it recently came to my attention that my hair is noticibly falling out! also, my hair is just not looking very good in general. it has no luster. obviously something is lacking in my diet. i've been about 95% raw for months now, but i'm beginning to question whether it's really the best for me. i'm thinking of adding a bit of cooked beans and rice to my diet, or other high protein foods, but i'm not sure. i even thought about taking a multivitamin for a while, just until i get my diet worked out. i eat alot of fruit and salads mainly, with a bit of seeds and nuts thrown in.the 5% cooked i eat is mostly miso, nama shoyu, nutritional yeast, and sometimes a sprouted tortilla. that's about it.

i'm open to any ideas..

thanks.
misha

could this be detox?

What is your typical daily food intake?

It isn't detox.

When it comes to adverse effects from a raw vegan diet, "detox" is just a roundabout way of saying deficiency.

It's more likely lack of cysteine + methionine. These are amino acids that may be in short supply in typical raw vegan diets. They don't have to be, though. You can use the tools at nutritiondata.com to help you find more foods to put in your diet that will help you get enough to stop the hair loss and restore glossiness.

I am not one to criticize a person for adding back cooked beans because I never gave them up to begin with.

What type of raw diet are you eating? Which authors guidelines are you following? Are you doing more of a Doug Graham style, David Wolfe style, or Gabriel Cousens / Brian Clement style of eating?

I recommend adding in some supplements such as MSM, Hemp protein powder, and a green superfood. You may also want a high quality mineral supplement.

Are you getting enough fats in the form of flax and hemp seeds? Maybe Udo's perfect oil blend will help.

You can get most of these supplements at your health food store and on-line at
www.therawdiet.com/rawfood.html

MSM and extra protein will speed up hair growth

The answere you probobly won't get from anybody else here.

You certainly have made a dramatic change in your diet by going raw, now your body is going through a dramatic change. I would not recommend taking any sort of vitamin pills (since there is yet no scientific proven evidence of commercial vitamin supplementaton effects on the body), I would unfortunatly recommend that you have to revert back to your previous diet until you can identify what is causing this adverse reaction. Once you have identified what was causing the hair loss you can fix it and move back into your raw diet.

PS. Usually for a reaction as strong as hair loss their could be many more deleterious reactions going on inside your body.

Has anyone who's eaten a diet high in dark green leafy greens ever experienced hair loss?

I've said this before, but perhaps an overlooked answer could be that, with a raw food diet, often calories are in limited supply. This causes weight-loss, and with dramatic weight loss, hair loss can occur. If you haven't lost weight, then you're probably lacking in some vitamin or mineral(s). Although, it all goes back to nutrient deficiencies either way. And if that's not the answer, you can always point the finger at hormones. If you've recently stopped birth control, it can appear as though your hair is falling out more than usual. This has to do with its programmed cycle and the birth control interfering with it. Stopping the bc hits "reset," just as starting the bc did. In a few months your hair loss rate will be back to normal. If it's not birth control, then I still don't know.

My diet is very high in green leaves (juice and smoothies) and sprouts. I have not experienced any hair loss

first let me clarify that i've been eating mostly raw for almost three years, with a short cooked food period about two years ago that lasted several months, but then back to mostly raw for the last two years. the last 5 months or so i've been at a constant 95 - 100% raw. so i haven't reaaly dramatically changed my diet or anything. it's just becoming apparant to me that in all this time i haven't been adequately making sure i'm getting the right amounts of the nutrients that my body needs. i'm learning now that i need to give my diet even more attention than i have been.

on a daily level i usually start the day with a cup of tea, then in late morning have a little fruit, mostly in season, especially watermelon, mangos, plums, bananas, oranges, raspberries, strawberries, etc. i drink either lemonade, kombucha, coconut water or just water during my day. later in the day i usually have a large salad with lots of of dark greens, lettuces, and a variety of other veggies like cucumbers, tomatoes, sprouts of all kinds, a handful of raisans, some kind of seed or nut, maybe some avo..i dress my salad with some garlic chili flax oil, lemon and nama shoyu with a sprinle of nutritional yeast. lately i've been making a delicous kale and chard salad. sometimes i have some dehydrated crackers, or veggie burgers, but not much lately. sometimes i make some raw dessert like chocolate macaroons with raw cacao and agave, but not much lately.

that's about what i eat. now that i'm looking at it it does seem to be lacking in protein. i must add that i am 5'2" and weigh about 110, so if it doesn't seem like i consume a lot of calories, i don't, because i'm small.

thanks for the response everyone! i'm soo thankful for all of you..

peace,
misha

I've gone through periods were I have lost hair and I was eating cooked. Once it was because I colored my hair, the other time I ran out of shampoo and started useing dishsoap.

i just hope it stops soon! i really like my hair!

also i'm wondering if the fact that i did an extended master cleanse for 34 days a few months ago has anything to do with my current depletion. i wasn't really planning on doing it for so long. it's just that i felt so good while cleansing that it was hard to stop. maybe i took it too far.

monochromatism, those are all great thoughts. i did lose alot of weight rather quickly while doing the mc, so maybe that has something to do with it. i haven't been using bc for a while, but i am 45 so maybe it's hormones.

mike, i'm not really following any particular style of rawfoodism. i've just been going by what feels right in the moment. i'm looking into learning more about supplements and superfoods.

arugula, i'm all into using nutrition.com to help find the foods that have what i need, i'm just not sure what that is. i'm definately going to check into cysteine + methionine. also, just curious, what other cooked foods do you eat?

thanks again to everyone for their input..

misha

I know I don't have all of the answers, but I thought I'd add that hypothyroidism makes people's hair fall out. Some of my hair did several years ago. Just some input. *shrugs*