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Hair color loss?

awol

Senior Member
Messages
417
This is not something I've seen discussed here (could be wrong), but one of my earliest symptoms, before full blown ME/CFS was that I noticed my hair had lost its color. I was always strawberry blonde, now, mostly just blonde. Obviously not something I felt I urgently needed to discuss with doctors but I was just curious if anyone else had noticed something similar.

My skin also changed, but that would be another symptom thread.
 

Greggory Blundell

Senior Member
Messages
109
Location
New Jersey, USA
Hair today...

My hair has thinned. Not talking about the amount of hair, but rather the quality of each strand. It's thinner and seemingly frail, almost life less. If a breeze comes, I transform into Larry of the Three Stooges. My wife gets a kick out of it, though.
 

HopingSince88

Senior Member
Messages
335
Location
Maine
My haircolor went from strawberry blonde to a drab mousy color. I will call the color murine. LOL

I thought that the color change was just due to growing older, but it is now 22 years later and it is still mouse-color. The white/gray is just starting to come in.
 

awol

Senior Member
Messages
417
My haircolor went from strawberry blonde to a drab mousy color. I will call the color murine. LOL

I thought that the color change was just due to growing older, but it is now 22 years later and it is still mouse-color. The white/gray is just starting to come in.

So interesting! Maybe this just happens to strawberry blondes. I know for a fact that in my case it is not about getting older because I always had the same coloring as my aunt, who is now in her 60s and has redder hair than me. It was even her who noticed that mine had changed!
 

HopingSince88

Senior Member
Messages
335
Location
Maine
My Mom is 80 years old. She had dark chestnut brown hair in her youth. It also changed to a mousy color in her middle years, but never turned gray as she aged. I suspect she may have XMRV and this is where I got it. When my Mom was about 72 years old she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent chemo. She lost her mousy hair, and when it grew back it was her original dark chestnut color. This somewhat fits with other comments that folks have made regarding chemo for cancer helping with some CFS symptoms.
 

laura

Senior Member
Messages
108
Location
Southern California
I'm so glad you mentioned this crazy symptom! My hair used to be a rich brown with natural reddish highlights, which would get a little blond in the summertime. After I got sick, it was as if someone stripped all the color out of my hair, and it turned into an icky, dull, non-descript gray/brown/black color. And it is much thinner than before as well, over the past years I have noticed a lot of hair falls out. I have tried to research solutions to no avail.

All I can say is, hooray for color in a bottle! :)

Someone I think on this forum mentioned something about reduced blood flow to the head/brain and I wonder if perhaps the hair follicles are not getting the nutrients and oxygen they need...?
 

leelaplay

member
Messages
1,576
me too - from blonde to xmrvish - oh - I mean mousy brown. Who is that woman in the mirror? It might just be age.
 
D

DysautonomiaXMRV

Guest
Mine is turning white, kind of depressing when young.
 

liverock

Senior Member
Messages
748
Location
UK
The Acumen Lab in London that carries out the Mitochondrial testing for CFS patients, has found hair dye to be one of the main elements causing blockages in the Mito's. One woman had a 40% blockage of her mito's with hair dye.:eek:
 

leelaplay

member
Messages
1,576
Mine is turning white, kind of depressing when young.

I have a friend, a doctor, a good one, who turned white at about 25, like his mother did. Both are attractive people and wore/wear the white well. Didn't diminish their attractiveness a bit. Hope that helps. Maybe it's working for you and you don't know it!
 

JMK

Messages
28
My hair has gotten much, much thinner. In fact, if I had not started out with very thick hair, I would be bald by now. Whatever hair I lose, does not come back in, therefore, I will be bald before long. Strange thing is, the hair that I do have seems to grow normally. I am female, btw, which makes this phenemenon all the more fun. My doctor tells me that he is completely baffled by this. Ah, but then he says that about all of my symptoms. I also have an extremely sensitive scalp, so much so, that it is excruciatingly painful just to brush my hair. Does anyone else have this sensitivity?
 

Sallysblooms

P.O.T.S. now SO MUCH BETTER!
Messages
1,768
Location
Southern USA
I can't blame my CFS for everything, but I got gray early. So did my hubby though. Lots of people do. Thank heavens for ammonia free hair color!!
 

Stone

Senior Member
Messages
371
Location
NC
Here's another strawberry blonde whose hair turned, yes, mousey brown at age 33 when I got sick. Both my sisters have CFS, they had similar color hair,one darker blonde than mine and one lighter blonde than mine. We all got sick at different ages, but when we did, our hair indeed turn that boring, pitiful mousey color like the water you empty out of a carpet steam cleaning machine. Two of us dye our hair, one doesn't. The one that doesn't dye her hair is generally healthier, I must admit. Interesting.
 

laura

Senior Member
Messages
108
Location
Southern California
The Acumen Lab in London that carries out the Mitochondrial testing for CFS patients, has found hair dye to be one of the main elements causing blockages in the Mito's. One woman had a 40% blockage of her mito's with hair dye.:eek:

I didn't know that there was a connection between hair dye and mitochondrial blockages. Hmm. I don't think I've noticed any worsening of my symptoms since I started using the hair dye (I had already been sick for at least six years and now I've used it for a number of years) but I haven't paid attention. I'll have to think more closely about my symptom history...

And I wonder if there is a hair dye that is less toxic/doesn't do that...?
 

awol

Senior Member
Messages
417
- hair loss is often linked to a thyroid problem. Have those of you experiencing hair loss also been diagnosed with hypothyroidism?

- I am interested in the frequent use of the adjective "mousy". It is definitely different from greying. Just dullness that mostly seems to affect any reddish tones or highlights right? Rich browns turning blah, redheads turning dull blonde...
 

HopingSince88

Senior Member
Messages
335
Location
Maine
Awol-
Yes...on the mousy just losing its highlights, sheen, vibrancy. I was 35 when my hair went mousy all at once. It was not the normal aging change of color. Luckily, my hair is now turning white, and it is a pretty bright and shiny white. At present it is only turning on the top, and the back is still mousy drab. I have colored my hair all these years, but made a decision just last month to let my natural color grow back in...just to see what it looks like.

I am interested in the mito-hair coloring connection, and if there is something safer to do...in case I don't like the skunk look I suspect I will discover once my own color has grown in.
 

awol

Senior Member
Messages
417
the connection to hair dye is possibly interesting. For me it is not at all relevant though. I have never in my life dyed my hair. I always liked the color, and even now, still like it. It is not red anymore, but it is still a nice blonde.

Anyway, I think the hair dye thing is interesting, but it is not the issue for me at all. Something else is going on.