My Hair!

[Mexican Trailrunner]

Seven weeks gluten free (more or less) and I'm coping. I can do this! It's inconvenient, it's not fun, sometimes it really sucks, but it's do-able. The best part is I feel so damn good without gluten I'm willing to put up with all the aforementioned issues.

There have been a few accidental glutenings, mostly until I got a clue and figured out it was the doggie's food. Third ingredient is wheat. I've mastered feeding the dog now without making myself sick for 3 days.

Went to a pot luck lunch. Good thing I brought a lot of something safe for me! I had to eat almost all of it.

Then I tried eating in a restaurant for the first time. It was a TOTAL disaster. I went with my doctor who suggested we go to a high-end place where he was friends with the chef and I would be sure to get a safe meal. Not. First of all, the chef was off for the day. So we had a conference in the kitchen with the owner and the second in command chef who all said NO PROBLEM! Or NO HAY PROBLEMA, I should say, since this is Mexico. I ordered sauteed shrimp with rice and vegetables. I got sauteed shrimp with rice and vegetables. However, the ENTIRE plate was decorated with sauce painting. One brown and one green. Guess what the brown one was. . .soy sauce. AAAARRRGGGHHHHH. So we sent it back. It returned with specks of soy sauce amid the grains of rice. Doc said, as he tucked into his Fillet Mignon on a bed of garlic mashed potatoes, "DON'T EAT IT!" I ate a rice cake and a banana on the way home. I was not a happy camper.

So, as I said, I'm coping. Only really bad thing that I'm still dealing with is my hair is still falling out. When is this going to stop? There are times when it looks like it's less than others, but then sometimes it's a handful in the brush again. I can't afford for this to go on much longer. I'll be doing The Donald's comb-over before much longer. Help! Is there a product? A vitamin? Anyone else have any experience on this issue?

Thanks all. Not only is the greatest resource on the web, it's entertaining too!

Marilyn

[GFshay]

I'm also new to this whole thing... actually even newer than you! I give you credit for being brave at the restaurant, and even braver that you stood up for yourself when they messed up. I've been gluten-free for about 3 weeks and haven't yet tried anything out of the house, aside from a friend's house who spent lots of time prepping carefully for me.

Anyway, the hair issue. I'm sympathetic. Although I've had alopecia areata (that's what its medical term is) since I was little, so it's less of a shock than being an adult and suddenly losing your hair. Anyway, I've been reading about its connection to gluten and lots of people start regrowing their hair after a while on a gluten-free diet, although it's far from a guarantee. So far, I haven't noticed a change, but I'm trying to be guardedly optimistic and go on with my life.

Hopefully, you'll have your spots start to grow in, even if new ones form. That's what happens to me. So it's manageable to fix your hair to cover new spots and work on taming the new regrowth so it blends in with your longer hair. Still not fun, but I've never had to get a wig, which has been a blessing.

Regardless, you can look into treatments. My recommendation is to go to a dermatologist. You can use topical steroid creams that supposedly help, but I've never noticed a difference. You can also get injections into the surface of your scalp (just barely into the skin) which prevents your follicles from attacking the hair. That made a big difference for me and prevented spots from getting bigger. Plus it made it start growing faster. The problem is it's expensive, and often considered "optional" treatment for insurance companies, who say it's a "cosmetic" treatment and not required for your health. So you might want to contact your insurer and find out if they can pre-verify coverage before you start treatment. I did it on a monthly basis for a while and it was very effective.

There's also a pretty active foundation for alopecia areata that might help you learn more and even look into support groups and other resources. Their website is here: Open Original Shared Link

Good luck and try to think happy hair thoughts!

[GlutenFreeManna]

Seven weeks is not very long to reverse vitamin deficiencies. I saw huge improvement in my hair and nail health at around the six month mark. I'm on month eleven now and it's still getting better (most likely because I have long hair so it's taking a while for the healthy stuff to become the majority of what's on my head). Funny thing is I can actually see a line in my hair as if I dyed it a different color and let the roots grow out. But I have never dyed it in my life. It is just growing in thicker and stronger after years of thinning, breaking, tangling and falling out. Be sure you are on a good gluten free multi-vitamin. If you don't see any improvement after several months you might want to have your levels tested to see what you are still deficient in.

[Cypressmyst]

Is your shampoo and conditioner gluten free too? If not that could also be aggravating the problem.

Just this weekend I have now officially given up on eating out. But the thing is I don't really miss it. The stuff I make at home is sooo much tastier and less expensive that it isn't worth it on that level, let alone the fact that I ALWAYS get glutened no matter how hard they try at restaurants.

It does get easier with time. *Hugs

[SGWhiskers]

Hair grows in cycles. When there is a major shock to your system (like pregnancy/delivery), it goes into a dormant phase then about 3 months later falls out. Not all of it. Don't worry. Then it starts to regrow again. When I went gluten free, I too noticed larger than normal amounts of hair falling out at about the 3 month mark. I still can't figure out why getting healthier shocked my system, but it obviously did. Anyway, the hair was a little thinner than I would have liked, but it regrew back to normal. Actually better than normal. I used to have split ends, but after not cutting my long hair for 6 months recently, I pulled it out of the usual ponytail for a special occassion and noticed I had not developed spilt ends. I'm 2 years on the diet.

[Dixiebell]

I didn't notice if anyone mentioned this, have you had your thyroid checked?

[ravenwoodglass]

I get a lot of hair fallout from both gluten and soy. Something that seems to help is taking a vitamin formulated for hair and nails. I use Country Life brand. Extra biotin also seems to help. Do also have your iron levels checked as well as thyroid as I think being anemic can also result in hair loss.

[Mexican Trailrunner]

Thanks everyone, for your kind words, encouragement, and mostly your wisdom.

Yes, my shampoo and rinse are gluten-free. My iron level was at the low end of normal limits but a dx of anemia was declined. Same with the thyroid, within normal limits.

There is some regrowth, tho it seems to be sort of furry looking, I'll take it! My hair is also long and the thinning and prominent loss seems to be a band across the front, sort of like where a headband would go, including my bangs most prominently. Probably lost 50% of my bangs. I have a good and creative hair guy who is doing a good job of camouflaging it and I had a lot of hair to begin with, but it's getting to the point if it doesn't turn around pretty soon, I may have to move in another direction. I like my Derm guy a lot and it's time to have a derm check up so I will run it by him and see what he has to say. Thanks for that idea. Also, as GFM said, given her time frame it's entirely possible I'm being too impatient.

I'm living in Mexico and while many things from the states are available here, I haven't looked for vitamins and supplements yet. If they are imported they are more expensive than normal, but I'm familiar with Country Life and will look for it. I need to take a multi but haven't got to that yet. Hmmm, biotin, don't know about that, will check that out too. Fortunately Mexican medicine and docs are quite inexpensive.

Again, thanks all for your invaluable wisdom and for sharing it.

[Takala]

I hate sauce painting.

Take a multivitamin, a B complex, calcium w/ vit D and magnesium. It will come back

This is the time of year when everybody's hair falls out because you are seasonally shedding for your winter coat, just like anyone else.

[Mexican Trailrunner]

LOL Takala.

Forgot to say had a full body bone scan that came up normal limits too, no osteoporosis and low risk for fracture. Believe it or not, I was very surprised. I do think I caught this thing in it's early stages.

I will take your advice and buy multi-vits and B complex and consider the calmag supplements with D as well.

Oh. Maybe this is normal shedding cycle??? That would be very cool.

[WheatChef]

The normal limits for most tests are actually a bit below what optimal levels are for humans, unfortunately deficiency is the norm in our population. Positive growth in hair can take a while after going gluten-free as there's a huge long list of stuff your body needs to correct before you get back to proper functionality and in the meantime your hair is nothing but a luxury accessory that it can short change while it's spending it's efforts on more important systems.

If you think you are starting to see some slight improvement then I would suggest avoiding topical steroids (corticosteroids) as they can have a host of unfavorable side effects associated with them. Corticosteroids are useful for temporarily avoiding excessive inflammation/immune response while you attempt to determine the root cause of the elevated response but since it sounds like you have found it out (gluten intolerance) then you should probably just skip that step as your body is already in the process of righting itself.

The amount of regrowth/repair that you end up with will vary large based on how severe the initial damage was and for how long it was present. Hairs that were damaged for years will be hard pressed to return but you should be able to set the damage back at least half a year easily.