I was at the hair dresser today and a lady probably in her 50s walked in and was telling the owner about her 33 pound weight loss on Medi Weight, the conversation went no and on as I was getting my hair shampooed(I was just listening) and then I hear her telling the woman that her Jamaican friend had gastric bypass and that she has "that chalky look" and that it was creepy. I asked her what she meant by chalky look she said people who have weight loss surgery look chalky and grey for a long time until their weight stalls then they are able to normalize. She said this happened to all her clients except for the ones with the band.

Have any of you experienced chalky skin? I am pre-op it's just nice to know what could be coming.

Hi, I am three months out and don't have chaky skin. I do remember having a friend years ago how had bypass and he told me because of the malabsorption syndrome his skin tended to be on the pale side.

Nancy

She might just mean dry skin - very likely if you are not getting much fat. If you have dark skin, dryness can make you look ashen.

A lady that I work with that had the bypass done looks greyish and chalky. She is very pale skinned. She does not follow her diet. She does not take vitamins. She lives on twisslers and diet soda. Her hair is horrible too. She is sick all the time and a little mental too. Moral of the story is eat your protein and take your vitamins and not to be stupid.

Moral of the story is eat your protein and take your vitamins and not to be stupid.

Haha, I like it.

I did notice some change in my hair (wierd textrure) the first few weeks and some skin dryness, but it settled down pretty quickly once I started on mushy/soft food. I don't recall it ever being chalky. I bet it does have to do with malabsorption that bypass/DS patients deal with. Your stylist probably has very few people who have had a sleeve, so most of what she's seeing are bypass and lapband patients. I would imagine the band folks probably look healthier because they're absorbing more nutrients.

I've stumped alot of people with my surgery because they seem to be shocked about how healthy I look compared to their expectation of people with WLS. Since I refuse to tell anyone what kind of surgery I've had or any other details about my surgery, they don't know what to make of me. I'm still struggling with my daily Protein totals and monitoring my Fluid intake but I still feel and look healthy, so I guess my body is getting the maximum out of what I'm putting in. That's why I feel that this is perhaps the superior WLS for maintaining a healthy look and feel postop.

BTW, I don't tell what kind of surgery I had because I think it will open the door to personal questions that I don't want to answer. I'm ok with people knowing that I had WLS, but that's it. My strategy is working because once I refuse to tell my surgery type, I get no further questions.