.

Get a thyroid test. Classic symptoms of under active thyroid.

I already take supplements -

B complex
Vit c
Magnesium
Zinc
3000 vit d (started that when the link between Covid and vit d was in the news I was taking 1000 before)

Re thyroid - I've LONG thought there's an issue there. Family history of various thyroid and parathyroid illness, plus other symptoms and I had bloods done some years ago that showed very low calcium about which gp did NOTHING.

My thyroid tests came back "fine" was like pulling teeth getting the actual numbers!

Which were :

Tsh 1.82 free t4 9.9

Tsh range I was told at that time 0.35 -5 was considered ok

9.0 21 - I've noted these numbers but not sure what they relate to (old note on phone! and I was very unwell at the time all this was happening - I have ocd etc - so my concentration was very poor this was partly why the tests were done. I was having - still have - trouble with memory, concentration, information retention)

You need what you're taking plus Biotin for hair and also Iron for nails and hair.

Must admit I've lapsed on iron need to reintroduce that

Biotin already in the b complex

Up the Biotin, or get an Iron pill that includes Biotin. I have forgotten the precise figure needed, but I found adding in an Iron pill that also included Biotin among other B complex vits, as well as the multivitamin that has a small amount of Biotin, really helped. Also, eating eggs again (which contain Biotin!) that I had gone right off. Plus some sort of cuticle cream or nail ole rubbed into the nails. My hair sprang back to life when I began doing this, as a bonus!

nail ole! Nail oil.

You need massive amounts of biotin - I get 10,000 mg capsules from Purolabs Nutrition. Add in an iron and vit c supplement for good measure and eat a couple of eggs three times a week. My hair fell out for a couple of years and I wasted a fortune on Viviscal, I'm already on Levothyroxine and GP was uninterested in my hair loss. I've taken these capsules for 3 months and hair loss has eased off and I've got fine baby hairs springing up - yay!

I was prescribed vit D 20,000 post covid when my hair and nails started suffering.it seems to have worked for me. Could you get a higher dose of vit D?

@Graphista - yes I think it can be a Covid thing.

My SIL is a nurse and got Covid in the first wave. A lot of her hair fell out for quite a while, and she said it happened to other colleagues too (ten of them got it at once).