My hairdresser noticed before I did

Started 15 November 2024 · 20 replies · 223 hearts · read 4.5k times

NyreeChristchurch, NZ · 15 November 2024

1.7 years ago

My hairdresser noticed before I did — putting it in its own thread so it does not get lost in the check-in.

Something is going on with my body and I would like to know whether it is ordinary.

This started at the same time as two other things, which is why I cannot attribute it to anything with any confidence.

Nobody warned me about this specifically and I am starting to think that is because it is common enough that everybody assumed I knew.

What I cannot tell is whether this is the ordinary tax or the sort of thing that needs somebody today, and that distinction is the whole of my question.

Thanks in advance. Even a one-line "yes, me too" would help more than you would think.

CoralieMarseille, FR

Mine slowed and stopped without me doing anything at all, over about ten weeks. I had tried four things by then and I do not believe any of them did it.

GroverPortland, ME

I asked about it at a review half expecting to be dismissed and instead got a proper explanation, a blood test and a plan. Worth asking.

NyalaAddis Ababa, ET

The thing that helped was a photograph at the start, which I hated taking and which meant I could see the regrowth six months later rather than guessing.

AdaFacilitatorManchester, UK

Slowing this down for a moment. The question asked was whether this is ordinary. That is not the same as asking what to do about it and we have answered the second one.

15me too 4

MarthaCork, IE

My experience was that protein intake mattered — not as a cure, but my dietitian flagged that mine had dropped a long way and correcting it seemed to help.

BlySheffield, UK

I found the counting worse than the shedding. Once I stopped looking at the plughole every morning the whole thing became much smaller.

OsmanAnkara, TR

What I would say to anybody at the start of it: it is very unlikely to be permanent, and it is also completely reasonable to be upset while it happens.

10me too 8

WinnieCarlisle, UK

Gently disagreeing with Martha, or rather adding the other half of it.

Somebody here described the shedding phase as grieving something small and constant, and that was exactly right and I had not had words for it.

MairéadMayo, IE

You have described the bit that nobody warns you about.

12me too 9

IkeChicago, IL

#10

I stopped washing it less, which I had been doing on the theory it would help, and it made absolutely no difference except that my hair was greasy.

PerrinNice, FR

#11

I got a scalp check because I was worried and it was straightforward and reassuring and took ten minutes. I had built it up enormously.

FabianBasel, CH

#12

Mairéad, thank you for that. It gives me somewhere to start from.

Two years on mine is back to how it was, slightly different in texture, and I no longer think about it at all. That is my whole update.

WystanCheltenham, UK

#13

Perrin — yes, and the bit that took me longest to accept was the next part.

Coming back at the year mark to say it regrew. I promised in my first post that I would come back and say either way, and I am glad the answer was this one.

AnnikaStockholm, SE

#14

It is a real thing and it is not trivial, and I would say that to anybody who has been told it is only hair. It upset me more than anything else did.

9me too 3

GudrunAkureyri, IS

#15

This is why I read the boring weeks. Thank you for the boring weeks.

EphraimBrooklyn, NY

#16

The drain was how I found out. I had noticed nothing until then and then I noticed everything, constantly, for about a month.

DillyNewport, UK

#17

What my GP checked was ferritin, thyroid and B12, and one of them was low and worth correcting regardless. Worth asking for, in my experience.

MargueriteQuebec City, CA

#18

Ephraim has already said most of this and I want to add the one part that was different for me.

I cut mine short during the worst of it, which I resisted for weeks and then found enormously freeing. Less to lose visibly, less to notice.

AdaFacilitatorManchester, UK

#19

Speaking plainly as a facilitator: none of this is medical advice, none of us is qualified to give any, and that limit is what makes the rest of what we do honest.

16me too 1

CoralieMarseille, FR

#20

What helped me emotionally was that somebody in this circle said plainly that it was allowed to be distressing. I had been minimising it and it was not working.