thanks ruth ann

ANY calorie and carb restricted diet will tend to cause or increase temporary hair loss in many dieters ... it probably depends on how overweight you were and genetics

still you wont go bald but you might notice more hairs in the sink and tub esp after about month 3 to 5. Sometimes the increased hair loss continues for a month or two AFTER you go back to a more normal diet ... but eventually the hair loss slows considerably and all hairs (or at least 90 to 95 % of the hairs) grow back. So it's just temporary!

This should be a great motivator not to Yo-yo ... because if you gain the weight back and then diet again ... you will go through this cycle again.

If you freak out over hair loss ... lose the weight (once) and keep it off by whatever means it takes

To me, I will gladly trade some hairs for a thinner and healthier body.

Honestly what we all should be freaking out over is what the added fat and weight is doing to our bodies (our liver, heart, kidneys, joints, spine, etc) and not so much about how many hairs we are finding in our sinks and tubs. Nobody is going to die from hair loss, but being obese will kill you or at least make you pretty sick (eventually).

That is so true! I also am very disturbed by my visceral fat (and more freaked out by that than the possibility of hair loss), so I am staying on IP. It is the first plan I have had any success at for the last 8 years, and I have tried MANY. I am willing to have hair loss, but hopeful not to have hair loss having now heard that not everyone has hair loss..if that makes sense. It's allowing me to relax a little while going through this challenging yet much needed plan to become a healthy weight again.

Debra

I had a full head of thick hair and lost almost half of it. But this time around I am taking the following

Biotin
Silica
Omega three six nine

My hair loss has improved since I started taking these supplements. And hope it doesnt happen in round 2

I had a full head of very thick long hair and have lost about half of it. It's still coming out!!! I phased off in November due to the hair loss and am hoping it stops soon. I had a full blood work up and all my numbers are good so my doc says it's def from the diet. Also FYI, I have been taking biotin, b12 and fish oil the whole time so while I am sure that will make the new hair that grows back super healthy, it did nothing to prevent the hair loss from occuring. I am just one of the unlucky 11%! All this said, this was the best diet I have ever done for my body. I lost 41 pounds and have maintained that number since phasing off in November. While I am disappointed that I can't go on it ever again, it motivates me to stay in the 130s for life!!!!!

Thank you everyone for your responses. I'm going to hope for the best!

I have very thin hair to begin with, so I don't know. If it does get too thin, I am tempted to get my Beach haircut or as I fondly call it my wash and wear style.

I concur..It's all about the beauty and the attitude towards the life...Women can wear it with confidence whatever the hair style is,whether it is braids,locks,ponytails or even bald..they rock in all looks.. Now Kadi is also in Fashion...!!!

Hi folks, I'm not on IP but I previously lost a lot of weight (I was down to mid-120s, I'm working on re-losing some) but I was calorie counting and I went through a period of hair loss. I have seen others on this site (calorie counting) who had the same problem. So, the problem probably isn't specific to IP, just relatively fast and relatively large weight loss.

Your fat cells produce estrogen. When you lose body fat, you will lower the amount of estrogen in the body. Estrogen protects hair follicles from the effect of androgen which can cause follicles to shrink. If you lose a lot of weight quickly, you might or might not lose a lot of hair (I think it might partly depend on what your hair would look like if you were a man. At your age, would you have male pattern baldness? If your parents are old enough you might be able to tell; the thickness of your mother's hair at an advanced age is possibly more important that your father's. My mother had very thin hair on top.).

In my case, most of my lost hair has come back, but I've now gone through menopause (another reduction in estrogen) so it's a little thinner than it was before. Here's the one thing I did that I think really helped: I switched to using Nizoral shampoo. It's an antifungal dandruff shampoo and the active ingredient helps block the effects of androgen. I really did notice a difference after I started using it (not that instant, but within a few weeks the hair loss was under control and subsequently I regained a lot of hair). Google Nizoral and hair loss on your own. BTW, Nizoral was recently very scarce as there were some production problems, but it seems to be readily available again online.

Good luck with losing weight and preventing hair loss!

I did not notice any hair loss. I loose a lot of hair anyways it seems. BUT, I will say my haired seemed to grow more as did my nails. My hair is the longest it has EVER been in my whole life. I thought that I couldn't really ever grow it an inch past my shoulders now it's in the middle of my back and beautiful if I do say. I think all the proteins really helped out. That our my head shrunk and my hair looks longer.

Possible fix if you haven't tried it, get some good quality coconut oil, warm it till it's liquid and spread it on the affected area, then put cotton gloves on and wear them during bed. It helped my skin on my hands heal, because I was having very rough, dry, cracking spots down near the base of all my fingers.

I have been on the diet for 5 1/2 months and have lost 110 pounds which is pretty quick. When I started the diet I already had really thin hair because my mother, grandmother, & great grandmother all had super-thin hair when they got older,but now it is beyond thin. I ordered some keratin fiber powder to shake it on my bare spots and that helps it look a little thicker. If it gets too bad I'll buy a wig.....I am not stopping this diet until the finish line. LOL
I have been taking 1000 mg Biotin daily so maybe that keeps it from being even worse. Started that over a month ago.

Here's a snippet from this link:

http://www.hairlosstalk.com/hair-los...ments/nizoral/

"You wont succeed without a Keotoconazole Shampoo like Nizoral or Regenepure (pictured left). Sound like an exaggeration? It's not. Treating hair loss is a pretty complex process. This aspect is simple. Everyone needs Nizoral shampoo. Without it, no proven treatment will work as well it should."


I've tried lots of different beauty treatments for various things (wrinkles, cellulite, you name it). I've never been as impressed with results as I have with Nizoral for my thinning hair. There are other shampoos that contain keotoconazole, but they are more expensive.

I lost 50lbs on IP 3 years ago. I did experience noticeable (to me) hair loss as I started to phase off after 4 months on program with no cheats. I too had normal labwork. Search Dr. Michael Eades, kimkin's diet, hair loss. He has an explanation which he wrote a while back in response to hair loss with a diet called the Kimkin's Diet., also low carb, low calorie. This makes perfect sense to me. The bad news is there is probably nothing we can do to stop it. The good news is all my hair grew back. No one else noticed my hair. It was unnerving to me to have long strands fall out. I understand it now and it was totally worth it. Remember, Dr. Chan says this is an unbalanced diet, and it is! But it works.

Lynn

I had experienced some hair loss on IP when I did it in 2007, although I don't remember when it started. I was on IP for about 6 months between 2007-2008. I have extremely thick hair so it didn't really bother me, it just gave me more manageable hair. The hair loss would have been noticeable if I had started out with thin hair, though. It ended up thickening again after phasing off.

This time around, I have not experienced any significant hair loss and I am 2 months in.