Odd things with my hair!

[MelAlice]

Hi all, I have weird stuff going in with my hair, wondering if anyone else has experienced similar. I have just a bit longer that shoulder length hair atm, I vary often over the years from short to long! It's always had odd kinks when it's been longer, but now it has curls! And they are real cork screw type curls! Any ideas why it may have changed? I do have much thinner hair than I used to, but it's even and all over thankfully

[Purpletop]

You're probably on Plaquenil? That drug causes changes to hair structure and it could also cause bleaching, I.e. White hair.

[MelAlice in reply to Purpletop]

Ahhhh, thank you! Yes I have got a lot whiter too but I thought that was just my age! Lol thanks for that Purpletop x

[frog]

Hi, I am glad you asked about your hair going curly, as my hair has always been very fine and straight, and now it is going into ringlets, and it is quite hard to settle it down, I tried straighteners, but by time I went to work it looked like curly candy floss, (you never know it might start a new trend! )

[MelAlice in reply to frog]

Lol wow!! That's exactly the same as me! I'm going with it, I've changed my conditioner and my hair falls into amazing ringlets now, rather than just looking messy x

[Hidden in reply to frog]

I've had naturally curly hair all my life... I hope mine doesn't go straight now! Lol. There are really good styling products that will help you manage your curls - John Frieda 3 Day Straight is really good. A 'Brazilian Blow Dry' is something your hair dresser can do for you, as well as a clever hair cut.

[MelAlice in reply to Hidden]

Thanks Shazzer1976

[willowwag]

Hi there, my hairs the same ive had shoulder length black hair and it curls for no reason at the bottoms, ive also gone white like purpletop said above im stuck now colouring all the time because of bright white roots, hairs falling out when i brush or wash, so only wash once a week now, coconut oil/water is really good for hair thats shedding due to medication x im lucky at the moment you cant see any patches.

[MelAlice in reply to willowwag]

I'm lucky and the white hairs are well spread out so not too noticeable! I used to dye my hair too Willowwag because my hair is dark brown, but I'm finally at an age where it's a bit more respectable to be going grey

[SjogiBear]

Oh my goodness! I was wondering what on earth has happened to my hair as well . . . it's always been pretty much dead straight - even to the point that when I had a special corkscrew perm done when I got married, it didn't even take. However, over the past few months my hair has also developed corkscrew curls - I started on Plaquenil at the end of April. My hair is very very thin so now I just look permanently as if I've been dragged through a hedge backwards! Even if I try and blowdry my hair straight, it curls within 10 minutes - but not in a neat good way - just very very messy!!!!! I have no idea how to deal with it - at least my hair hasn't fallen out so I shouldn't complain. I do get dry, itchy patches now though - almost like dandruff but limited to one sore place with large flakes. (I'm painting a really pretty picture here aren't I!)

[denden]

Thank you MelAlice for asking the questions and thank you Purpletop for the answer. Indeed as you can see you've help many of us, including myself, who are faced with the same issue

I've found facing the mirror a real challenge. I had lovely, long auburn hair, but now my hair is so thin with white streaks and a bald patch as a result of the scarring alopecia. My eye-lashes are almost gone too On Sunday last, an elderly lady asked me what's wrong with my hair! I felt extremely embarrassed/ashamed. Not sure how to answer this question. Any suggestions?

[Purpletop in reply to denden]

To stop hair from falling so dramatically you need to stop your disease from being so active. While Plaquenil may change th hair structure, it doesn't cause severe hair loss. You need to discuss this with your rheumatologist. When my hair was falling like crazy my rheumatologist said that's a minor symptom by comparison with the rest and it didn't warrant immunosuppressive a on top of Plaquenil. But other than the fact that losing our hair is emotionally distressing, I was more worried about my lupus being active, so I did in the end got put on immunosuppressives and that slowed down the hair loss.

[denden in reply to Purpletop]

Thanks Purpletop, will definitely be raising the question at my next appointment.