A friend had hair falling out when she started leflunomide. She stopped. I found a site that said it is rare. I thought: Well, doesn't prednisone also cause hair loss? Here is a link:
I hope the link works for you. The authority on the site is a pharmacist.
I suppose it depends on the individual whether leflunomide or prednisone causes more hair loss.
I'm only on prednisone and have not tried anything else. For a number of weeks, I noticed much hair fall. In the last couple weeks, nothing comes out when I comb. Apparently, my hair cycle is in the resting phase right now. My rheumy has advised me to stay at 6 mg. , which I've taken for 2 months and now having no flares. It's possible that a change in dosage might affect my hair cycle, who knows?
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darkred
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Morning dark red,never had hair fallout with MTX,Leflunomide or Pred.Pretty sure it was either Pred,or Leflunomide that has given me my “Larry the Lamb,Harpo Marx “ curls.My hair has always been thick but now it is even thicker.,Guess I am lucky eh,but how I HATE these damn curls!😡🌼😜xx
I want your thick hair. I want your "damn curls." Thank you for your post. And it's so interesting that none of those drugs caused hair fall. My hair is thin, so I don't want to lose anymore.
Thankyou for your reply dark red.Guess I SHOULD be grateful for my thick hair,but NOT the curls!Always been lucky with volume,have gone through the eras of cropped”skinhead” as a young teen.,🤣,the long corkscrew perm, ,Farah Fawcwett Majors the lot!As I got older I preferred it short,highlighted and modern,now ….well,what to do with it!Could do a PMRpro and get it to shoulder length but would look like a lamb long ready for shearing,so guess once again,a trip to the hairdresser to let her sort it out!Maybe I could save the curls for you?xx🌼🤣🐑🐏🐑🐏🐩🐩😜
I get lots of compliments, especially here since I bear a decided resemblance to the Nuremburg Christmas angel! But a teenager in Scotland passed me in the park and turned to say how much she liked it! Mine was curly pred PMR and PMR totally messed it up. It is finer and frizzier now but when it is behaving it is nice.
Nah,love my sleepySuffolk.My sweet little Rheumy man is moving on to Bournemouth 😪Have a Spanish lady taking over my care,hope she has a sense of humour,cos she will need one!xx🤣🌼😜
Yes, straight hair has been "in" forever, it seems. Have thought of getting a perm, but my daughter recently told me: "just don't ever get a perm again. I hated it when you got the last one." That was at least ten years ago. I aim to please. I think perms have got to come back. It will give hairdressers something to do. But natural curls are always better than chemical, which may not even take when we are on meds. I now wear my hair in a pixie, which looks better than long, stringy hair. Still, a pixie looks great, I think, if there is some wave or curl to work with. I did inherit my mom's hair that doesn't go gray until almost a nonagenarian. Now, wouldn't I be lucky if it was also thick?
Pixies are great,good for you,mine is just UGH.,Don’t get a perm,always reminds me of the blue rinse brigade and sorry if any members have one!But the new shades of pink ,mauve etc are great but have not got the courage to do it!Might get a washout one for Xmas for a giggle but with the lamb curls,it might look like the “ farmers brand” !xx😜🌼
Yeah, "the blue rinse brigade" often has perms. I'm still trying hard to look and feel young. I believe my daughter will have to see me as old if I get a perm.
I dress young,hair style WAS young but need to iron my wrinkles then perhaps I would LOOK young.,.Never look on myself as old,in spite of aches and pains,up until GCA etc was always first on dance floor and last off!Put my kids to shame I tell you.Xx🌼😜💃🏼👠
Not with you,do you mean the weight gain irons out the wrinkles?I have lost all my pred weight,back to normal weight,still got my original wrinkles!Would not dream of having Botox myself,if the wrinkles are good enough for Sid James,they are good enough for me.,xx🌼😜
Lucky you!Only have top lip wrinkles but that was my very dirty habit of smoking years ago I guess.Moonface went when I got down to about 7 mg pred.My mother never had wrinkles,beautiful skin until the day she died.,bless her.x🌼😜
Serious or systemic illness can also cause hair loss and is often delayed. I’ve seen it countless times in patients who weren’t on any tough medication. Also skin peeling, particularly after infection.
Mine fell out badly 5 months after GCA went ballistic . By that point I had gone from 60mg to 18mg. The next significant loss was when I had months of very poor adrenal function. By this point my Pred dose was low.
I'd guess that what you went through would definitely affect your hair. The year 2023 was extremely stressful for me, healthwise and other issues and could very well have been a factor, though I'm fortunate to only have PMR, not GCA, so my starting dose of Pred was low.
I'm not saying she isn't right on that point about pred - however that particular pharmacist has expressed some strange ideas about pred in the past!
And maybe I'm cynical - but it is strange that several sites that purport to provide unbiased "I want to help you from my own experience" information ALSO plug the sale of their own supplements which have been perfected for just this purpose.
Mine can look like a mop!!! It is shoulder length now and the weight is starting to smooth out the frizz that the Scottish climate brought back in all its glory - lots better now I'm home.
MXT does your hair no favours - mine was coming out in clumps of about 10 hairs at a time immediately after the first dose. Although edoxaban and other DOACs hadn't been associated with hair loss during clinical trials, post-marketing monitoring appears to have found that they CAN cause hair loss. So probably a less common effect only seen once very large numbers of patients are using them.
I had hair loss about 6 months in on pred. It was coming out in handfuls every time I washed my hair and I was distraught. I have fine hair, but had a lot of it and it had been my crowning glory. My formerly smooth poker straight hair turned into the kind of frizz that looked like I had plugged my finger into the electricity socket. It was breaking off at what would have been about 6 months' growth. Of course, I blamed the pred, then remembered that I had also taken alendronic acid for 3 weeks at the same time, and then had stopped because of the GI effects. My money is still on the AA, as I am still taking pred. I had my hair cut in a bob at chin level and the breakage stopped. I have been using super hydrating conditioners since then, which has calmed down the frizz quite a lot. But I can't help noticing that the regrowth since stopping the AA is looking a lot healthier than the longer hair that is still growing out and it seems to be gradually returning to its previous mop..
However, that said, I can't help thinking that a lot of the hair troubles that we have must be, to a greater or lesser extent, due to the underlying auto immune illness, rather than the meds. My nails aren't brilliant either, weak and flaky; hair and nails, all fast growing cells.
My hair did fall out in handfuls about 6 months after starting pred. I am not taking other drugs. Two years later and on 2mg it has grown back and is super curly. Such a shock after having straight hair my whole life. I like it though.
Am on a raft of meds and 4 months post traumatic fall started losing hair. GP referred it to ‘moderates diffuse hair loss’. I believe Rosemary oil and biotin are good and zinc too. I can see new hair growth now but this may be just coincidental.. Ironic really - my hair at 15 was Afro like and huge! 🤣.
I believe it’s the illness and all the meds. that’s the diva for one! 🤣
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