Hair Loss

Has anyone experienced severe hair loss after their diagnosis? My hair is falling out in the shower and after I brush it, more than ever. It is becoming so thin and lifeless. It is very depressing for me as I am so young and my hair used to be a great feature of mine and made me confident. Not anymore. I feel like these diseases are just stripping me from everything that was once mine. I went to a dermatologist and they said it is basically from malnourishment and stress, so there’s really no treatment until I get my disease and stress under control. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions?  @Lee__R‍ ‍ can you help generate this discussion as it may apply to more than just people with digestive disorders (IBD, celiac, depression, stress, anxiety, major life event, etc.)

 @Kristina_M‍, I would recommend joining the groups of conditions that you think this topic would be related to and posting the discussion also there, such as the "Living with Crohn's" and "Living with Depression, Anxiety, and Mental Disorders"...

There are several discussion about hair loss in the Multiple Sclerosis and Lupus forums, but I think your post is separate from that because those are specific to the MS and Lupus conditions, but I would be happy to provide you with those links.

Hello members,

I hope you do not mind me tagging you, but does anyone have any input, advice, or experience to share with @Kristina_M‍ in regard to hair loss with IBD / IBS?

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@Lee__R thank you. I will repost in those discussions and if you could provide me with those links as well! 

I did have hair loss when things were out of control, but I attributed that to the prednisone I was on at the time.

Hello @Kristina_M‍ . I have IBD (Crohn's disease to be exact) I did experience hair loss after becoming really sick and having depression. I was on a lot of medications so that has changed how my hair was doing. I had to start being more proactive with my hair. So before I only had to trim my ends every 6 months or so and that went down to about 3. If I tried to wait I would experience large amount of shedding. I'm talking the size of a gerbil amount of shedding. My hair was thinning and it wouldn't hold moisture. My hair was always dry no matter what I did. I had to start doing scalp treatments and using Jamaican Black Castor oil to help my hair grow back and only using natural products. I had to put less stress on my hair so no brushes or ponytails. And I started doing conditioning treatments every week. I do have psoriasis too so I was given medication to help with all the new found flakes in my hair. It is starting to grow back and get to where it was before but it may or may not get back to where it was. I hope it helps 😁

@Steve72 oh boy. I just started prednisone, I hope it doesn't get worse.

@jam1394 wow very similar to me. Thank you for this input. I have seborrheic dermatitis (bad dandruff) as well so I just started using shampoo for it but it tends to make my actual hair feel worse. what kind of conditioning treatments do you do? Are your Crohn's disease and psoriasis under control now? Did you take any natural supplements? What medication for Crohn's are you on if you don't mind me asking? Thank you so much for your help!

@Kristina_M hopefully you can keep the dose low.  For me it was the only thing that kept things at a dull roar until Humira was approved for Crohns in March 2007.  I was on prednisone for over 2 yrs.  

@Kristina_M i'm glad I could help. My doctor says that i'm an a psuedo remission. So my intestines have healed but I still have the IBD symptoms as well as inflammation in my soft tissue. The Crohn's itself and trying to treat it has caused other issues that i'm currently dealing with such as arthritis and problems with my spine and my lungs. I normally use a moisturizing deep treatment by Shea moisture one week and then a cholesterol treatment another. I have fine curly hair so that is what works for me. I take hemp oil for chronic migraines but no other supplements besides that. The medications I take are Remicade, sulfate, dicyclomine, acetaminophen (one type with codeine one for arthritis), birth control, azathioprine, Amitriptyline, bevespi, flucinoide, xyzal, hemp oil, and pro air in emergency.