It's been almost 4 months since my surgery and I am down 35 pounds. I am trying not to get too discouraged with the loss of weight at this point and continue to be patient as I know it will come off, eventually. However, I'm feeling some type of way about my hair starting to fall out. I take all my vitamins every day and I eat enough protein on most days.

How long will this phase last? Can anyone offer insight?

hair loss can be a side effect of any major surgery - and childbirth, for that matter. It can also be a side effect of rapid weight loss. So we've got the double whammy - triple, really, because in addition, we're also taking in very few calories those first few months. So I think we see the hair loss side effect more often with bariatric surgery than we do from other types of surgeries.

mine lasted about three months - and that's fairly common. Not much you can do about other than keep on top of your supplements and make sure you're meeting your protein requirements, since that can keep it from getting any worse than it would otherwise. And know that it'll eventually stop and the hair will grow back again...

Yup, I would say my hair loss lasted about 3 months.

I was a lucky one who didn't have hair loss. I am on a daily biotin supplement anyway though. As the commenters before me said, when your body is under stress, your hair is likely to fall out. In fact, I study the stress hormones, cortisol in particular, and the way it relates to hair loss is this. When you go through a stressful event (like surgery or childbirth) your body releases more cortisol initially to help with the recovery process and release of other hormones. But with the increase in cortisol, it actually triggers itself to shut down and produce less cortisol after a short while. That means after a duration of high cortisol, the level will suddenly drop and you will have low cortisol levels. Cortisol is an insulin antagonist, meaning that cortisol levels are low when insulin is high and vice versa. As research has linked high insulin to hair loss, low cortisol will spike insulin, causing hair loss, dryness, and brittleness.

I appreciate the responses. Guess I will have to wait it out. Time to go hat shopping! 8-)

Not sure if it would work depending upon where the thinning is happening, but they have so many neat new hair pieces out there. Is it long enough that you could pull it up into a ponytail and put one of the fake hair wraps around it? If so I would be glad to PM you a hair wrap that I get on Amazon made out of real human hair. It's only like 25 bucks and it looks so cute.

I lost a lot of hair for several months starting around month 3. I'm happy to say it stopped around 7 months. I am 13 months post op now and I have a lot of re-growth now.

Yes, it's long enough to put up in a pony tail, which is how I usually wear it.

The thinning is mostly in the front and when I pull my hair back, it is more noticeable. But please PM me and lmk the hair piece you purchased from Amazon. I might just need one in the back soon.

Thanks a bunch! ?

In anticipation of this happening, I just got some bangs cut to help camouflage my hairline.

Mine was just under 3 months. I was already on biotin before but I’ve heard from RDs that it doesn’t really help. So I just made sure to get enough protein, take my vitamins and wait it out. The loss part has pretty much gone back to my normal loss level but haven’t started seeing the little fuzzy new growth yet.