I have been raw for about 7/8 months now and I am currently losing hair in a massive way. My hair is falling out in chunks and I am beginning to see bald spots. As a result I am freaking out which is not helping the situation….
Does anyone have any advice in regards to this? I have recently bought MSM but would like further information in regards to this.
Has anyone else experienced this? Is it lack of protein? Lack of Iron?
Help me please!!!

Have you tried the green smoothies in victoria boutencho's "green for life"?

[rawfoodtrip.blogspot.com]
[jugglingforjoy.com]

Are you seeing an increase in shedding OR is your hair coming out in clumps? Are the bald spots completely clean and smooth, OR are the spots only thinning?

there is an increase in shedding and my hair is falling out in clumps in the shower. In regards to the bald spots they are a result of thinning.

I have recently purchased MSM, Iron and a B complex vitamin. I am hoping this helps, otherwise I am not sure what to do. I am seriously frightened!

Do some research on vitamin C. This happened to me as well when I went 100% raw for 9 months and it *was* scary to lose SO much hair! I later told a friend about it and she mentioned it having to do with vitamin c deficiency. I don't have time to research it myself, but you might look into it. It is a perplaxing problem!

I know others have had increased shedding on a raw food diet and then regrew all their hair back but thicker and healthier.

Make sure you're getting enough calories, protein, and iron from your raw foods. You might also want to take a B12 supplement.

It could very well be part of the detox process. If it doesn't stop or you don't experience regrowth, then you should could consider seeing a doctor to rule out thyroid, low ferritin, or other causes.

i use to have the same problem and it was an iron deficiency or at least i believe. I took blood builder(iron) from Megafood (there supplements are actually from whole foods). Now you could also be deficient in b12 and vitmin C for your body will not absorb the iron correctly if you are deficient in these. It is important to make sure that you are not deficient in all three. THis has at least been my personal experience - I hope this helps

This is one of those detox symptoms that some people go through on the raw diet. From everything I've heard, the hair always grows back, even thicker than before the detox happened.

I totally sympathise, this happened to me a few weeks ago and it was really scary and frustrating.

I decided to slow down my transition, though at 7-8 months raw, I'm not sure it can still be attributed to transition (I could be wrong!).

I added a multi vitamin, one that doesn't give you 1000% of the rda, just 100% of A, B, E, Iodine (since I don't consume salt and my thyroid is on the low side of normal), and some minerals.

My research tells me that the following deficiencies could be playing a role in your hair loss: zinc, iron, vitamin A and B's.

I have never taken supplements before, but have now decided to until I know how to get all my nutrients from my diet. I also added a bit more fat to my diet (in case it;s the omegas) in the form of quinoa. I know there are a lot of conflicting opinions out there about quinoa, but it's working for me right now.

I think once you supplement for a while, it will give you time to work out what you're not getting in your diet, while allowing you to not stress out to the point that it contributes to the hair loss.

Track your diet via online sites like fitday.com or nutridiary.com to make sure you're getting what you need.

As you can see from Bryan's furry picture :-) once you know how to get what you need from diet alone, you can let go of temporary crutches like a multivitamin that allow you some piece of mind.

That's just an opinion. I recommend a lot of research and experimentation with your diet. There's a wealth of information out there.

Hope this helps, I know it scares the crap out of me when I go through it!

My hair was falling out a lot especially when I was pregnant 8 years ago and I wasn't raw yet. I was addicted to eating salads for some reason and also lemon juice, I couldn't get enough of it. My hair was falling out all over the place, it was like I was shedding. But I shrugged it off to being pregnant and hormones. I figured it'd grow back afterwards. And it did.

Now that I'm on raw and it's been four months, the same thing is happening and it's everywhere. I noticed it thinning, but like Bryan said, it is a form of detox and that's what I'll accept. I suspect it'll grow back.

I read on some other messege boards that some woman actual cut off all their hair when they are going through the stage of hair falling out. I won't do that, but it would be a great benefit if I did.

Thank you all for the plethera of information. I have gone out and purchased 1500 mg of MSM, 28mg. iron and 100mg of a B complex.Vitamins are something I have been entirely opposed to but at this point I am willing to try anything if it keeps the hair on my head. In regards to balding areas, the spots are more or less just thinning out.

I will update with my progress on these supplements in another week... keeping my fingers crossed!

I agonised over it for a while too..the good news is that it is totally reversible, so I wouldn't worry about it.

tobizarre,

Here is a recent thread from the Yahoo! group called rawfood, from Leah who shares her experience about losing hair and how it returned after detoxing.


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Re: Hair Loss & Re-growth - Raw Food Archive
Posted by: Leah Morrison <l_morrison2002@...>
Date: Mon Oct 29, 2007 6:36 am

Tim,

I will add to what Elchanan posted earlier, it's some thing short that I wrote a while back when some one else asked. Granted this is from a woman's perspective, hopefully some thing in it will be useful for you.

Leah

Friday, November 10, 2006 Handfuls of Hair
This is some thing that I haven't talked much about outside my immediate family until recently. A request in the yahoo group Path of Health caused me to write the letter below. Given that hair loss is a fairly common occurrence in the raw food journey, I thought I would share the letter and my experience.

Dear ,

This has been happening to me. As you know, I started raw in Feb and the massive amounts of loss started less than 2-3 months into it.
I had HANDFULS of hair coming out in the shower and again when I was styling it. I was beyond devastated, I considered giving up raw just to make it stop! My family was convinced it was due to lack of protein, so the constant nagging didn't help.

The hair has stopped falling out, now I just have normal amounts of shedding. But I have areas that are VERY thin now, just short of bare spots. The good news is that if you lift up my bangs you can see LOTS of really short hairs. (1 inch or less) I can see that my hair is growing back, so I am a little less freaked out now.
My solutions? I started taking thyrocare for obvious thyroid problems, and a very special hair cut.

I had been looking into extensions or wigs to get me through until the little one inch hairs are longer... Anyway, I found a hair stylist who specializes in extensions and made an appointment. In the mean time I had been "studying" wigs and extensions on the internet. I found that I really liked the look of a Raquel Welch wig called "Boost". When I got to the hair appointment one of the wigs she had on display was the "boost." She looked at my hair, the bare spots and we talked options. She said I didn't have enough left for extensions. I said I would LOVE the look of the "Boost" wig... she said, you know we could very easily cut your hair like that. She got the wig down and showed me that it is a very very layered and "choppy" looking hair cut. The cut turned out to be a perfect way to make the short and long mix look like it was intended to be that way.
I can't begin to tell you how much better I feel about my hair since the hair cut. It looks better (professional & trendy) and is a perfect solution to the temporary hair loss that I experienced when I first went raw. I would encourage your friend to stay the course, it is indeed temporary but I also know how terrible it makes you feel while you are waiting for you body to start rebuilding. I would strongly encourage her to meet with an experienced stylist and look at cut and style options.

Leah
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One more thing regarding hair Loss & re-growth
Posted by: Leah Morrison <l_morrison2002@...>
Date: Mon Oct 29, 2007 11:10 am

After reading the letter that I re-posted earlier, I realized I should have
updated a couple of things. I originally wrote about hair loss in November of
2006. Shortly after writing it, I stopped taking not only the Thyrocare but all
supplements.

The good news is that given time and trusting Nature's design, my hair loss
stopped and as I described in the previous posts lots of tiny hairs took their
place. Now, I not only have my hair but the money I was spending on
supplements!

Leah
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Re: One more thing regarding hair Loss & re-growth
Posted by: "Tim Campbell" jtcaell@... jtcaell
Date: Mon Oct 29, 2007 1:02 pm ((PDT))

So Leah, did those "tiny hairs" you refer to grow to normal length?

Tim

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Re: One more thing regarding hair Loss & re-growth
Posted by: Leah Morrison <l_morrison2002@...>
Date: Mon Oct 29, 2007 2:32 pm

Tim,

They did, and they actually brought friends along with them too!

I think the key to this topic is knowing that your body will establish it's
cleaning and restoring priorities and take care of what is in your higher and
greatest good before restoring your hair and when that is done, your hair will
return much healthier.

Leah
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selenium/zinc deficiency, maybe?

Are you getting all your omegas?

I know that when I was in college and was very stressed and not eating enough my hair was falling out by the handfuls. I would literally have fistfuls of hair when I washed it and a clogged shower drain. Only my hair is really thick so it never showed. Eventually I finished school and had more time to eat and breath... My hair stopped falling out.

try "ho shu wu" (probably not spelling it right). Anyways shazzie talks about it in one of her utube videos. The herb comes from Chinese words that mean ho (the guys name), shu (head), and wu (black). Anyways, she talks about the Chinese story about a man that was around his 30-40s (if I remember right). He starts losing his hair, and he is not able to have children with his wife. Anyways, he comes across this monk one day, and he tells him his story. The monk recommends the herb, and the guy tries it. The story goes that the man hair changes from grey back to black (some of his hair grew back also), and he was able to have children with his wife. The man grew old and lived very long according to the story...

Might be something to try, aye?

Hi Brendan B- I think the name is He Shou Wu in chinese. In English, it is called Polygonum multiflorum.

In my opinion, detoxification symptoms such as losing their hair or teeth has to do with one's sex life. Having sex/masturbation can cause a lot of harms/damages to our body but nobody really knows it or really care about it. The most significant changes that one will notice is that, after some time without having sex/masturbate, one will feel sharper and physically stronger/better endurance. And this topic is often brought up in Buddhism and Taoism.

Hope I didn't offend anyone in any ways.

All the Best,
Wong

The link with sex would probably be lack of selenium, which is found in semen (I'm not sure about female secretions -?) AND in spinal fluid, which bathes the spinal cord and brain. The best source (by far!) of natural selenium is brazil nuts, assuming they have grown in soil that contains selenium. I've found that vegetal silica (from horsetail rush) supplements help with hair a little, too, although too much seems to make the hair slightly more brittle. For vitamin A (and D), if you are not entirely vegan you might consider cod liver oil tablets. For me, cod liver oil capsules seem to be one of the most productive/helpful supplements I've ever taken, and one of the few ways that I am not purely vegan.

Hair growth occurs in phases:

The "anagen" phase is when the hair is growing and usually has pigmentation (unless your hair has gone white). This is the longest phase, and can last up to a couple of years. Most (around 80 percent or more) of our hair will be in this phase at any given time.
The "catagen phase" lasts about two weeks. During this phase the hair stops growing but doesn't fall out yet. Only a small percentage (around 5 percent) of hair is in this state at any given time.
The "telogen" phase lasts about 6 weeks. This phase ends when a new hair starts to grow in, and the old hair falls out. About 12% of our body hair is usually in this phase at any one time.

The last two stages of this process is a little bit like baby teeth falling out and being replaced by adult teeth, except that it happens over and over again through the life of a follicle.

Because of this, it is POSSIBLE that your hair fallout could be part of the body's transition to a healthier state: if you have speeded up the cycle and put more follicles into the "telogen" phase, you may find increased new growth replacing those fallen-out (sort of pushed-out) hairs. Of course, it is also possible the hair is falling out due to a deficiency that is preventing the follicles from continuing to grow out the hair. That is, shifting more hairs out of the "anagen" phase. The body, in its wisdom, will use scarce nutrients for more critical life-functions than hair growth, during times of shortage.

Some of this process is also affected by hormones, so if you have suddenly shifted your diet, either to include substances that help you to heal/rebalance hormone levels, or to exclude substances (like hormones fed to livestock and then ingested by you) that were putting your hormones out of balance, this could cause a shift in hair growth. Excessive stress (ironically, including over-stressing about hair fallout!) can also contribute to hair loss. Ingestion of toxins can also cause hair fallout: think of chemotherapy victims, er, uh, patients going bald. Have you added a particular raw food that you were not eating before, that might somehow have been contaminated with a toxin (perhaps a heavy metal)? Are you experiencing any other symptoms (besides hair loss) that might suggest such a cause? A change of shampoo or conditioner (or even shower water contaminants) can also cause hair fallout, especially if you are allergic to or sensitive to an ingredient in them. [In such cases, the fallout will usually be accompanied by itching or a rash.] Lastly, there are a few auto-immune conditions which can cause alopecia (hair fallout). A few rare/odd diseases can also cause hair loss. These causes are less likely to apply in your case, but you might want to consider them briefly, just to eliminate them.

Follicles need good blood supply, too. Minoxidil ("Regaine", one of only two medicines ever clinically proven to actually restore/increase hair growth, works by dilating blood vessels and increasing blood flow. It was originally used as a high blood pressure medicine for this reason. Incidentally, tthe other proven remedy is finasteride/Propecia, which works on blocking the effects of a (male sex) hormone on the follicle, and it was originally intended for use in prostate conditions. I would NOT recommend it, especially for women, as I don't think anyone FULLY understands the complex interactions that govern hormones, and who knows what other long-term side-effects it could yet prove to have. Regaine would be safer to experiment with, but if your fallout is sudden, I wouldn't try it yet. Look for natural causes and cures, first.

The only way to be sure your hair will re-grow is to (1) ensure that you are getting a wide range of nutrients, including those most needed for hair growth; (2) eliminate stressors (stop getting freaked out about the hair loss and focus on how good you will look when it all grows back even thicker than before); and (3) make sure there is no hidden cause (check with an expert to run tests to eliminate the oddball causes like toxins). Lastly, get as generally healthy as you can. Get reggular exercise (but don't over-train!!!) and plenty of rest and generally focus on getting HEALTHY! Make sure your scalp stays relaxed (gentle massage is good for it) and has ample blood supply ( for a while each day, prop your feet up higher than your head to increase blood flow to the scalp).

Usually, these conditions that come on quickly reverse themselves after a while, so stay optimistic and just get on with life. You may well be looking back at this time in a year or two and chuckling about it, as you enjoy thicker, better hair than ever!

i suggest a nutrition tracker like fitday.com just to make sure you aren't missing something important. good luck and take care.