Hair Loss

Hey Everyone!! For those of you post-ops, did you experience any type of hair loss. I am actually pretty worried about that. I was wondering if it effects us because we are younger. If you did how bad was it? How did you deal with it? I mean right now my hair is my security blanket for my weight.

hey marianne! it's jenny again, i had the surgery on may 20, 2003. i started losing my hair about 3 months after surgery. i had reaaallly thick curly hair. i lost about 2/3 of it. my mom insists that you couldn't really notice, but i did. it was really hard when i would be washing my hair and have a handful of it to throw away when i was done each time. i got through knowing that it was only temporary. i knew it was going to grow back. i always wore my hair in a pony-tail so it was less noticable and i tried not to use any gels or anything in it that would make it less frizzy. my frizz helped mask my thin hair. it started growing back about 2 months ago.... it's really annoying b/c my hair is long, but i have all these 3 inch hairs growing back in, they don't quite reach my pony-tail yet, so i have to use clips to keep them under control until they're long enough to reach the pony-tail holder. i'm not sure what i'm going to do about the unevenness of the lengths... i don't want to cut my hair, but i might have to when the new hair gets to a reasonable length. i guess i'll deal with that when the time comes! it's not so bad, i was really nervous about losing my hair too when i was just thinking about having the surgery. i knew it was just something that i might have to deal with, and i knew the hair would grow back... i don't think everyone loses hair... i think i might have lost more than i should have because it was difficult for me to get enough vitamins because they made me sick, and protein b/c i HATE those protein shakes (when i was in the hospital and when i was home they had to crush my percocet pills and mix them in one ounce of strawberry ensure... i will NEVER look at another can of strawberry ensure EVER AGAIN!!!!!!! i tried drinking the chocolate ones, but i'm lactose intolerant now, and whey protein makes me extremely sick. i haven't found any good soy protein drinks yet...) anyway, don't worry, everything will be fine! even if you do lose some hair, it'll grow back!!!!!!!! jenny p.s. i got the letter from my insurance company yesterday and i was denied again for the panniculectomy... my mom said we're going to contact the lawyer now and see what he has to say...

Thanks so much for the great info. OMG, I am so scared to loose my hair, but I guess in the end it will be worth. I am so sorry to hear that you were denied again! I hope getting a lawyer helps you out. These insurance companies are a pain in the butt. Thanks again Marianne

The surgury doesn't cause hair-loss. What causes hair-loss is malnutrition of protein. If you don't get your protein needs your hair will start falling out really easy. The only reason people loose their hair due to this procedure is because their nutritionist may not be a good one and didn't reccemend protien shakes and set out a full out diet. Don't know about your state but in ours they require a nutritionist to go over everything in every step. She asks what types of foods I like and caters my diet to that. She isn't mean nor forceful. She doesn't care what I eat as long as I watch the carbs etc.