thinning hair and henna/cassia application???

[shanniesue2]

I'm hoping someone has some good advice...

My mom's hair is rapidly thinning. About 15 years ago, she had her thyroid gland removed and her hair has been gradually getting thinner ever since. However, recently it has started to get really bad. She is having to change the way she combs her hair to cover the thin spots... they are very close to becoming bald spots. Her hair is also very coarse/dry (it's also naturally VERRRRY curly). I know all this because about every 2 months she asks me to put OTC hair color on her hair b/c it is also graying. Mom is 60.

This weekend, I suggested a few changes to her hair care routine. I suggested she stop shampooing and start doing CO washes. I also suggested that she use head and shoulders conditioner and only wash every 2-3 days if she can (not very natural, I know, but she had REALLY bad dry scalp or something this time around..H&S is the only thing that works for my dry scalp). I also told her that I think she needs to stop using the hair color. I think the chemicals are frying her hair and making it all worse. I also suggested a cassia treatment just to see if that wouldn't help condition the hair and get rid of the dry scalp. But now I'm wondering if putting a thick muddy mixture on her hair would make more hair fall out????

She probably needs to check with her doctor to see what's going on with her hair loss. I guess I just thought we could try some home stuff first. We don't want her going bald.

[Blueone]

Did she start thyroid medication when the thyroid was removed? If not that's why. Even though the thyroid was removed for some reason, the body still needs the hormones it produces.

http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/

[shanniesue2]

Yes, she's been on thyroid meds ever since. And they check her levels either yearly or twice a year... I can't remember.

She had the thyroid removed because of cancer

[SleeplessMommy]

Henna has worded great for my thinning hair Having the color instead of gray improves the appearance, and there is a little bit of "body" added by henna. The first application may cause her hair to feel stiff, but for me this has gone away for subsequent applications.

It takes about 3 days to reach the final color, just FYI. You can add coffee or tea for a darker shade.

[Blueone]

Originally Posted by shanniesue2

Yes, she's been on thyroid meds ever since. And they check her levels either yearly or twice a year... I can't remember.

She had the thyroid removed because of cancer

Maybe she's not yet on the right dose. I would seek a doctor that does bio thyroid. They tend to do better at catching it and putting them on the right dose. One good hint is the body temperature when she wakes up in the morning before she gets up, eats, or drinks. If it's below 98.2 she's probably still hypothyroid.

Otherwise Henna is a very good hair dye and there are no problems with hairloss to my knowledge. It's gentle and easy to apply.

[shanniesue2]

I use henna on my hair, and I was really just wondering about the rinsing out process. Like what would be the effect of trying to rinse what is essentially mud out of hair that falls out during the combing process.

I don't think I'm gonna talk her into seeing a different doctor. She absolutely loves her family doc and trusts him 100,000% She would probably talk to him about it, but I think she would see it as unnecessary to go to someone else. Mainly, I just didn't want to suggest and try a cassia application with her just to have it make the whole problem worse.

I might be able to talk her into henna at a later date... but right now, she's really unsure about the possibility of the red. So we ordered just cassia thinking that would at least help condition the hair and get what's left of it into better shape.