Please share hair texture experience from both Hyperthyroidism or Hypothyroidism

[Tomchr]

I am 48 years old and I have been feeling quite sluggish for a very long time. I used to have very thick hair, but the last couple of years, I have noticed that my hairstrands have become very thin/fine, about 1/2 of the original diameter. I started noticing significant hairfall after wash around three years ago.

Here are three thyroid blood test results:

TSH 5,09 → 6.94 → 2.9 mU/l (range 0.4-4.6 mU/l)

T4(free) 18,1 → 17.0 → 15.9 pmol/L (range 9,1 - 23,8 pmol/L)

T3(total) 3,6 → 2,6 → 2,3 nmol/L (range 1,10 - 2,50 nmol/l)

To sum up:

- My hair is now straight, texture like candyfloss, superdry and fragile, fine strands, hairfall when running a hand through. It used to be wavy, dry, fast growing and very thick with zero hair fall.

Can anyone share their experience regarding noticeable hair texture changes when they discovered having either hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism?

[Aurealis]

I have had hair loss with hypothyroidism and course thick dry hair at other times. I think hypo and hyper can both affect hair

[Tomchr in reply to Aurealis]

Yes both hypo and hyper affect hair. As hypo, experiencing hair loss, did you notice a change in texture? Did the hair loss stop when you reached some specific T3 or T4 level? If yes, did you notice any hair texture change afterwards?

[GlowCoach Administrator]

Hair loss is often associated with low ferritin. What are your vitamins looking like - ferritin, folate, B12 and D3?

The results you've posted look pretty hypo to me. TSH above 2, 3 times.

[Tomchr in reply to GlowCoach]

It is hypo, though? Looking at the hormones, the T4 and T3 values seem quite high range-wise compared to usual hypo values. That's why I am looking at hypo vs hyper symptoms such as hair.

[GlowCoach Administrator in reply to Tomchr]

You've given a result for total T3. FreeT3 (FT3) is usually what people look at to know if you have enough active hormone. Do you have those results?

I see your vitamin results look good, also no antibodies but that doesn't rule out thyroid. You have had a few high TSHs which unless you were ill at the time would indicate an issue with your thyroid. Taking a B complex too close to test can affect blood results also. Were you taking a B complex when you had the tests taken?

Other things to look at are diet. Have you tried a gluten free diet? Dairy can also cause fatigue issues.

My hair texture is very reactive to thyroid hormone levels. I have thick hair and it's now fragile and difficult to control.

[Tomchr in reply to GlowCoach]

My free T3 levels have not been measured, due to the usual problems with the health services not willing to do a full hormone test. However, high totals usually go hand in hand with high free levels.

My diet is both dairy and gluten free.

Yes, biotin has an influence on TSH/T4/T3 values, if taken before blood tests. However, biotin lowers TSH and raises T4 and T3. My test values are all faily close and were sampled around 9:15 am.

Not referring to density, are your hairstrands still thick as hypo? How would you describe your hair texture?

Biotin influence on thyroid tests:

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

journals.lww.com/md-journal...

[GlowCoach Administrator in reply to Tomchr]

When hypo (currently undermedicated) my hair is coarser, not finer or thinner. That may vary from person to person though, I wouldn't know.

A keto diet helped me a bit for energy.

[Tomchr]

Here are some blood test results:

TRAb <0.8 IU/L

Anti-TG <12 kIU/L (negative)

Anti-TPO <28,0 kIU/L

Iron 17 umol/L (range 9-34)

Ferritin 142 ug/L (range 12-300)

Transferrin saturation 0.33 (range 0.20-0.50)

Transferrin 1.99 g/L (range 1.91-3.26)

Folate 49,4 nmol/L (range >8.6)

B12 638 pmol/L

D-Vitamin 174 nmol/L

However, some symptoms seem hyper, others seem hypo. Suffering from hypothyroidism, did you notice changes to your hair and nails?

[Tomchr]

Anyone here?