[odapoda]

#1018264

Hi guys!
Still going strong, but I’m still dealing with hair loss, and the fact that my hair’s just stopped growing. Just stopped. It’s always grown fast and strong, and the one time I want it long, it just stops. oh the irony

So; anyone out there with some tips?

– Oda

[Ski]

#1063593

Mamabear wrote an EXTENSIVE post on this topic, here’s a link for you:
http://www.ngdf.org/phpBB3/ngdf/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=38718&sid=e06442857b8b4b39af4bb68409845694

The basic rules are these: don’t stress your hair, it just makes things worse. That means brushing hard, wearing hats, perming, coloring, anything that pulls on it or weakens it. Once your levels are STABLE, your hair loss should stop, but if your levels are fluctuating, even a little bit, even going from a disease state of hypo or hyper into the normal range, your body removes resources from the hair and nails in order to protect the rest of you while this emergency situation (fluctuating and/or out-of-balance thyroid hormone levels) continues.

Cutting it short can help in a number of ways. It requires less "fuss," and if you have more hair than usual coming out (we all have *some* coming out daily), when it’s shorter, it’s not so startling to see it off of your head. In addition, you can "fluff" shorter hair to create the illusion of more hair. Once the loss stops, you can grow it out again, and it’ll be healthier and look better than if you grow it now.

I hope that helps! I know it’s a tough emotional "hit," hair loss, and all I can say is that this too shall pass…. ” title=”Wink” />

[Ewenme]

#1063594

Just want to tell you I can relate. I went hypo a couple months ago (on ATD’s) and my hair starting coming out like crazy. I think it’s letting up a little now, but still more than I’m comfortable with. I have been told it’s due to erratic hormone levels. I do color my hair, but have been using a natural product. I have always had thick hair, so the loss hasn’t been devastating yet, and I, like you, am hoping this will turn around soon. Best of luck!

[mamabear]

#1063595

Oda, I am sorry you are going through this. I will check my post and make sure it is up to date. I like doing that every now and then to make sure I post/edit any new information on that Thread just in case.

I have a lot of hair, although I have cut it recently. My dh has over 3 ft of hair as well. We surely know about hair in this house! I am sure you know your head and how your hair grows but with Graves it can get kooky so don’t fret, things might change and the time that it use to take you might not be as fast as you thought it was. Our hair grows in spurts just like our nails. It looks like it’s growing fast then seems to slow down, in general that is the rule of thumb. We also shed our hair as well and it looks like a heck of a lot of hair but it really isn’t and add to that if you have very long hair it looks like even more hair loss when truly it isn’t.
Now I’ve had the chunks come out and wow it was scary back then. But teaching yourself to be kind to it will help you get through this.

I might add that if you truly feel your hair has stopped growing to do what my dermatologist said… FYI, I went to her with our dd4, at the time was 2 and said dd4’s hair isn’t growing, it’s stringing and patchy and I think something is wrong. I mean dd4 at 2 still had all of her baby hair, I hadn’t cut it yet and it was very thin. So Dermatologist said cut it, because cutting it will show me that it is growing. So I gave dd4 bangs and sure enough I noticed I was trimming those bangs a lot, so yes her hair was growing it just grew slowly.
Now she is 4(dd4) and her hair is so nice,except where she has bedhead. lol
You might want to trim a little piece and measure it to see where it is and check it in a month or two and see how much has grown.

Another FYI, I am living proof of thinking I had fast growing hair. I am a natural blond, I got darker as I got older so I decided to bleach my hair lighter in March of 2008. Oh what a mess that was, It was red and well lets just say after red, there was plantinum then not sure what color then after a year of this I said no more. So March 2009 I said this is the last coloring I am doing and I dyed it dark blond and although the color did wash out, i did see roots and I figured in a few months I would have a full head of natural color hair again…Well well well, it’s been 1 year and 7 months and I’ll go measure it right now..hold on….

ok measurement done. it’s about 10 inches in just over a year and a half. So half my head is natural then there is another 10 inches of bleach blond. So it’s proven that my hair didn’t grow as fast as I thought it was, i just had a lot of it that’s all.

It’s hard to have hair and want to keep it and have to deal with loosing it when we have graves. THe only thing I can say is it stinks when we are where you are right now but having hind sight I would have taken better care of it back then and played with a shorter cut because eventually it would grow back. Just a thought for you… Having no choice with your hair when it comes to graves isn’t fun, it’s different if we say yeah I’ll cut it. Try some of the things in that Thread and see if it helps.

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