I know this has been talked about before but how much of my hair can I expect to fall out from the mtx?? I have been on it 5 weeks, just increased last week to 70 cc which is about 18mg or so. My hair falls out by the hand fulls! Honestly, I have lost a good 1/5 of the volume of my hair! I have very fine, thin hair but lots of it-well, used to be lots of it!! I have to go around with the dust buster and suck up all the fall out!!
I'm taking 3mg of folic acid and its otherwise healthy. I keep reading that at this dose, it shouldn't all fall out but when will it stop??? My hair is very long, past the middle of my back and I hate to cut it because I've got the moon face from the steroids and also carrying a a lot of extra weight and don't feel short hair will be flattering but I don't want it to be thin and scraggly either!!
I hope you find something to help with the hair loss. I know how you feel. I dread going to take a shower, because of all the hair I lose while showering
I have lost a small patch of hair on the top of my head. But I have so much hair I don't think it is going to make a difference. I find hair on my pillow in the morning, down the shower drain, and in my brush. I will put up with the hair loss to feel better tho.
Michele,
I'm sorry about your hair loss. I started out on 10 mgs of MTX and my hair began to fall out after only a few weeks. I went down to 7.5 mgs and the hair loss continued. I also have alot of very fine hair and couldn't afford to lose any. Because I was also sick to my stomach and extremely fatigued my rheumy took me off it.Now it's been about 2 months and my hair has finally quit falling out. It will be a while before it's grown back in the way it was.
Oh, I forgot to mention that I've been taking folic acid from the beginning so without it maybe the hair loss would have been worse!!!I agree, I'd rather have no hair and feel better. Its just sucks that we have to deal with the cosmetic stuff on top of the emotional and physical stuff! I knew hair loss was a side effect but never imagined it would be this bad!What happens if you go down by 2.5 mg on the mtx. It didnt make a difference for the RA but it slowed the hair loss and mouth ulcers significantly.Hi Michele,
What about upping your folic acid dose? I take 7.5mg mtx and take 5mg folic acid every day apart from my mtx day. I reduced to that from a higher dose when I started on infliximab (remicade). My hair has thinned but not too bad - noone can tell and it's not getting any worse. I would recommend calling a few hairdressers until you find one who's knowlegable about hair loss. Mine is fab and helps me keep track of it. He also keeps my hair looking beautiful and healthy! I go to the hairdresser more than ever now, a little trim makes a massive difference!
I have also losts some of my hair its from the Arava I told my honey when he cleans the drain out of the shower to put the hair in a pile so i can make a wig out of it (LOL) its so not fun but recently my hair has been growing back but oh so slowly.
GOOD LUCK
Hairloss...oh man... the memories!! I have a twin sister who has devoted herself to totally being my support system with "the Rheumatoid" as she calls it. So, back in the first few years of being diagnosed (1997) I found myself living with her and her husband as my "then spouse" up and took off running in the opposite direction within 6 months of the diagnosis. So, there we were in our early 30's getting to hang out and just be girly girls again when I started noticing my hair falling out (remember Rachel's hair in the early episodes of Friends..about that length and style), so I'd check with her to see if she could see a difference.. and nope she'd say she couldn't see a difference. Then I talk to my Rheumy about it and he'd look at my scalp and say no...he couldn't see a real difference either (yah, but hello!! my hairdresserused to call me Chewbaca before all this started so what would he know?!?!).. so anyway weeks go by and one morning I'm having a hard time doing my hair and I asked my twin to help out...she gladly obliged, using a "rounding brush" she started blowdrying the back of my hair...
Kris Thanks girls, I did cut it, 14 inches of it and donated it to locks of love! I posted some pictures on another thread but I'll try to add some more here in a bit. I'm currently taking 2 mg folic acid but see the rheumy right after the 1st of the year and will ask her for another script for a stronger amount. I had to skip my humira and mtx last week because of step throat and I'm definitely feeling it, although I have had less hair loss this week!
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