I have been on my journey for 18 months and my hair has gone to crap. It is alot thinner , dryer and way more brittle than ever before. I have always had it highlighted so the only major change is my diet and exercise plan. I did have a major cut awhile back because of its poor quality and now that it is growing again its breaking off more.I miss my long pretty hair!! I suck at taking vitamins but I guess my hair is paying the price. I do use salon hair products and try to reduce the amount of drying and straightening. Any ideas or solutions , has anyone else dealt with this?

What sort of diet are you on? Is it no fat or low fat? What does a normal eating day look like for you?

I had a big, bad, scary, loss of hair that started about 6 months into my weight loss project. My hair was really long, when I started, and oh gosh, it was bad. I ended up cutting it quite short, because the constant loss of very long strands of hair was clogging up my bath drain, getting caught in my vacuum cleaner, and depressing the **** out of me. The good news is that it stopped doing that, and it's thickened up substantially over the last year. The bad news is that it felt as if there was NOTHING I could do to stop it, while it was happening. I just had to wait it out.

I did start taking a multivitamin and biotin, and I have absolutely no idea if it did any good, but it made me feel better. My hair is now in much, much better shape. It's shiny and almost as thick as it was before it started falling out.

In my frantic, panicked Googling, I did find out that losing hair when you are losing a lot of weight isn't all that uncommon, and wow, did that make me angry, because, somehow, this possibility never seems to get mentioned in all the lectures I got from doctors, and in most of the books I'd read on the topic of weight loss. It wouldn't have stopped me, had I known, but it would've saved me some fear and grief.

Low fat, low sugar and limited carbs roughly 1400-1600 calories a day. Lean meats grilled mostly, veggies, fruits, protein bars, nuts, use oil olive, sugar free pudding/jello/ice cream.

I am getting some good vitamins ASAP! I just can't do a major short do, it looks great on some but its just not me. I have even priced hair extensions but its so expensive.

I had the same problem... to a point where I was beginning to think I would eventually go bald.

After researching and experimenting, I found out that for me what worked was:

*Taking a multivitamin
*Trimming the loose ends every 3 months
*Hydrating it with a Kerastase oil once a month
*Shampooing and conditioning it every day (I know that some say you shouldn´t, but for me I discovered that it helps, a lot)
*Stopped using non-rinse conditioner

I hope this helps !!

My hair got REALLY thin. It has gotten better, but still not as thick as it was before. I did start taking a multivitamin. I don't know if it has helped, but it certainly hasn't hurt. :~)

I'm of no help here. My hair actually got better, way better. Thicker and shinier. But it was pretty thin to start of with. And it was pretty oily and now it's not.

You're at the 18 month mark, hopefully by the 2 year mark, your body will adjust and you can hope to have some improvement.

I'd definitely say give the vitamins a go and maybe try to squeeze in a little bit more healthy fats...

Yeah, my first thought was you may not be getting enough fat in your diet, too. When I did Pritikin (very low fat), my hair did NOT like me. Now, even though I'm eating fewer calories than I did then, I'm eating more fat, I have no problems with it.

It's good that you do include nuts and olive oil. (Pritikin didn't allow for any of that) Maybe a bit more, if you can squeeze it into your calorie allowance.

Nikki-- two possible culprits are anemia and hypothyroidism.

Weight loss or any "traumatic" event (childbirth, surgery...) can and often does cause hair loss-- that loss usually temporary.

The best doctor for hair loss is a dermatologist-- if you really think you're having a problem, I would make an appt ASAP. There are a lot of things they can check for and a lot of possible treatments.

I can identify with all of this. Even my hairdresser noticed when washing my hair that there was a lot of loose hair, going down the drain. She insisted that can happen, my weight loss was rapid, and said that it would come back. The past few months, after about a year, this has changed. My hair is getting thicker again, and I am relieved!

Prenatals. They are AWESOME for my hair. That is all I really have for advice.

I have the same problem. Mine was more loss though than just brittle but I was diagnoised in the last few months with Hypothyroidism. It might be beneficial to talk to your dr if you dont see any improvement.

I lost some hair maybe a year and a half ago but it has been ok since. I am taking biotin and fish oil to help prevent anymore thinning.

I agree with everyone else. Vitamins and healthy oils are a good way to go.