Hair question for long term post ops

I am a little over 2 years out, and I have gone through 3 rounds of hair loss.  Now my hair is a completely different texture (curly) and does not grow very well anymore (it used to grow like crazy)  My question for those who are long term post ops is did you hair ever return to "normal" for you, and if so, how long did it take?  I get all of my required vitamins, and exceed my protein targets every day.

Thanks

My hair thinned out and 12 years later still not. 'Normal'

I'm coming up on 6 years out. My hair has always been coarse and still is, but is thinner than it used to be. 

Hi

I will be 11 years out in a couple of weeks and am having the worst bout with my hair than I have ever had.  I have lost an enormous amount of it and it is so dry it looks like I had a overprocessed perm.  Wish I had an answer for you, but I don't.  I take all my vitamins and eat my protein but nothing seems to fix it. :(

JA

7/21/2004 RNY - 100 lbs forever

I am 7 years out. My hair are thinner, but I have a lot of it. Lots of hair...

I had my RNY at age 45.  I have always had very straight, baby-fine hair, and have what my hairdresser says is a somewhat less than normal volume of it. I lost half of my hair volume from months 4-9 post-op and then -- based on ponytail thickness -- got about 75% or so of it back during the next two years.  It is still very fine and completely straight, but some people have reported a change in hair texture.

My hair has never grown very quickly, and it seems to grow even less quickly now (even at 8 years post-op), BUT I had several additional surgeries in the 2-3 years after my RNY, so that may have contributed to the length of time it took.

I then lost an additional amount of hair over a 9 month period about 2 years ago because of menopause. So I have significantly less hair than I had before my RNY, but would probably have been only down about 25% if not for the menopause.

If you have had three distinct "rounds" of hair loss, it sounds like something may be going on.  First, have you had a full set of labs done recently (or during one of those periods of hair loss)?  There are a number of vitamin deficiencies -- zinc, Vit D, one of the B vitamins (sorry, I cannot remember which one off the top of my head), calcium, and iron -- that can cause hair loss (and although you get all of your vitamins each day, you migth need to increase the dose of a couple). Too much Vitamin A can cause hair loss (and is one of the labs that they sometimes don't check).

Emotional and physical stress/trauma/illness can cause hair loss.  Is there anything you can think of that preceded these bouts of hair loss? Hormone level fluctuations, of course, can result in hair loss (pregnancy and menopause being the extreme examples)

There are also some medications that can also contribute to hair loss, and those side effects are often overlooked (Beta blockers, regular use of NSAIDs, and some antidepressants, for example), and thyroid problems can result in hair loss, but that hair loss wouldn't be cyclical.

I did a lot of research on hair loss when I went through the second round of hair loss before I realized it was hormone related.

I hope you can find the issue. No one wants to have to constantly contend with losing hair!

Lora