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Hair Loss


Darlene

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hi..

I have hair loss at times, lucky for me I have thick hair so. I dont take any of the meds u take. I did have a b12 def at one time, when that taken care of, my hair got better. But i still have periods of hair loss now. But since a take b vit it doesnt gett as bad as it can...

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Hey all,

I just went to my hairstylist yesterday and we spoke about this actually and I was mentioning my dry scalp and it seems to grow less around the front and she said it has to do with lack of blood flow to the scalp which makes absolute sense. Low blood flow leads to dry scalp and the hair follicles expand and the hair falls out and stunts the growth process. She told me about TEA TREE shampoos awhile back , and I have been looking into more healthy oils to moisturize with.

Do you all have dry scalp with the hair loss?

Anyway hope this helps

Lissy

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  • 1 month later...

Hi,

Just wanted to add my two cents. My POTS reared its ugly head about 9 years ago. I used to have a thick head of hair with lots of its own body. I could have worn any hairdo I wanted. My hair was very easy to manage. It waved if I wanted it to, or remained straight, but always the wonderful body and fullness.

Fast forward 9 years to the present. My hair is now so thin and fine that I cannot even hold a hairdo overnight. There is not enough hair for it to have body or shape unless I do something like use a curling iron. I tried growing my hair longer and pulling it back to make it "look like I had more hair". It didn't work. I now have it cut in layers at about 1 inch below my chin. I can manage to get it looking real good after washing and then using the curling iron, but it will only survive that day . I seem to be going bald, and all the doctors tell me is, "you're probably one of the unlucky 40% who gets hair loss after menopause."

I will only wash my hair twice a week to keep from stressing it any more. Also, I now refuse any hair dies, and will sometimes encourage the hairdresser to "just cut it" and leave the styling to me because they tend to pull the hair and heat it to the frying point when blow drying. I let my hair air dry.

I cannot wear wigs because anything around my head gives me a headache. It has become a regular challenge for me to get my hair to "look okay", and to hide its lifelessness.

It *****, to put it mildly. This part of the POTS illness is something I'm still adjusting to. I'm assuming POTS has something to do with this?!

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I honestly believe it is the POTS. I am 21 and female and started with cyclic hair loss when I was 19, about a year after first having POTS symptoms and right about the time they started to get bad. I went from having lots of hair to having noticeable spots where my scalp shows through my hair. The hair loss does slow down, usually in times of lower stress/symptoms and has even begun to grow back at times. However, I never have enough time between flares for enough growth to make a difference-- so my hair is pretty constantly thin. Every time I am making progress on growing it back, I start loosing rapidly again. I loose wads of hair a day during a flare and have even had acquaintances pick strands off my shoulders. The docs can't find any other reason for it. I don't take either of the medicines that the OP uses and my hair loss began prior to being on any drugs.

For those of you that also have experienced hair loss, what have you done about it? When I first started loosing I freaked out and didn't cut my hair for a long time because I feared that if it was cut in a certain style and then the loss continued I wouldn't be able to hide the thin spots. My hair got pretty long, but was thin and scraggly. Treatments like Nioxin make no difference for me. When my hair stopped falling out about a year ago, I cut maybe 6 inches off. Six months after that the hair loss started again and I haven't cut it since. Did any of you cut your hair short? Did that seem to make a difference?

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Well, after trying the long hair to cover the thinning, and now the chin length, I've decided it is easier on my hair to have it shorter rather than longer. The hairs still might fall out, but there is less pulling from combing and getting caught on things.

I've also had to make peace with the fact that thin straggly hair is thin straggly hair, whether shorter or longer, and the longer version (in my opinion), pulls more attention to it than the shorter version.

I do not want to give you advice as to what you should do, as hair is such a personal thing. You will need to experiment and make your own choices. Each of us has different hair, and different hair texture and color.

I'm sorry you are dealing with this. It is not easy or fun.

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Low iron is a typical cause of hair loss. You may want to have iron levels checked. I was losing a lot of hair and it turned out I was anemic (not surprising as my periods were heavier for some reason). After taking iron supplements the hair loss dramatically slowed.

But I do wonder if POTS is also to blame. I have gone through cyclical hair loss as well, with periods where it grows back and other times when it is falling out in alarming amounts.

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I go through times when I loose a lot of hair. I have very thick & a lot of hair but I'll still loose a lot of it. I just recently found out that I have low ferritin & iron saturation.

If you are going to have your iron checke also ask for serum ferritin. This is the protein that stores iron in your body & can be low even if you h&h are normal. It is also a precursor to anemia- before you become classically anemic your body will deplete it's iron stores.

A dr will tell you the normal range is 13-150 however many feel that anything below 50 should be treated

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Hello everyone..... Several months ago I started losing my hair BIG TIME.... i have waist length hair and have had long thick hair for many years now. My hair and I are tight.... lol. But really, if i had to cut or shave my hair, I would totally lose it. As i was saying, several months ago I started losing about 3 or 4 times more than the usual amount when showering, it was frightening for me and I worried for weeks. I started taking the hair, skin and nails vitamins, which directs you on the bottle to take 3 of them a day (I only took 2 a day), but within just a few days I could tell it was working. I have no idea for sure the vitamins did the trick or not, or if it was just one of my pots spells, but I stay supplied in those vitamins.... lol. I usually buy them when it's buy one get one free at cvs or walgreens in order to be able to afford the Brand of it.

I hope and pray I don't ever start losing my hair again..... I worried like crazy..... so i understand how it feels.

hilbiligrl

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I forgot to add, I have taken lexapro a few different times over the past 8 years and about 2 years ago was put on lopressor for a while due to the tachycardia and i never had hair loss with it, (and at that time i had no vitamins and i only ate about 3 times a week (i had gotten severely anorexic, but not on purpose, i was in a severe, severe state for a long while) .... but my mother, who has Chronns disease and celiac disease, has taken celexa and it made her hair fall out really bad, to the point of bald spots, but when she stopped taking it, it quit falling out. Celexa is an enantiomer of Lexapro, which means its the same as lexapro, but different... it's chemical structure is just like lexapro, but it's the mirror image of lexapro.... like the right hand compared to the left. Not sure if that has anything to do with you losing hair though since it seems hair loss is a bit common with pots without those meds you mentioned though.

hope that might help..... i keep having confusion issues, so my posts are kinda crappy here lately.... lol

good luck

hilbiligrl

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I find a chin length layered bob easier to deal with as raising my arms over my head increases symptoms. I also really couldn't deal with handfuls of long hair caught in my hands when showering. I do not know to what extent it has helped hair loss. I think mine rears its head during times of stress which also leads to increase in dysautonomic symtoms

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I have had lots of trouble with this and have posted before about hair loss. I have noticed that mine has really stopped and wanted to share what I am doing in case it helps someone else.

I have had a history of bathroom problems "D". Anyway for the past few month or so I have been drinking pedialyte almost daily. I have noticed that my hairloss has all but stopped. I do know that pedialyte has zinc in it and I found that not enough zinc can cause hair loss.

I also am taking different vitamins and so I cannot say for sure that zinc is the cure... but I think it is. I am using burts bees shampoos and conditioners as well... and staying away from anything with wheat in it.

If you have "d" problems I think it might be worth looking into zinc. On Christmas my brother asked me if I had fake lashes on... also my eyebrows are less patchy.

Hope this helps.

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I know that it is hard but be really strict for a while. It will help you ( I bet). You can't do gluten free halfway. I have become the rice queen! PM me if you need help. you have to fight your mind on this one!!! So worth it though. good luck pm if you need a cheer leader! check your hair products for wheat.... first winter with no itchy scalp... burts bees you can buy at Target.

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