THIN HAIR???!!!!

Ladies, How bad is the thinning process? Im very nervous about that.... AND... what can I do to reduce the thinning to the BARE MINIMUM?

Hi Crystal... There are several camps on what you can do, some said that taking Biotin helped, and getting in the protein. You will start seeing more hair coming out at about 3 mths out and it will start to slow between 6 and 8 mths out. I normally shed hair in the summer, so I just saw more than usual, but not clumps. I did not have bald spots or real thinning, but I also have natural curly hair so it was hard to see that I was lossing hair, except when I washed it or combed it out. I hope this helps. Julie

Thanks Julie! I have ALOT of FINE hair, so Im especially nervous!!!! Thats silly to be so vain about something when your a ******Y FAT CHICK... BUT I AM!!! IM A TERRIBLE PERSON!!!! I KNOW IT!!!

Crystal, just to let you know...you aren't the only one worried about it! I am vain about my hair! I have always had thick hair and the thought of losing mine makes me want to cry, but at this point I guess I would like to have thinner hair and be healthy. Where are you at in the WLS process? I have an appt. May 24th (everyone is going to be sooo sick of hearing this by the time it gets here..lol) and will have the psych. evaluation and all that fun stuff. I can't wait! hugs, Teresa

I had thin hair and heriditary thining of hair prior to surgery. My scalp shows and I am 5months out, it started out around 3 months and I shead lots more then normal. I took the biotin (and still do) I get my protein in (my alb was 4.4) and I used the biatric shampoo. The reason you use the hair is two fold 1) General anesthesia kills the hair 2) Low protein intake. You hair shaft is dead protein basically and it takes about 3 months for your hair to grow out of the hair shaft, thus why we see hair loss later after surgery. So the medication that you get from general anesthesia grows out about that time. Then you follow the next month to three from the low protein times after sugery (most of us immediate post op had problems getting in more then 80grams in a day). I started out taking my hair from shoulder length to now it is very short, each time I had it cut shorter to make it look fuller. I made friends who knew how to put in extentions (If you have it done professionally it could cost your 200 up depending on number of tracts you would need). However, I had them sewed in and kept them for about three weeks, but on advice of my hair dresser I took them out because they were stressing the roots of my hair. So my soultion became I cut my hair pretty short and went to a local wig shop and got two different hair pieces (you can get syntheic ones for about 15--20 dollars) you can match your hair style, length and color. If you get one with human hair you are looking for more expense, most likely over 100. Since I work with cancer patients and they worry about their hair loss...it is now a joke between my patients and I when I whip off my hair piece and show them my very thin hair and they never even realized I was wearing a hair piece. At first I was very self conscious about the problem, now because of my cancer patients support I realize how lucky I am that I have a chance for better health and that this is just a temporary problem. I think we all come to what we are comfortable with when it comes to our hair...you just need to find what you are comfortable with. Hope this helps with some of your choices

Hey Laurie, Thanks for the info. I'd heard that about the hair thinning, but no one told me why. My surgery is coming up in June...What is biotin? Is it a vitamin? Where did you get the special shampoo? Have you heard of karitin? (I dunno if that's spelled right...)

Biotin can be found in the vitamin section it is a little harder to find by itself, it comes in a combo with B vitamins. It is AKA B7 or H vitamin. They daily recommended amount is 300ug/day, but with our malabsorption unsure how much we need to be able to absorb that amount. There are, however, no studies that show any benefit in any case where the subject is not actually biotin deficient . However it has shown to show a help in steading blood sugars. Dietary sources include dairy produts, liver, kidney, oysters, lobster, salmon, yeast, chicken breast and egg yolk. Many shampoos have biotin in them..but there is also uncertain information if it is absorbed any at all through the skin. However, I said what the hey and tried it anyway. I got my shampoo in a health food store.