Auughhh! My hair is falling out! Has this happened to you?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m female. The other time this happened was in grad school when I was extremely stressed for many reasons. Luckily my hair started out thick, so when a third fell out, it just became more manageable. Now I don’t have hair to spare. Twice today I have gathered tons of hair off my skirt that I guess has fallen off while I’m sitting here. It’s lots. It’s been happening all week. I think if it continues I’ll be bald in about two months. I have a lot going on – 4-month-old baby, new full-time job, husband lost his job but might get it back, husband just started full-time school, we have money issues, and we’re dealing with my husband’s immigration issues. Those are the main things. So that’s the REASON, I think, and all of the stress factors are situational and will pass or settle down. But what to do in the meantime!!!

–I’m still taking my natal vitamins plus extra calcium. I’m not eating enough vegetables but I try. I am also still breastfeeding (but don’t have enough milk so I’m supplementing with formula…a source of stress before, but I’m sort of reconciled to it so I didn’t think it was still stressing me out)
PS I’m not asking for medical advice, etc. Just taking a poll, looking for anecdotes and stuff, ideas, whatever.

2

Like you, I also had unmanageable, thick hair. I’m female, 38 and mine is also falling out :frowning:

I don’t know what to do about it but I’m starting to get really freaked out and really sad. I don’t want to be bald.

3

When I was seriously ill in 2007 about half my hair fell out. Fortunately, it started out really thick so it wasn’t that noticeable.

Yes, it’s a stress thing.

You know those little caps women used to wear, back in the good old days? They weren’t just to keep their head warm. Hair loss due to stress isn’t uncommon, back then they really didn’t have any cure for it.

Um… sorry, don’t have much advice. I’m sure you’d de-stress if you could. How about a hug and some empathy?

4

Are all the other lady Dopers as stressed as I am? 'Cause my hair is falling out as well. And right when I’m thinking about starting to date again, too. :frowning:

Can we start some kind of Hair Club for Women or something?

5

My hair’s been slowly but surely falling out for the past ten years. I’m very thin on top, as is my mom. She claims hers was caused by a diet she went on decades ago but I doubt that. I think mine’s more genetic than stress.

6

No one ever told you about the post-partum hair loss? It’s normal! (But distressing, I know. I thought I was going to go bald!)

7

Those who’ve had your hair fall out in times of stress, did it thicken up again later or were you left with a permanently thinned head?

8

Some lady at work had that problem and she was in her early 20’s. She also had a high stress hair routine that she had to change. She never got all the hair back, but the extreme loss stopped. She had to stop using hair sprays and such.

9

My sister had this, turned out she had chronic B12 deficiency - which also made her very tired. She now has shots every other month or so and it’s stopped (but her hair is still very thin).

10

Oh yeah - I remember shedding like a dog.

11

In 2002 my ex fired me, I found a new and very stressful job, and he then asked me for a divorce, all within a month’s time. Over the next year I lost insane amounts of hair. I too started out with very thick hair. By the time the divorce was final I quit losing it and now it is as thick as ever.

12

You might also have your thyroid levels checked. Hair loss is a symptom of thyroid disease.

StG

13

There are lots of causes for hair loss- low thyroid, vitamin deficiency, recent childbirth, general anesthesia, alopecia, female or male pattern hair balding (genetic), and other things. The dermatologists I work for have never, to my knowledge, pinpointed “stress” as a cause of hair loss. Let’s face it- the only way we would not have some kind of stress is if we were in a coma. Everyone has stress, every day, and yet there’s not a hairloss epidemic from it. The only way to determine what is the cause of your hair loss is to see a dermatologist. They will want you to gather and count all the hairs (or close to it) that fall out daily for several days, and maybe even bring some in with the roots intact for them to look at microscopically.

Good luck!

14

A friend of mine had alopecia from stress during college–hair falling out in alarming clumps. She had some sort of spray she would use on her scalp.

15

Alopecia is an immune disorder, not proven to be caused by stress.

16

Alopecia is simply the medical name for hair loss.

Alopecia areata is an inflammatory disorder resulting in patchy hair loss. However, as we are talking about diffuse hair loss here, it is more likely to be telogen effluvium.

IANAD, but the acute telogen effluvium, which occurs relatively suddenly a few months following a precipitating event (pregnancy, stressful circumstances), [Telogen Effluvium: Background, Pathophysiology, Etiology]usually resolves within 6 months.

17

Yes, you’re right- alopecia does refer to simply hair loss. I’ve just picked up the habit from work of calling all the different forms of alopecia just alopecia, and other forms of hair loss by their names, such as telogen effluvium or pattern baldness. I agree that it’s probably telogen effluvium, which can be easily proven or ruled out by biopsy or possibly by microscopic evaluation of the hairs themselves.

18

Medicated shampoo? I tend to shed like crazy, but it’s at least partly due to a scalp condition.

Longer hair is also just plain more noticeable when it falls out. (My hair’s too thick to look decent any other way, so it’s always all over the place) Maybe it’s time for a trim? :stuck_out_tongue:

19

Thanks for all the responses. I had heard about post-partum hair loss, though I hadn’t looked it up at all – thanks **lorene ** for the link :slight_smile: – That’s part of why I put the part about the new baby. However, since I did NOT get the “luxuriant tresses” associated with pregnancy – my hair and skin just got drier, not thicker at all – I think I thought maybe I would avoid the hair loss after. Doesn’t seem fair! Interesting that no one has proven “stress” as a hair-loss cause. Could that be a function of not understanding certain mind-body connections? Maybe people get the underlying scientific hair-loss causes because of stress? Of course it’s just anecdotal, but stress certainly correlated with my hair loss, and the end of my hair loss correlated with: end of law school/counseling/anti-depressants/end of bad relationship. When we get health insurance again (sigh) I will go to the dermatologist. Not glad to hear other Dopers have the same problem, but at least I’m not alone. I’m open to a Hair Club for Women as long as I get to be not only a member but the President…:stuck_out_tongue:

20

The stress might not be causing the hair loss, but the problem causing the hair loss might also be exacerbating the stress.

Postpartum, I had a huge amount of hair loss, was sleeping 8-10 hours a night and was still so tired I was dizzy when I woke up, and my skin turned to coarse grit sandpaper practically overnight. My nails were breaking every time I did anything. Emotionally and mentally I was a wreck - I had lost all my ability to focus and the stress level just seemed unbearable (even though I didn’t really have that much going on). Friends told me “oh, that’s normal after giving birth.” Luckily I knew enough to call and tell my doctor I wanted to get my thyroid checked, and sure enough, TSH was about double what it should have been. 3 weeks on Synthroid and I was already feeling hugely better.