Bariatric hair loss

Together with loose skin, hair loss is one of the major concerns of all bariatric patients. It seems that everybody talks about this and many questions in all the Facebook groups are about these two topics. 

Although people who started to investigate the option of weight loss surgery know about it, I think that they hope till the very last minute that it won’t happen to them. I don’t want to bring the bad news here, but if you wish to be the exception, you are very likely to be completely wrong and disappointed. Sooner or later it will happen to some extent, obviously. Some people suffer very little, and others have it quite bad.

But there are supplements! You would scream in the last hope. Yes, there are a lot of them. No doubt about it. Some of them might work a little, some of them not. The thing is that you’re undergoing a transformation so deep, that it is not likely that any supplements will sort this out.

Let’s be honest here. You are losing several kilos a week and every week. It is a huge-enormous stress for your body, it is in complete shock, poor creature. You have just undergone surgery, you’re barely eating, you keep walking around like a wandering Dutchman and you would like to have everything like before. No, it almost sure won’t happen.  

I never had a lot of hair, so I had pure envy of these Latina girls who had pony tails as thick as my arm. I never had that. I am Slavic Caucasian. Our hair is thin and not so abundant from factory settings 😂 For some reason I wore it long for almost all my adult life and I was hoping that I would be able to keep it. How wrong I was 😂

Like everybody else, I was investigating before having the surgery and I came across this topic. To tell the truth, it never came to my mind before. So if I didn’t research, I would be pretty surprised later.

It makes a lot of sense that if you are losing weight relatively ft after the surgery, the body starts to get rid of everything that is not crucial for survival. And hair is definitely not a must-have. Well, depends on the point of view, but from the evolutionary point, you can have a head bald like a knee and it won’t make any difference.  There are different priorities. 

So ok, I assumed that this would happen to some extent and almost forgot about it. I had the surgery, I started to lose, and all was going great. … but I was not losing only weight, I started losing my hair as well. It started slowly. At first, I barely noticed. You know, I had the surgery in spring, so it is quite normal that your hair falls a little more at that time of the year. But come on! 

After a month it was crystal clear that things were becoming critical. I was making sure I was taking the vitamins, I then rushed to a dermatologist and took his advice to heart. I invested in special supplements for hair and nails, and I was taking the maximum possible dose. A month later I begged on my knees for injections to sort this out, and I got them. And the result? NOTHING…

I was taking my vitamins, I added the special supplements for hair, I was taking biotin, collagen, vitamin B, some hair complex, I don’t know what else. Then I had the injections. And the result was that I was scared to brush my hair in the morning, I kept postponing washing my hair to the point that I got to this ordeal after a week. My hair was falling so much that the shower was full of it and the water couldn’t get out. It was a desperate situation. 

The next step, I would call it something like negotiation. Ok, my hair is falling in handfuls, so I will have to cut it a little. A little? From shoulder length, I went to a nice pixie. Oops! What a drastic change.

Did it help? It must have, you’re praying for me. I have very bad news for you, it didn’t. My silly hair kept falling like crazy. The only difference was that it was very short now, so it was not so visible on the floor and in the shower. Apart from this, no change at all. 

I kept taking all the vitamins and supplements, and I kept going to the dermatologist but the advice was the same: you had a weight loss surgery, you are losing a huge amount of weight, the body is doing its best, be happy you are losing, this is only a collateral damage, it will get better in time. But I can tell you, the situation was scary. 

My hair was falling so much that I started to have a small clear points on my head. As if I were an older man, over my forehead, there was missing a few lines of hair. It was receding. Slowly but steadily. I took a drastic decision. I had never had my hair this short, but I was going crazy. The shorter the hair, the less it will fall, they told me. Ok! As you wish! 

The last step was taking a machine, putting a comb of 5 mm on it, taking a deep breath, and plowing in. I did it. I shaved my hair to 5 mm. To tell the truth, I expected it to look much worse. Desperate people do desperate things. And this was exactly the occasion. Sigh… 

I was dreading a little the reaction of the people around me, but surprisingly they took it quite positively, some even said they liked it. It was a little comforting me, I am not sure if they were not lying and trying to support me in my misery 😂

The outcome? It kept falling, but at least I could see that new hair was growing as well. It calmed me down a lot. Even though I was not able to keep my hair, at least I saw that it was not a completely lost case, the hair was growing again. It was small and thin but it was growing.

It took me about a year to get the hair a little in order. It has been 2,5 years now. I still take all the hair vitamins and minerals, but to tell you the truth, I can’t see much difference. The hair grew back, and I don’t have any bold pots on my head anymore, thank God. But it is thin and it never got to the point where it was before the surgery. So I decided to keep it shaved most likely forever, to tell the truth. It is a very practical haircut, and if you call it a buzz cut, it sounds much better 😀You can never have a bad-hair day 😂

The thing is that if you really want something, in our case it is to lose weight, you will have to pay for it somehow. And in our case, it is hair loss. Nothing in life is free. If I had to pay for losing 40 kilos/almost 90 pounds by losing my hair, ok, be it! I would do it again anyway. 

What I would tell you, my dear reader? Don’t freak out. Be patient. Even if the hair is falling like crazy now, it will most likely grow again. Maybe you will never have your hair so amazing as before the surgery, but you know what? If it means that you will be healthy, without any medical issues, no high blood pressure, no diabetes, and no hip replacement… it was worth it. Don’t you think?

Sending you a lot of hugs, you will need them when it is your turn 🙂