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.