Posted , 17 users are following.
Hi all you wonderful people. Is hair loss normal for a side effect of pred?
Luckily, I have alway had very thick hair, but, not anymore, this winter it seems to be coming out extraordinarily heavy. I wish it were so on the face.
0 likes, 34 replies
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Harrie4 patricia43291
Posted
Good Lord! The things you learn on this site!! Somedays its like waking up and finding a bunch of cool sisters you never knew you had.
And brothers.
A blessing!
nancy02150 patricia43291
Posted
oh yes, my thick top of head hair no longer need thinning to lay down...in fact the new hair is curly and i"ve never had curly hair.....quite the change after 75 years of straight stuff...but i have hair.
ptolemy patricia43291
Posted
Are you taking Methotrexate? That seems worse than pred at causing your hair to fall out!
jillian92038 patricia43291
Posted
Totally the same for me! When I first started taking pred nearly 4 years ago I didn't notice a great change in the amount of hair either on my head or face. However after a flare and necessary increase in meds, I noticed both. Seven months on the hair loss has slowed although my head of hair is still great deal thinner. Annoyingly the facial hair continues but both my eyelashes and eyebrows are struggling to make an appearance!
EileenH jillian92038
Posted
Whereas my eyelashes are so thick it isn't true and my eyebrows are also thicker than for years!!
jeannecatlover patricia43291
Posted
I was planning to go to a place to get laser hair removal for my face. But I keep reading that lasers can't remove the light hairs, only the dark ones. Is that true? I have both light and dark hair on my face (I've had this all my life, though pred may have increased the light hairs). Can anyone speak to the efficacy of laser hair removal?
Would it be better to use an epilator? I confess I never heard that term until reading the posts here. Does that remove both light and dark hair? Does it grow back worse, as the old myth goes? Or does the hair gradually stop growing back? Or will I have a five o'clock shadow as it starts growing back but isn't long enough to remove?
I'd love to get a sense of what is the best alternative and how well it works. I also have rosacea. While it is under control, I worry that either laser or epilator might aggravate the rosacea.
Thanks!
EileenH jeannecatlover
Posted
An epilator is just a fast tweezer in lots of ways - so isn't a good option on broken skin so I'm not sure about with rosacea, you would have to ask about that,
Laser hair removal:
"Laser hair removal will work on light hairs that contain dark pigment, laser has no effect on light hairs that are blonde, red, grey or white in colour as they don’t contain enough pigment for the laser to absorb into.
Laser uses the dark pigment (melanin) in hairs as a target, the more melanin a hair contains the more heat it will absorb from the laser. When a laser is pulsed onto the skin the light from the laser is absorbed into the hair shaft and heat is transferred into the follicle. This heat is directed down into the base of the follicle where it heats and disables the interconnecting cells that connect the small blood supply to the hair. This is a safe procedure and has been trialled and tested by the FDA."
Waxing removes the top layer of skin each time - so I assume also not good for rosacea.
However - the epilator option plucks the hairs but fast and in quantity, not like single hairs with tweezers, so is a bit painful the first few times but you get used to it and it removes all the hairs, whatever colour. I find it isn't as good for the thicker sort of hairs, I still use a tweezers for them. The hair grows back in fine and with a tapered tip so isn't stubbly like shaved hair tends to be. Most people find the hair growth does weaken over time. I find having used the epilator for the fine peach fuzz I don't need it again for a few months at least. The epilator also has a shaver head - if you can't face the stingy part of epilating. There are newer ones aimed at just the face, smaller and slower so less painful.
Hope this helps.
ptolemy jeannecatlover
Posted
It is really white hair that has problems which has lost the melanin. You can always have electrolysis. That works on any hair. People say it is less painful than laser but I don't know.
EileenH ptolemy
Posted
Electrolysis isn't very practical for peach fluff! Each individual hair follicle must be treated and in most cases more than once. I did try it once years ago - cost a lotto!!!!
jeannecatlover EileenH
Posted
Thanks very much for that information, Eileen. I'm glad to know that epilators are like tweezers. I have done plenty of tweezing, so that makes me comfortable with the idea of using an epilator.
I don't have any broken skin. My rosacea is pretty well controlled. I guess I'll give this a try and see what happens. It would be nice not to have such a fuzzy face. Sounds like I may still want laser for the darker hairs.
jeannecatlover ptolemy
Posted
Ptlomey, I had electrolysis years ago, before I was diagnosed with rosacea. It took quite a few visits, but I did get rid of some unsightly dark hairs. I was hoping laser would be better than electrolysis, but I guess laser is limited in which hairs it can treat.
ptolemy jeannecatlover
Posted
I did hear that laser may not be one hundred per cent. Mind you the person who did electrolysis told me that, she said someone had had it done locally and then they came to her with a face full of black hairs! It may just be hearsay of course.
jeannecatlover EileenH
Posted
I've been looking at epilators and am finding it difficult to tell which one might be best. Many seem large for use on the face. The small ones have comments that they aren't powerful enough. Can you recommend a particular model or qualities to look for?
EileenH jeannecatlover
Posted
I have a 25 year old normal size Braun - still works well so why would I get another? It's fine on my face on the slower setting - you just have to be careful your hair is out of the way so it doesn't get caught by mistake. Mine was bought for legs as well.
No idea about any of the others - can't see how they can't be powerful enough though. They will just take longer to cover a given area if they are smaller.
Twopies patricia43291
Posted
my hair fell out in globs when i started at 20 mg pred 2 1/2 years ago. now im at 5 mg.; its back but feels like straw, no bounce, no springiness. bo life. my natural curls are back yet somehow it just isnt the same. ahhh, vanity!
ptolemy Twopies
Posted
My hair was horrendous, but has improved a bit at a lower dose of pred. It felt just like straw and I looked a bit like Worzel Gummidge, Someone recommended Viviscal which is the only thing that has actually helped after trying dozens of things including Argan. Together they have all cost a fortune.