Hair loss

[barbieg]

Hope I don’t upset any body with this photo. My hair had already been coming out on my 2x2 dose of Sulfasalazine, but got worse when I went up to 5 a day. I’ve now added 3 Methotrexate a week to start with and this is my hair in just a week from vacuuming my bedroom carpet. Is this normal?

[oldtimer]

There is a useful summary about the cycles of hair growth here:

cancerhaircare.co.uk/unders...

I do find that I lose a lot of hair and it has got thinner over the years, but I haven't developed alopecia (loss of all hair), so I'm grateful for that.

But lots of people do have to deal with hair loss and it is something to think about and deal with.

[Nsmith13]

It is upsetting I know mine went very thin so I took extra folic acid but then had to stop all meds I had infection and it soon all bounced bk very quick have a word with. your nurses if it's to distressing or some snazzy head gear be nice

[Mmrr]

I have some hair loss with MTX , but after 9 months it now seems to be slowing down and is very much dose related.

A new hair style may help give the appearance of volume to your hair, ask your hairdresser.

[BonnieT]

Are you taking folic acid and Biotin? And still having this happen?

[barbieg in reply to BonnieT]

I wasn’t taking Folic Acid until I started Methotrexate. My hair has been coming out for some years but got worse I think when they tried upping the dose of Sulfasalazine. I’ve never taken Biotin and not sure what it is.

[BonnieT in reply to barbieg]

When I told my rheumy that I was losing hair she put me on folic acid. Next appointment I said I was still having hair loss. She then added Biotin which is an essential B-complex vitamin that aids in the normal metabolism of carbs proteins and fats. I have had problems keeping my B levels up which my endocrinologist told me years ago but never gave me anything to help. It does seem to have slowed things up for me for the moment.

[Joy_1]

I am on 20mg MTX. As soon as I hit 15mg my hair started to fall out. I have long hair so it appeared even worse than it was. After a couple of months it stopped falling out and started to grow again. It was my hairdresser that spotted the new hair coming in.

15mg was not enough to dampen down the RA so my dose was increased to 17.5mg - and thus the cycle of hair loss started again. This occurred again when I went from 17.5 to 20mg. 20mg seems to be doing the trick and once again the hair loss has stopped.