Recovering from the Great Hair Disaster of 2010

Hi my friends,

Wow, sorry for the big delay in posting. I have so much to share and plan to do more frequent updates this summer. First I wanted to share an update on my hair, after the Great Hair Disaster of 2010.

To give you a refresher... in May 2010, using myself as the usual experiment test-dummy, I took DHEA to see if it would help with my thyroid and adrenal issues. Whether it was the DHEA alone, or a perfect storm of stress combined with my flat iron, within three weeks I lost over half my hair volume. And what hair remained broke almost to the root. Devastating? Yes!

I had no idea how much I loved my long hair until it was gone. I've been sulking for a year now, enviously watching women with long hair. For a while I wore hair extensions, which was great and helped me through the early trauma of losing almost 8 inches of hair. Finally I've recovered, and now embracing the short hair while it grows out, sans hair extensions. 

That's the backstory, now the goods news! I've done tons of research on how to grow and maintain healthy hair, which I am excited to share with you all. Even if you have strong hair, you might know someone who has gone through a similar tragedy. And if you have hair care tips, please share!  

Here is low-down. In my research, it seems that growing strong and healthy hair has four key parts:

Hair Growth: Iron Supplements 

My first concern was speed of hair growth. Every morning in the mirror, I desperately willed my hair to grow. Apparently healthy hair grows about 1/2 inch a month. So 6 inches a year! But for us hypothyroid people, I read we often have low iron which means hair grows slower! My iron was very low, so I made sure to take my iron (25 mg/day). From what I've read it takes about 3-4 months to get iron levels up so it was important for me to be diligent.

Hair Strength: Zinc

My hair had inches of terrible split ends. So I had to work on strengthening my hair. I read that Zinc was good for hair strength (also supposedly good for thyroid) so I added Zinc 10mg a day. My hair is no longer splitting, and the new growth is getting stronger. Thumbs up for the zinc. Plus I noticed an added bonus of less acne, woot!

Hair Shine: Omega 6

I read that Evening Primrose Oil Omega-6 was good for strength and shine, so I've been taking Evening Primrose Oil 1350mg 2/day for a year. It's a little hard to tell if this made a difference with my hair, but it seems like it hasn't hurt. And the Evening Primrose Oil definitely helped with PMS and mood swings! That was a huge bonus. Can you believe I don't have any PMS now? (sorry to the guys if this is TMI).

Stress: Vitamin C

From what I've read, when the body is in stress it draws from the hair, skin and nails first. So the hair tragedy was a clue that my body was not happy with me last year. In the Adrenal Fatigue book by James Wilson, he talks about the importance of Vitamin C to help the adrenals deal with stress. And recently I read on Janie's blog on Stop the Thyroid Madness, how she feels she never had adrenal fatigue because she has always taken lots of Vitamin C. This was great info! For the past year, I upped my dose of Vitamin C to 2k units a day with 1k units of bioflavinoid (for absorption). When I take my Vitamin C, I feel really solid all around. And the great bonus, I wasn't sick at all this year. Sweet.

And now for the photo! This is from June, one year after the Great Hair Disaster of 2010. Doing pretty good I think. My next blog post is going to be about how I stopped using shampoo three months ago (zoinks!) and now just do "conditioning only"...  

xxoo

Lizzy

 PS - Thanks to the ladies at the Yahoo Grow Hair Forum who saved me many many times. xxoo!

Coconut Oil for Dry Hair, Split Ends and Shine

Since my last post about major issues related to DHEA, and dry hair from hypothyroidism, I found some good info from the ladies on the Grow Hair Group on Yahoo. Namely a few people suggested Coconut Oil to help with dry hair. Naturally, being an over-eager experimenter, I ran out to Whole Foods, bought organic Coconut Oil, oiled my hair every day for a week, and now smell faintly like a piña colada. Certainly I can think of worse smells. 

I must say the Coconut Oil has been amazing for my hair's dry split ends! Almost miraculous in one treatment. And I've found I don't really need another styling product or hair spray. So it's way cheaper than all the expensive hair care products I have in my bathroom.  Used with my Chi Flat Iron (a good flat iron is a must have), my hair looks shiny again, instead of dry and brittle. (Insert cheer!)

Here are a few methods I've tried.... 

• Apply Coconut Oil to dry hair at night before bed. It's really not as oily as you would think. Sleep on it, and the next day wash/condition hair as usual.

• Wash/condition hair, dry but leave a little damp. No need for other products. Rub Coconut Oil on hands and work into the dry ends. A little goes a long way so I start slow, and avoid the roots, then flat iron for super shine. 

• I am also experimenting with washing my hair less frequently to let the natural oils work. At first it seemed kind of icky, but the coconut oil does something so my hair doesn't really feel dirty. Very interesting.  

• After reading a lot about shampoos, I've learned how harsh the detergents are on our hair. So I am just using baby shampoo which does seem to clean the hair nicely. Conditioners apparently are okay.

A word of caution: If you try Coconut Oil on your hair, avoid doing it for the first time before a big event or when you are in a rush. Your hair might turn out too oily, and then you'd have to shower/shampoo to wash it out. It's a little tricky finding the right amount which is why before bed is a great time to experiment.

Happy hair everyone!

xxoo

Lizzy

Hair Growth, Dry Hair, DHEA and Evening Primrose Oil

After my experiment-gone-wrong with DHEA in May, my hair has been in a terrible state. Dry, breaking, split ends that look like I singed them over an open flame, and major hair loss.  My thin hair is now even thinner and won't style into anything (think Straw Man from the Wizard of Oz). I've been horrified, as you can imagine. Even as I write this, my ponytail is no thicker than a pencil. It was never super thick, but a pencil? Come on. I want big, sexy Pamela Anderson hair! 

So it's been a journey to undo this mess, repair the hair damage, and promote hair re-growth. At the very least, using myself as a test dummy means hopefully we all get to learn something...

First step, I stopped taking DHEA, and I noticed the hair shedding is tapering off which is a good start.  Then I came across some info from thyroid guru Mary Shomon who suggested Evening Primrose Oil which contains Omega-6 Fatty Acid, claiming it would calm the hair within two weeks. So I started supplementing 1350 mg of Evening Primrose Oil 2 times a day, and it does seem to have calmed the wild straw-like hair texture.  Also I noticed my hair is ready for a color retouch way sooner than normal.  That means Evening Primrose Oil is helping with the speed of hair growth. Thumbs up for Evening Primrose Oil. But there is still more to go.

On the Yahoo Hair Growth forum, a great community, someone posted that iron in the body needs to be in the 70-90 range for new hair growth to happen. Fascinating! Who knew that iron and hair growth were directly related.  And since hair loss, fine hair, dry hair, even bald spots are all related to thyroid issues, and people with thyroid issues often have low iron, this made tons of sense.

My doctor and I have been working to raise my low iron levels (which apparently takes a long time, like months). Seeing how critical iron is to the body and hair growth this gives me added incentive to take my iron in hopes of someday having big sexy hair.

I will report back on my findings.

xxoo

Lizzy

The Nitty-Gritty: Iron supplements often cause constipation. Floridex is a liquid brand that is easier to digest but pretty expensive. Instead, I tried a brand called "Bluebonnet" which claims to be non-constipating, but I'm not so sure they should make this claim. If constipation happens, Magnesium Citrate (200 mgs/day) will solve the problem quickly.  Most of us thyroid and adrenal sufferers need Magnesium anyway so its worth having in the medicine cabinet.

Experimenting with DHEA

 If you've been at my site you know the whole story about hypothyroidism and adrenal fatigue, but even after all this time my treatment is a work-in-progress.  This means treating everything in life as an experiment (in fact you can browse my ongoing experiments on edison – the experimenter's journal).

Of course, using oneself as the test subject can be frustrating, and even a bit scary. Here is the latest update about my life as an experiment... 

At my last doctor's visit in April, I had lab work done. Turns out in the past few years my DHEA had dropped a ridiculous amount, into an abnormal range. We aren't sure why, but since DHEA is produce by the adrenals we suspect the drop is related to my thyroid and adrenal systems and treatment. Anyway, I was feeling in good health overall but figured it was worth trying a DHEA supplement to see what would happen. My doctor said that was fine. Fortunately, or not, the only way to figure stuff out is by trying it.  So there I was again, my own test dummy.

When trying something new I always hope I will have great and immediate results like I did with Hydrocortisone, Naturethroid and the Vitamin B Complex. However, with DHEA it seems that the results have been immediate, but not so good.  Namely, I noticed a lot of hair loss.  Imagine my horror this past month, after virtually no hair loss since getting thyroid treatment, to suddenly be shedding like crazy. And to make things worse I noticed the return of other hypothyroid symptoms like brain fog, inability to cope or get motivated.  

I have to say I've been freaked out, as I am sure you might feel at times when your body just isn't doing the right thing.  Luckily my mom talked me off a theoretic ledge this morning and helped me pinpoint that the DHEA may be the issue.  I started reading on the Yahoo Adrenal group about it, and sure enough some people have had similar problems with DHEA, specifically with hair loss.

The lessons learned is that experiments can be frustrating, especially when they affect your physical health. But we have to keep at it, keep learning and evolving because this stuff just isn't going to fix itself.  But I have to remember to forgive myself when things don't go great.  The learning is what matters, as long as I can get myself back on track.

I am pretty sure DHEA didn't work for me, so I am stopping it and will report back about my findings. Of course, DHEA might work great for some people and I would love to hear if you've had a good experience.

xxoo

Lizzy