EP 173 Saving Your Strands: Post-Bariatric Surgery Nutrition for Hair Health

"Should I take biotin for my hair loss?" "My hair’s falling out since my surgery. What can I do to stop it?" I’m asked both of these questions frequently in my Facebook group. Are you experiencing this too and have the same questions? What can you do about it? The right nutrition strategies are so important after your surgery. I’ll answer the biotin question plus share specific foods to include in your diet for new hair growth.

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What are you having for dinner tonight? Do you need some quick ideas? I’m a big fan of sheet pan dinners. I’m make them often using salmon, shrimp or chicken. You can try some easy sheet pan dinners if you want: https://www.breakingdownnutrition.com/sheetpandinners 

Resource page with links : https://breakingdownnutrition.com/resources 

I know you may be losing your hair. Here’s some good news you’ll like. After rapid weight loss, typically from bariatric surgery, hair loss is very common. It’s not permanent and your hair should grow back. 

So should you take biotin for your hair loss? Maybe a friend is taking it and swears by it. Maybe you read online that if you take biotin, you’ll have new hair growth in no time. While biotin, a B vitamin, is important for hair health, you should get enough from your bariatric multivitamin. In addition, small amounts of biotin are found in lots of different foods, especially eggs, nuts, salmon, sunflower seeds and some vegetables including sweet potatoes. Once you are back to eating a regular diet, you can include these foods that contain biotin. Even if you feel your diet is not quite there yet, consuming too little biotin may not be a problem anyway because intestinal bacteria produces biotin.

Too much biotin, and this amount has been suggested to be around 20 mg a day, interferes with the testing of thyroid function and causes false lab reports. So if you have Hashimoto’s disease for instance or take thyroid medications, you could get inaccurate results on thyroid function which could also affect medication dosage. Taking your bariatric multivitamin is typically not a problem as the amount is appropriate, probably .6 mg day versus 20 and additional supplementation is not a good idea.

I know, you want hair growth right now. I hear you so I get the interest in biotin. It feels terrifying but it’s totally normal to lose 5-15% of your hair from bariatric surgery and the rapid weight loss that follows. Typically it does’t last more than 6 months. It’s just a pain in your patootie to go thru. And 6 months seems like forever but hair goes thru cycles.

This episode also covers the reasons that hair loss happens, the 4 phases of a hair follicle and the strategies to put into place now.