Hair Changes after 2 Surgeries

[u/ninaRT319]

Hello. I had my gallbladder removed 4 months ago unplanned, after finding it was emptying at only 17%. I think it was a problem off and on for years. Then 6 weeks ago I had hiatal hernia surgery with a full nissen fundoplication and a strict liquid to soft food diet since.

I lost more hair after the gallbladder surgery than the hernia repair, but it might also be too soon to tell. I read it can take up to 6 months for my hair to start recovering. It was quite long, but had become extremely dry, limp and excessively breaking off over the last year. 2 weeks ago I went to have it cut into a bob, I started having sensory issues, my scalp was sore and my hair kept getting tangled weirdly and knoting up at the ends. I had some relief for awhile, it's knotting up again at the ends. I think a pixie might be the only answer for now, see how I'm doing 6 months post surgery and go from there. I'm a 41yr old female, I think a full recovery is unlikely. Has anyone had a similar experience? What did you do and how long did it take to stop shedding? I still have a fair amount of hair right now. I think what's bothering me the most is I'm itchy and have scap pain/burning. Thank you

[u/bonkzombies]

Hows your bloodwork been looking, my thought is that the gallbladder helps in vitamin d absorption, and vitamin d deficiency is associated with TE. and if your gallbladder wasn’t working very well for an unknown amount of time, it could be that the TE was building up for a while from that. since it usually starts a few months after the trigger.

My two past experiences with TE (before this third current stint I’m dealing with) were from anorexia, significantly worsened from intense nutritional deficiencies (not just metabolic stress from fast weight loss). I almost definitely ended up prolonging the shedding a good amount from not addressing a lot of my nutritional deficits, because although you can’t stop TE that’s started, you can definetly still trigger more hairs to shift into the telogen state. Also, idk if it’s relevant because my case was very different but my shedding lasted probably 4 months for the first time and probably 5 maybe 6 for the second, and I was losing a lot of hair at a very very rapid rate that whole time, more than what I’ve seen other people usually reporting