Hair falling out.....again

I am 24 months out and have several inches of hair regrowth. About two weeks ago it started coming out in clumps again. I am thrilled with the results of this surgery except for this. I went through the hair loss, experienced the joy of seeing it grow back now I can't describe the feeling of seeing it fall out again. Has anyone else had this happen? I've done some research and can't find anything about it. I take a multivitamin and hair, skin and nails. I use a biotin shampoo, I drink my protein shakes and eat mostly high protein meals. Nothing has changed!

I didn't have any hair loss the first nine years post op. Then last year my hair fell out in huge clumps. My eyebrows even fell out! Mine appears to be related to a some significant malnutrition and I'm working on that.

The doc I see for skin cancer took a look a couple of weeks ago and put me on Biotin tablets and vitamin E, 400 mg per day. (be careful when you start the E. At that dose it can cause diarrhea). I also started protein-loading my diet. No idea if any of this will work for me or would work for you, just throwing it out here.

On the upside, my eyebrows are back.

Good luck. It's amazing how attached we can get to our hair, and how traumatic it is to lose it.

It would be simple enough to try vitamin E and drinking an extra protein shake a day. Thanks.

From the length of the hair that's falling out, can you tell if it's the new regrowth, or simply more of the old hair that hadn't fallen out until now?

Also, just to rule out the obvious, are you taking a multivitamin? I think there are other types of deficiencies besides biotin and protein that can affect hair growth.

I am taking a multivitamin and it seems to be both old hair and the new.

Have you had blood work done recently? I believe some vitamin deficiencies can cause hair loss.

About three months ago and everything was fine. I suppose things could have changed since then.

Have you been dieting? I started losing my hair again a couple of months after I got frustrated with the scale not moving and decreased my calorie intake to about 800 a day. I only did it for about a month but it was enough to trigger hair loss again. It's been about 3 months of losing hair and it still hasn't stopped. Very distressing. I'm about 21 months after surgery.

Increased hair loss does occur naturally in cycles. But I'm sure mine is in excess of what's normal during a cycle. You are likely aware of normal cycle loss as well. Hopefully it will improve for both of us soon. Best of luck.

Maybe a good idea to see a doctor. Hair falling out may be an indication that something is off. It can be diet, hormonal changes, or something as simple as "just because" - as some docs try to tell us.. when they have no clue what is happening.

You did not have any surgery in the last 4-5 months? Post surgical hair loss is well-known and I'd is caused by surgery stress on the body.

A long time ago I followed Atkins type diet. And that included soy. Soy proteins, soy milk, etc. The Atkins diet and soy affected my hair, I started seeing hair falling out. Detailed blood work showed symptomatic hypothyroid. My TSH was normal - high, but my T4 and T3 were both low, below normal. Plus I had other typical hypothyroid symptoms, like being tired, feeling cold, having very heavy periods...etc... Some soy products - like soy proteins, soy milk, tofu, etc. can bind to iodine in our system and make us iodine deficient. Our thyroid needs iodine. T4 and T3 are build from iodine.

When I stopped all soy proteins, and supplemented more natural iodine (seaweed) within 6 months I started feeling better.

No new surgery and I'm not dieting. I haven't lost anything since March but I'm thrilled with where I am having gone from a BMI of 41 to a 25. I always eat and I eat several times a day. I am cold almost all the time and living in Las Vegas, that's hard to manage. I read some stuff on that and learned it was pretty normal due to losing a lot of insulation. I am getting old and I considered it could just be that but I know of no one who lost a bunch of hair simply due to menopause. I'm traveling out of the country in two days and it couldn't hurt to do some new labs when I get back.