dumb question - how do you know if you're losing hair?
I've been noticing more and more hairs on my brush every day (for about 6 months now), and if there's a knot or something in my hair, it seems like the brush pulls the knot (and all the hairs!) out more easily than before, and with less pain. (tmi alert) Also, I love it when BF pulls my hair during sex, but last time when we were particularly drunk/rough, it seemed like he pulled out a LOT more hair than I would have expected. Several groups of like 10 hairs came out in the shower afterward.
I have also been growing my hair long for about a year now (it used to be at my chin, now it's past my shoulders). I am having such a hard time figuring out if I'm losing more hair, or if it just seems that way because every hair I lose is longer now (so it winds around the brush more).
How much hair do you ladies lose? Would you consider yourself normal, or would you say that you're losing hair? I know this is a hard question, because it's difficult to quantify without counting each individual hair, but any help would be appreciated.
I'm on spiro, 100mg, and have been for about two years now. I started taking it for excess hair, thinking that it would also keep me from losing hair in the future, too.
__________________ Previously on Met, currently on Ortho Tri-Cyclen, Spiro, and cinnamon
Hi~
The first sign was oily hair. I use to only wash it every three days but noticed it was too oily to continue to do that. Then I noticed a lot of hair on my pillows and sheets. Then came the handful of hairs when I would run my fingers thru my hair in the shower. An estimate would be like 10 hairs each time I gripped my hair at the base and ran my hand down to the ends. Then came the drain in my shower clogging and my hairbrush being full of hair after one brushing. Lots of hairs all over my clothes during the day, they would fall on my desk at work. Totally miserable, it was like not only was I losing my hair but I was being reminded of it 24/7.
That was the first shed, the great shed I call it. I lost 1/2 of my thick hair at 27 years old. I know it may sound vain and like a drama queen but I lost a part of myself that has never returned with that hair. Even though I have accepted this the best I can. My hair is still falling out but not at such a fast amount.
Last edited by TiaTart; 01-07-2009 at 12:29 AM.
Reason: too many was
This is a great question! I've been asking myself this for a few months now. I've always had and been known for my thick hair, and never thought about how much seemed to be falling out in the shower. Finally my boyfriend said something teasingly about how I seem to shed a lot and it's kind of made me paranoid. I do seem to be losing more and more hair in the shower, and my hair doesn't seem as thick as it used to. He reasured me that someone with thick, robust, hair would seem to lose more...but now I can't help but ask myself "How much is too much?" Thanks for any insight, ladies.
I noticed over the years that I couldnt grow my hair long as it got straggly and fly away so it was getting cut shorter and shorter .. then I noticed that around my temples my hair wasnt growing long at all in fact the hairs were not growing longer than a few inches before falling out ...
I would and am covered in hairs all the time if I was to get my hand and run my fingers through my hair i would come away wiht about fifteen hairs each time .... people are forever pulling hairs off me ... and I would agree that something died in me the day I was told i had alopecia I have been extremely depressed over this I would say I was close at one point to having a total break down over it ..... some days I am tempted to shave the lot off and not have to worry about it anymore. .
I now wear cosmetic hair ... but it is continuing to thin ...I would nto wish this on ANY woman
__________________ Metformin To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
so.. is this hair loss something that's typical of PCOS? Do all women with PCOS eventually struggle with hair loss?
I have always had thick hair, and a low forehead- it still looks the same- but I have also been noticing a lot of hair in the hair brush- kind of annoying... i don't know how many hairs though, either- my hair is long- down to the middle of my back. I just ran my hand through my hair, though, and about five hairs came out in my hand. Is this odd? I also seem to shed a lot around my dorm- the couch has a lot of my hairs sticking to the sides of the cushions sometimes. I'm on metformin, spironolactone, and birth control. Does one of these cause that kind of side effect, or is it the PCOS itself?
if I AM going to lose hair... I guess I can be thankful that it started out nice and thick, huh?
__________________ Diagnosed September 2008.
Current Medications:
Spironolactone (in adjustment- 100mg made me dizzy)
Metformin 2000mg
Mirena IUD- placed 8/27/09
so.. is this hair loss something that's typical of PCOS? Do all women with PCOS eventually struggle with hair loss?
It's typical of PCOS, but it's important to realize that not all women with PCOS suffer from ALL the symptoms to the same degree of severity. For example, I haven't had problems with conceiving naturally. On the other hand I've had male-type moustache growth from my early teens and male-type beard growth from my forties. On the other hand my hair loss is much less aggressive, though I've got signficant male-pattern balding at the temples. On the other hand many women who have much more significant hair loss than I have don't have nearly as heavy beard growth as I do -- I have to shave my face every day.
I reckon it's wise to be prepared for any of the symptoms of PCOS, but not to expect necessarily to suffer from it.
It was really hard for me to notice any hair loss because I always had super thick, curly hair, and thus when I would wash my hair, from the time I was a young teen, I always lost more than the "normal" amount...it at least looked like more than normal because of its texture. However, I didn't realize I was having issues until my hairline at my forehead started to look different (I was kind of getting a widow's peak), and I noticed I wasn't getting as many little, new hairs there. I had cut my hair shorter, and began to grow it out again, but it wasn't as thick-looking as it was in, say, my senior picture from high school at the same length. It also didn't seem to curl up as much, and was kind of lank and oilier than normal. It was when I started to get clumps of hair coming out in the shower and could feel that my hair was thinner at the back of my head and put together with other symptoms that it was PCOS that I realized for sure I had hair loss issues. So far I've managed to keep the loss at a stand-still with Nizoral and saw palmetto (I think the latter is working, at least). I am still losing ten to twenty strands in the shower and when I style my hair, and I can't tell if I'm growing more in (that's hard to notice, except maybe around the temples and forehead...how on earth can you tell in the back of your head?), but at least I'm not losing clumps.
...This is the most painful issue for me, more than a hairy stomach or anything. My hair has always been the thing that was consistently beautiful, no matter how the rest of me looked.
dumb question - how do you know if you're losing hair? 
