← Return to Has anyone experienced hair loss after an ostomy?

Discussion
bettes avatar

Has anyone experienced hair loss after an ostomy?

Ostomy & J-Pouch | Last Active: May 10 7:38am | Replies (83)

Comment receiving replies
Profile picture for piki @piki

I've been following this topic with some interest because my hair thinned out tremendously due (I have always believed) to an overdosing of sulfa many years ago. I'm old (84) now and my hair is very thin... however I couldn't say whether it thinned out more because of the colostomy .

However I would say that my skin has changed after I had the colostomy becoming quite granular, especially on my face and neck. I wonder if the ostomy had anything do with it. I've also undergone general anesthesia a few times since the ostomy for a variety of causes. From what I've read recently that this is particularly problematic for the elderly (which apparently is what I now am). Any thoughts?

Jump to this post


Replies to "I've been following this topic with some interest because my hair thinned out tremendously due (I..."

I do some grant writing for the local Area Agency on Aging, and since I am 82, I have asked that the staff fro the CEO on down do not refer to us as elderly. Call us seniors, or older people, whatever. But not the elderly, please. It is pejorative.
Back to hair. Mine was coming out by the could after my colostomy in March, and it went from straight as a pin to curly and was fragile. I stopped coloring it for a few months because I didn’t want to damage it, and I started using a biotin shampoo and taking a biotin tablet every day. I had my hip replaced a week ago and I was concerned that I might have some hair loss again. I even spoke with the anesthesiologist about it, and she said she had never heard of anesthesia being a cause of the problem. My hairdresser said she had seen this before many times in patients experiencing major surgery, and that it is definitely caused by stress on the body and mind. Makes sense to me.
Anyway, so far so good with the hip surgery, although the pain this past week was greater than I had been led to believe by everyone I had talked to. My surgeon said that mine was an extreme case of bone on bone—one of the worse he had ever seen, so that was probably why the pain was so awful. And my hair seems to be okay—and it is definitely growing back enough so that I will need a haircut in a couple of weeks
My ostomy has been cooking along throughout this whole thing. I have discovered that I like disposable pouches, so that is what I have been using. The pain meds have made my stools very hard—they are like pebbles you could skip across a pond. But I am weening off the drugs, so should be back to normal soon. So that’s it. Pain is decreasing and the hip surgery was a success ( saw the X-ray of the “after”, my hair is growing back, and don’t call me elderly🤗

@piki
Can you please explain what you mean by granular..
My face and neck area have gotten a “ruddiness” coloration.
I’m not sure if it’s from the ostomy or steroids I’m still taking.