My workmate's husband has a thyroid condition and is on medication. She told me that when he first went to see the doctor he looked him and was particularily interested about his grey patch of hair on top of his head ( he is dark haidred man otherwise). The doctor arranged a bloodtests and sure enough he needed to go on medication immediately as it was so bad. The doctor said that he has been observing patients for few years and they have one thing in common ..an odd patch/tuff of grey hair otherwise in normal coloured hair and he could tell they have a thyroid condition !!!! Let e know if you know anything about this or anyone who has this hair bit thing! Have a nice day :o)
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ThyroidHell
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I had this from age sixteen - people used to comment that I had rubbed against the chalkboard or ask if I'd been painting. OMG, could the thyroid problem have been discovered decades earlier?!
Looks like it :o( it really is strange and to think that simple side effect like grey patch of hair could indicate life time of not feeling well and to discover it early and with right medication things could have been put right.
That's interesting. I had a grey patch on one side for many years, but it's less noticeable now as I'm going grey all over through normal ageing. Another reason to make me think I've had underactive thyroid for longer than I realised.
But it is good to hear of a GP who is interested and curious enough to make these kinds of observations, and to tell his patients about them. That is truly practising medicine.
Its funny actually , I spotted a man walking in town centre and had this ..was dying to ask ' excuse me but do you have a thyroid problem' don't know if I would have been told to 'mind my own business' he he hee
Thyroidhell, i get that inclination often and am convinced folk think I am a weird cause I take an extra bit of interest in them. Sometimes it has come into conversation and they are on thyroxine.
Another bit of trivia being a Graham Norton fan have watched him over the years and believe he had a distinct grey patch. He shows no sign of brain fog though!
ThyroidHell, I saw this way back before he turned 50 and now only use iplayer and picture quality not so good as tv...off to put him on pause and check out the eye bags..could it be am getting a tad obsessive?
Oh. I had a grey streak from about 21 - people called it my 'Mallen Streak' (from a Catherine Cookson book, I think!). So, it's been going on for years (I'm 55!).
Well, sorry to disappoint you all, but I didn't have a grey patch at any time. However, I did start going grey at a very early age - about 27, I think - and that is a hypo symptom too.
Thank you, RoloHibbs, for explaining the Mallen Streak! A friend of mine told me she had one when she was in ther thirties, I think. I had no idea what it was! But, I've suspected for many years that she has a thyroid problem. But if I mentioned it to her, she reacted as if I'd suggested she had an STD!!! There's intelligence for you!
I read about this in a library book about 16 yrs ago when first diagnosed as hypo, sorry cant remember title of book.I noticed a patch of very light hair on top which had been there for years and used to get whispered comments about having dyed it and missed a bit !!! Have never dyed it ,lot of ignorance out there but then I didn't know until I read the book,I was tested because of voice changes!!
The hairdresser has comment on the fact that my hair is only grey on the very top and still dark brown underneath and at the back. I did wonder if it was thyroid related but thought I can't put everything down to my thyroid.
What I want to know is can it return to it's original colour if you get the medication right?
My hair is the same, very grey on top and sides but normal colour at the back. In fact I have more grey hair than my mother and she is 85 and thyroid problem free as far as I know. I have three brothers 1 older and two younger and I am the greyest of them all.
I started going grey in my mid-20s and was completely grey by the time I was 30! If I had known then that this and the ridiculously heavy, painful periods I was having all related to the thyroid I would have been able to do something about it then... As it was I just started dying my hair, stocked up on the painkillers and made sure I had no reason to go out for the first 2 days of my period. Funny how it turns out we've had this far longer than we thought, eh? :/
I had one grey patch at the side from my early 20's, as Zephyrbear terrible monthlys & then thyroid came to light a couple of years after the change. My hair's been dyed for years so haven't a clue what my 'natural' colour is now !! Odd coincidene
I had my first greys from my early 20s but still only have a scattering and am now 56. Seems to be going slowly. At least one thing that couldn't be going slowly enough as opposed to everything else that could do with a lot of speeding up!
As an 80's chick, I had a shock of white hair that I dyed because I loved the vampire/Adams family look, and now I have a patch which I have noticed more and more because now I colour my hair auburn and keep wondering why I keep getting this vivid patch of red on the left side of my head, and realise that the hair is white/silver underneath. This could be the answer, how very strange indeed...
I had a bold grey streak that started mid-20s. Hashi's hit full force around 40 and was very ill but wasn't diagnosed til mid-40s, just before all hair fell out with Alopecia.
When I saw Dr P, he figured I'd been hypo since at least early twenties, which would tie in with the streak.
It seems to be common in my mum's side of family so didn't think anything of it, but with benefit of hindsight.. they're all hypo! Dad didn't have it though and he was severely hypo.
I wonder if there could be some kind of autoimmune connection as I know that Alopecia (autoimmune) attacks hair with pigment before hair with no pigment. If the autoimmune process can detect the presence of pigment, perhaps it can also switch it on/off.
Now that is interesting! (And I immediately thought Graham Norton too!) I've never had any grey patches of head hair (not that I'm aware of anyway) although I did find my first grey hair a week before my 27th birthday. I'm now 45 and not particularly grey apart from at my temples and a sprinkling of "salt", but, weirdly, I have a patch of unpigmented hair under one arm. I only noticed when I got lax about shaving it – the hair is completely colourless and the skin beneath it (an area about the size of a penny) also seems to be paler than the rest of my skin (not a huge amount of contrast as I'm a pasty Celt but visible to the naked eye).
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my patch is on top in middle !!
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