Ask Kaye

Dear Kaye:

Help! My hair is falling out by the hands full. Is there anything I can do?

Signed,
Blonde & Balding

Dear Blonde & Balding:

Surprisingly, hair loss is one of the reasons female pre-operative patients sit on the fence before deciding to have surgery. Obese people, particularly obese women, often have lush gorgeous hair. Of course they do – it’s well fed and nourished! How many of us have been described as the woman with “beautiful hair and a pretty face”? What person in their right mind would give up one of their beautiful features?

Hair loss usually occurs in the fourth of fifth month of bariatric infancy. During the phase of rapid weight loss, caloric intake is marginal. This puts your body in a state of panic called starvation. Think about the pictures of prisoners of war. Most victims of this atrocity are without hair because they are literally starving to death. A healthy body normally sheds ten percent of hair follicles at any given time. When a body is starving roughly thirty to forty percent of hair follicles are sacrificed as the body channels nutrition to more vital areas. During this phase hair loss is dramatic, often patients finds clumps of hair on the shower floor. Remaining hair becomes drab and lifeless.

I knew hair loss was a potential effect of weight loss surgery, but because I’m a “cup-half-full” person, I didn’t believe that hair loss would happen to me! That just happens to other people I told myself! Imagine my surprise when my blonde locks were littering the bathroom floor like hair saloon. I shed some tears over that.

The hair loss is a transient effect of your bariatric surgery and will be resolved when your nutrition and weight stabilize. When my hair began falling out, my husband, who has been a proponent of vitamin supplements all his life, found a vitamin specifically formulated for building strong healthy hair. The vitamin I take for healthy hair and nails is Silica Complex by Puritan’s Pride. It contains calcium, magnesium, zinc, boron, betaine and horsetail extract. Consumption of this supplement almost immediately retarded my hair loss and renewed my dull lifeless hair. I will continue taking this supplement throughout my life. Five years after surgery my hair is long, full and lustrous – one would never know I had suffered significant hair loss. In hindsight, I would certainly begin taking this supplement prior to my surgery. In the very least I would begin taking it soon after surgery before the signs of hair loss were apparent.

Do you have a question about Living After Weight Loss Surgery?

Email Kaye Bailey