Regrowth With Ferritin: What Is The Timeline Like?

[PappinAce]

hey all,

i suffered from diffuse hair loss since 2013. it was revealed last summer that my ferritin level was down at 24, and after about six months of supplementing my shedding has drastically slowed down. i can pass the "pull test" often with not a single hair coming out, whereas last summer i would pull out five or six every time. my hands are also no longer filled with shed hair in the shower.

while i am grateful that my loss has stabilized, i'm wondering when my lost hair follicles might start working again. chronic Telogen Effluvium is supposed to be fully reversible but i haven't seen any visible regrowth or thickening yet. is this just something where i have to have more patience? give it a year maybe?

if anyone here has suffered from low ferritin / iron induced hair loss, i would love to hear your story and timeline.

thanks for reading and for being here

 

[PappinAce]

bumpy

 

[hairblues]

hey

Im ferritin anemic and i did not know it..it was at least 3 years it had been missed according to an old blood report--it could have been longer.

I was diagnosed by a hair loss Dr (surgeon) who caught it on old blood test--then i got a baseline last Spring...i was 10 for many years...

That Dr wanted me to get it up over 70 to spark new growth--which is very hard to do...

You can NOT supplement on your own without getting periodic testing monitoring because you can cause toxic poisoning.

everyone absorbs iron differently.

SO I suggest if you are not working with a Dr you do so.

If you need material to back up your hair loss/iron related and what it should be at--google Dr George Costarellis his study on female alopecia and ferritin--i cant tell you which medical journal but do a little research and you should find the original complete study (not just the articles quoting/misquoting it) Dr Costarellis is the person who discovers this connection.

What is not often reported is when you read the report is a lot of women have genetic hair loss and low ferritin can make it appear worse and/or happen prematurely.

And getting ferritin up to over 70 helps to maximize the positive effects of hair loss treatments (minoxodill, spironolactone, keto)

Now i am not saying you have Angrogenic alopecia i am just giving you the facts i have read.

I also have genetic hair loss AND low ferritin--so how my Dr explained it to me was I had premature hair loss due to the low ferritin.

So in a year i got my ferritin up from 10 to 60--i am still supposed to get it over 70 i am hoping next few months--so that took a year of monitoring via blood work and my Dr adjusting my iron dosage ever 6 weeks.

I started to use Minoxidil and topical spironolactone in Fall (september/october) which was same time i got results of my iron reaching 60...

Before i started minoxidil i noticed that i stopped shedding short hairs ( i have long hair but on top of head my hair was 'short cycling' growing an inch falling out with white bulbs--white bulbs means it was at the end of growth cycle--which was crazy since it was 1 inch long hairs) those would come out like super easy as if not even rooted in head I would just be able to pull them out without pulling...(if that makes sense) so that stopped if it was the spironolactone or the Ferritn going up to 60 i cant say for sure.

I still do shed long hairs pretty heavy--but its hard to say if that is from my ferritin/alopecia or if it is just nature of my hair as i have long curly hair and I always shed a lot even when young but had no hair loss....Most important to me was those small hairs stopped shedding (short cycling) and are growing.

I do use 5% minoxidil and i am a great responder to it.

Although i am still working on getting iron up and over 70 i am also going to continue minoxidil and topical spironolactone...Im also keeping my eye open for other hair loss treatments coming down the pipeline over next few years.


So most important question is...does either of your parents mom or dad--have hair loss and if so what age did it start? If yes and it was started mid life or younger--you may want to consider you also have androgenic hair loss in addition to ferritin anemia.

If so its okay you seem to be at least stopped/slowed shedding.

I would definitely find a Dr to work with on this both for the iron loss and even possibly doing a biopsy to see if you have andgrogenci alopecia. I had 2 biopsies that confirmed this.

 

[PappinAce]

thanks for the response HairBlues. how are things going for you now? you said the shorter hairs that used to shed are continuing to grow. is that making a cosmetic difference for you? i hope the results have made you feel better.

the question about my parents: thankfully no, they have 0% hair loss and they are both in their 60s. also my hair loss has not progressed since i noticed it three years ago. it's just continued diffuse thinning with lots of shedding. i have the same straw-like bird's nest that i had at the beginning. so i think i can rule out androgenic alopecia.

do you think that the right ferritin level alone can spark regrowth? it's kind of hard to put minoxidil all over the head.

 

[PappinAce]

@hairblues one more question, where did you get the biopsy done? i didn't realize there was a reliable test to determine whether you have AA. do dermatologists do this?

 

[hairblues]

@hairblues one more question, where did you get the biopsy done? i didn't realize there was a reliable test to determine whether you have AA. do dermatologists do this?

Yes i had it done at my dermatologist it was covered by my insurance--so if you are in USA i would make sure its a dermatologist who takes your insurance and is also easy to do tests you request (some Doctors are more conservative than others) But hair loss in my opinion is complex sometimes and i personally think biopsies are important for women (maybe not as much for men).

I had two done and i would recommend you get 2 samples from different parts of scalp--also make sure its someone who knows what doing so they take it from an area of scalp you can cover with hair (i.e. dont do front of scalp for instance by hair line do more from top of head back a few inches from hairline going towards back.

 

[PappinAce]

yeah! are you satisfied with how your hair looks now? how much cosmetic improvement do you feel you've made since you first noticed shedding? no significant regrowth for me yet i was up at 46 in mid september, got up to around 76 in november and i've been maintaining. no regrowth yet though.

 

[hairblues]

Sorry meant to post that on my thread...i deleted it

i don't know how much in percentage but i would say at least 2 to 3 years.

 

[LusciousLadyLocks]

Ferritin is a long shot. Only some studies find any help from correcting even severely low ferritin levels. I would go straight to things that work rather than hoping that maybe low iron is a contributing factor.

Women like to pretend that their hair loss isn't due to the aging process and that different people get hair thinning at different ages. I can never understand why. But just like some people start to go gray at 15 and a few aren't gray at 80, the vast majority of women will have very significant hair loss if they live a normal lifespan--the question is more often when than if and whether you plan to do the old-lady-curl to try to pretend it isn't happening or really address it!

Given the PROVEN role of high ferritin in heart disease, any doctor who wanted my ferritin ABOVE 70 would go straight in my "dangerous quack" book, personally. This isn't something you want to muck about with.

 

[hairblues]

yeah! are you satisfied with how your hair looks now? how much cosmetic improvement do you feel you've made since you first noticed shedding? no significant regrowth for me yet i was up at 46 in mid september, got up to around 76 in november and i've been maintaining. no regrowth yet though.

Right now i am satisfied compared to where it was heading..I feel at ease compared it thickened up enough.

I would say i have at least 2 to 5 years improvement hard to say exactly will always want more

Maintaining is good..you have to add hair loss treatments..With out them you won't get regrowth. IMO.

It has to be synergistic.

 

[PappinAce]

Right now i am satisfied compared to where it was heading..I feel at ease compared it thickened up enough.

I would say i have at least 2 to 5 years improvement hard to say exactly will always want more

Maintaining is good..you have to add hair loss treatments..With out them you won't get regrowth. IMO.

It has to be synergistic.

what kind of regrowth treatments? can you actually recover your former scalp density? also, i went years without removing my hair loss trigger. would you say the longer you let chronic Telogen Effluvium run its course, the longer regrowth takes?

i'm so sick of the disgusting straw like ugliness on top of my head. my crown looks like that of a sickly 80 year old's. i used to have great hair. i didn't do anything wrong!! maybe i overused flat irons and stuff, but damaged hair should grow back.

and NOBODY will help me. i don't know what to do. i raised my ferritin considerably and i still look like a monster. no regrowth. i see tiny, lighter pigmented hair sticking up when i part my hair, but none of it is anagen. i'm just sick of looking like a hideous monster.

it looks like Androgenetic Alopecia because the thinning is mostly on top, but it is not. Androgenetic Alopecia is progressive. mine has not progressed, just lost about 60% density and stayed there. i really don't know what to do.

today is the worst day i've had with this in a long time.

 

[Joan]

[QUOTE="LusciousLadyLocks, post: 1461735, member: 130254"Given the PROVEN role of high ferritin in heart disease, any doctor who wanted my ferritin ABOVE 70 would go straight in my "dangerous quack" book, personally.[/QUOTE]

According to the lab results of my most recent ferritin test, the standard range is 9 - 120 ng/mL. A value of 70 falls within that range.

 

[shypie789]

hey all,

i suffered from diffuse hair loss since 2013. it was revealed last summer that my ferritin level was down at 24, and after about six months of supplementing my shedding has drastically slowed down. i can pass the "pull test" often with not a single hair coming out, whereas last summer i would pull out five or six every time. my hands are also no longer filled with shed hair in the shower.

while i am grateful that my loss has stabilized, i'm wondering when my lost hair follicles might start working again. chronic Telogen Effluvium is supposed to be fully reversible but i haven't seen any visible regrowth or thickening yet. is this just something where i have to have more patience? give it a year maybe?

if anyone here has suffered from low ferritin / iron induced hair loss, i would love to hear your story and timeline.

thanks for reading and for being here

Hello! I talk about my experience with ferritin, my hair loss, getting my results and the journey I've gone through since then on my profile. Click my name and then click postings. Do ask my any questions if needed on the thread!

 

[PappinAce]

people are actually distressed about this stuff and you exploit it with your undercover marketing. rethink your life. what connects us is stronger than what divides us.

 

[shypie789]

people are actually distressed about this stuff and you exploit it with your undercover marketing. rethink your life. what connects us is stronger than what divides us.

i know it genuinely sounds like a marketing plot but it's not. i've been struggling for months with my hair and i've told myself that i would help out as much as i could and talk about my progress once i've gotten everything straighten. i'm just a 20 year old girl here to help and I absolutely agree with you. i've been talking about my story to a few forums that are having the similar problems. i will not state any products because i know that may seem really weird but i want you to know that i want to help and tell you my story so i'll just speak more in depth about it. no marketing no jokes, just my story.

During march last year i realised that my hair was really dry and wirey. it was dropping but i didn't see anything to it as my hair was pretty long and it was considered normal. i came back from australia a week later and needed to begin internship at this advertising agency for 6 months. during this 6 months I decided to cut shoulder length and that's when i realised that my hair was dropping way more then it should. i was worried. my scalp was beginning to show and it was terrifying especially for a teen like myself. i began searching for forums like this online and i realised that i just more confused as ever. i began questioning if it was hereditary or if i had a hormonal disease such as pcos as my period was irregular.

i did my research and amongst other blood test i decided to get my ferritin level checked too. i went to the doctor and he was pretty shocked because he had never seen anyone as young as me do blood test and the series of tests consisted of thyroid one and all that. he told me that i looked skinny and all that. after 2 weeks i got my results and oh and behold my levels were a 14. it was extremely low and i felt a slight relief knowing that maybe just maybe i could attribute my hair loss to that.

i began taking liquid iron after much research as it's apparently gentler on the stomach and more concentrated i guess. i took it for a few months on and off and ate healthy meals consisting of omega 3 such as salmon beets and spinach. oh and also to mention, i had an extremely bad eating habit when this hair loss all began.

now, my hair looks 95% like how it used to look and it's still growing. i've stopped taking the liquid iron and i'm just focusing on eating healthy. it as also stop dropping and my hair isn't wirey anymore.

you don't exactly have to go through the same symptoms as me but as long as your ferritin level is below the 50's range i think it's best to consume iron and also regularly check it.

i'm super sorry you had to feel this way about me being a marketing scam but i can promise you i am not. please ask me any questions if you need to and i'll be so happy to help. i just want to help because and one point i was in so much emotional pain. but it's all good now. i wish you the best of luck!

 

[hairblues]

what kind of regrowth treatments? can you actually recover your former scalp density? also, i went years without removing my hair loss trigger. would you say the longer you let chronic Telogen Effluvium run its course, the longer regrowth takes?

i'm so sick of the disgusting straw like ugliness on top of my head. my crown looks like that of a sickly 80 year old's. i used to have great hair. i didn't do anything wrong!! maybe i overused flat irons and stuff, but damaged hair should grow back.

and NOBODY will help me. i don't know what to do. i raised my ferritin considerably and i still look like a monster. no regrowth. i see tiny, lighter pigmented hair sticking up when i part my hair, but none of it is anagen. i'm just sick of looking like a hideous monster.

it looks like Androgenetic Alopecia because the thinning is mostly on top, but it is not. Androgenetic Alopecia is progressive. mine has not progressed, just lost about 60% density and stayed there. i really don't know what to do.

today is the worst day i've had with this in a long time.

sorry did not see this

I dont have answers for you I will say you are speaking about your hair shaft quality (straw like) that is different than your hair loss unless your hair shaft is shrinking in diameter..which is miniaturization...but if you hair is just dry that is different as far as I know from Androgenetic Alopecia..I can be wrong. But my hair is not dry from hair loss in fact if anything because I lost some density (i dont know how much to be honest) my hair is oiler quicker..i think this is because if you have less hair the oil on your head is the same as from when it was thicker--so that oil seems more apparent sooner---how the glands act after or during menopause I dont know yet so cant say on that topic as I do know women get dryer hair as we age.