I have suffered hair loss since I began low carb (Schwarzbein) but I think it's from stress. My husband was involved in a serious motorcycle accident in February. He was in the hospital for three wekks and it was a stressful time. My hair loss has slowed down a bit. Thank goodness I have a thick head of hair because I was getting concerned. My hair did fall out ten years ago (got married), I looked like a cancer patient but it grew back just fine. THis regrowth appears to have more gray hair. Oh well, I never felt better and hubby is doing well!

During pregnancy my hair was growing like gangbusters. At around 3 months or so my drain clogged up like a bad cold. Hubby pulled out MASSIVE clumps of hair on a regular basis. My hair loss wasn't really, really obvious, but a decent hair cut helped my self-esteem a lot. Hair loss seemed to subside around baby's month 9, possibly coinciding with cessation of breast feeding.

Not really experiencing more than normal hair loss since being on Atkins-style eating (July 24, 2002). I keep my hair up in this oppressive heat though so it could be patchy back there & I just don't notice?!

I have really thick, longer hair that has always fallen out what I've felt is more than normal. My Dr. had me watch after each shower and said if I think I am losing more than 100 strands a day he believes it to be a thyroid problem.

Now... I have always lost more than a 100 strands a day. I can count in the 20s just towel drying my hair, another 30+ while picking the tangles out and much more after my hair is dry the rest of the day.

He has not taken any measures to find out if it truly is a thyroid problem in me yet because since I've been low carbing the loss has slowed somewhat. And until he is concerned, I won't be.

I also have more white hair than usual, but I attribute that to family genetics and stress and give my hair dye bottle a big kiss.

When my baby was about 4 months old I started losing lots of hair. The doctore said it was perfectly normal, a hormonal thing. At the time I was on a lowfat WW type diet.

I've been on PP since June and am losing some hair when I shower, but I've also recently started Loestrin, so who knows!?

But my nails are stronger, my skin is clear and after 20 years of struggling with lowfat diets, I'm never hungry and I can almost fit into a size 18 (It's been a long time since I've seen size 18! )

SO I'm willing to wait it out and see what happens!

I started losing copious amounts of hair exactly 3 months after I started low carbing and kept losing for another 3 months. I didn't bother taking the plunger out of the shower....just left it sitting in the corner. Some mornings my DH would swear there'd been a catfight in the bathroom! One morning at the 3 month mark I noticed a definite decrease and then by the end of the week my hair loss had slowed to what I consider to be a normal amount. The funny thing for me was that at no stage did my hair look any thinner so it must have been growing as fast as it was falling out.

If I think back...mine was 3 months into this diet too and lasted about 3 months too! My hair does not seem like it is still falling out anymore like it was...I have long hair so I just have the normal breakage. But it does not seem as thick as it was before either. (I can finally wear normal ponytail holders! )
But it took years for it to get this length and I imagine it will take quite awhile for it to all catch up again!

It's funny every body mentioning clogging up the tub drain...I live in a really old house and thought it was old pipes!!

Good Luck!
Julie

I'm glad to have found this thread! I'm just past the three-month mark for LC, and my hair is falling out in gobs. In the shower, in the towel, and all day down the back of my shirt and even into my food! I was starting to get really worried but now knowing it may be linked to weight-loss stress makes me feel better. I'm willing to put up with it for another few months, especially as I haven't had any other negative side effects from this WOE - but I do hope it ends. I am a bit scared to look in the mirror, since I have very thin hair by nature and I don't think I could handle the shock of seeing a bald spot...!

Anyhow thanks for all the info.

I have experienced moderate diffuse thinning on Atkins. But then again, this is to be expected when the body is stressed. All weight loss programs may cause hair loss, because your body takes rapidly decreasing weight as a sign something is seriously wrong.

Hmm..so far the results are not looking good. 55% of respondents have experienced some form of hair loss as a result of Atkins. Of course this could be because more people with hair loss are responding to this post, but I have a feeling that there are a lot more low carbers experiencing hair loss than the 10-15% quoted in some articles.

Please check out this thread at LowCarbFriends to read about even more experiences. I think this issue is serious enough that the Atkins center should devote more research into it, at the very least.

http://lowcarbfriends.com/bbs/showt...threadid=173469

for the last month my hair started falling out alot in the shower my hands are covered with hair!! I notice a bald spot forming on the top of my head I can see scalp!! I hope this stops soon my hair looks terriable!!

I'm taking supplements with minerals and have been on Atkins a little less than six months. bout a month ago, I noticed a lot more hair than usual was ending up in my brush or comb, before and after my shower. This seems to be slowing down, though, and the good news is, the overall texture of my hair has improved. Before, I had baby fine light brown to ash blonde hair, which is starting to gray since I hit 40. As most of you know, those darned gray hairs don't behave like the other ones, but since Atkins I've had fewer "frizzies" and less of a problem with fly-away ends. Must be all the protein!

I started lcing in July and suffered no hair loss until Oct and the hair loss has not stopped yet. I have extra thick curly hair that I refer to sometimes as mutant hair. So for me to loose so much hair was not a big deal but now it has been happening for two months. My sister suggested having my thyroid check because she and my mom have a disorder. I can say now that it is slowing down a little. One thought I did have was that my weight came on as the effect of having my last two children, so all those hormones stored in my fat from two pregancies and births are now being released and only add to the overall situation.

just wanted to share that info because someone else my be having the same time with extreme hair loss as me

regards,

i started atkins last easter and didn't notice any hair loss until maybe september or so....and then it was A LOT of hair loss....seems like all is under control now, so i hope i can reassure some of you. i still have one or two stray hairs in the shower, and maybe see a few float around while blow drying, but nothing like before! i have noticed that my hair is totally different though....maybe it's my imagination, but it is finer or something....but the main thing is that i'm not losing so much of it!

I sure as heck lost alot of my hair during the first 2 months of LCing.. I used to have overly think hair. Now it's thin as can be.. I hope it comes back in full like it allways was before.

My hair has also come out consistently over the past few months. I don't know if it's from LC or the residual effects of radioactive iodine. I'm seeing my endocrinologist soon so will hope to add something definitive to the discussion!