hair loss

 hey i was looking over on the rny forum today, just out of curiousity, any way there were several people on there talking about hair loss, and how it was common with r n y because you lose wieght so fast with that surgery. well my question is does the same thing happen with the band surgery? if so how bad and how long does this go on? if any one has experenced this please let me know so i can prepare myself for this.

The reasons for the hair loss range from anesthesia to a vitamin deficiency. And even though with the band you do not have the mal-absorbtion  that RNY have, we are eating less and need to take our vitamins.

Look at it this way. When we had surgery the body yells at the hair makers, Get down here the **** ha**** the fan. A few stay behind to keep house but most head to the belly. Then when everything is all healed up they say, That is over, Hey hair keepers let go, help is on the way. At that time you lose some hair then the troops return to start making more. It usually returns to pre-surgery thickness.

This is my play on the process. Hope it makes sense. Crystal

My hair started to fall out last month.  I'm  not talking just a few strands, but huge clumps.   My surgeon said is it from the weight loss, the shock to the body from surgery and it could be from not getting enough protein.  He suggested to take Biotin which comes in a hair, skin and nails vitamin they sell at GNC.  Also to make sure I'm getting the right amount of protein.  I had this problem in the past and it is caused by a hormone imbalance.  So that I have to see the endocronologist for. 

The biotin is a great all around vitamin to take and I have heard that it does work.  I'm losing less over the last two weeks, but it is still freaking me out.

yes we can lose our hair too...i am just out of the woods...my hairloss started about 3 months post-op.  Usually the reason we lose hair is due to lack of protien.  Protien of course is what helps build muscle mass, hair, and nails.  When your body is missing protien it causes your body to pull protien from other places such as your hair folicals.  However sometimes you can be getting enough protien and still lose your hair...this usually happens around month 3 post-op and can last up to month 9 post-op...(this happened to me)  Things i did to keep my hairloss at bay are......used biotin shampoo, took a hair and nail multi-vitamin, ate extra protien (i did this for about a month with out the extra vitamins and shampoo and did not work alone due to it not being from protien in the first place)  Once i added all of those together my hairloss slowed down dramatically.  I still lose a little but not much more than pre-op.  Before trying these i would fll the hair brush and have to clean it out 3 or 4 times when i brushed my hair...when i would wash my hair handfulls would fall out.  I didnt have bald spots but it was deffinatly thinning out. 
Hope this helps
Stephanie

Stephanie,

where did you find the biotin shampoo?  I have never seen it before.

Jen

I found some Biotin shampoo and conditioner yesterday at the Sunflower Farmer's Market.  It wasn't too expensive ($3.99 for shampoo and $3.99 for conditioner) and it smells good like mint.  Their website is www.sfmarkets.com so you can see if you have one in your area.  Otherwise I would look at any health food store to see if they have it there.  Good luck!