What your Hair Thinning is communicating..
Why your thinning hair may be telling you more than you think
Is your hair getting thinner?
Are you shedding more than you used to?
Does your ponytail feel smaller?
I’ve been there.
My own hair used to be really thin, and like many women, my first thought was:“What supplement should I take?”But I learned that hair health is rarely about finding one magic supplement. It’s about understanding what’s happening inside the body and looking at how the different pieces connect.
As a Functional Medicine Nutritionist, this is exactly where I like to dig deeper.
FIRST: LET’S TALK ABOUT FERRITIN
That’s the difference between simply chasing a number and looking at the bigger picture. There are 7 areas I look at with women with thinning hair.
THESE ARE THE 7 AREAS I LOOK AT WHEN A WOMAN HAS HAIR THINNING:
1. IRON & FERRITIN
You’ve probably heard of iron. But have you heard of ferritin Ferritin is the protein that stores iron in your body. Think of it like your body’s iron savings account.
You can have a blood iron result that looks okay while your stored iron — your ferritin — is less than ideal. That’s why ferritin can be an important piece of the puzzle when we’re looking at hair shedding and thinning.
But here’s where it gets interesting…Ferritin doesn’t exist in isolation. Your body needs a number of nutrients and physiological processes (or co-factors) to properly handle iron.
And one of those nutrients is copper. And copper is rarely talked about and rarely found within ferritin supplements!
Copper plays an important role in iron metabolism and transport. It helps to move it through the body and helps to recycle it. So when I look at someone’s iron picture, I don’t simply think: “LOW FERRITIN = TAKE IRON.”
I ask: Why is ferritin low? Are they getting enough iron? Are they absorbing it? Are they losing too much iron (perhaps through their menstrual cycles)? Are other nutritional factors involved. Because the real information is often in how the pieces fit together.
2. YOUR PERIOD & IRON LOSS
If you’re menstruating, I want to know:What is your menstrual cycle actually like? Heavy or prolonged periods can contribute to ongoing iron loss. So if your ferritin is low, I don’t just want to help you increase it. I also want to understand why your iron stores may be getting depleted. Your menstrual history can be an important part of the investigation. Heavy menstrual flows (more than 8 fully soaked tampons per cycle) is a symptom of something deeper going on in your sex hormones (estrogen dominance, low progesterone, poor estrogen clearance/detox, endometriosis or PCOS). DUTCH hormone testing I run in my practice can reveal some of these imbalances not addressed in depth through your regular health care provider.
3. THYROID
Hair thinning can be associated with thyroid dysfunction. I look at your conventional thyroid blood testing results through a functional lens. I myself had underfunctioning thyroid for the majority of my adult life because it was never flagged within conventional medicine.
That means I’m not simply asking: “Is this result inside the laboratory reference range?”, meaning does this person meet a strict criteria of hyper or hypothyroidism. I’m asking: “How does this result relate to your symptoms, other lab markers and the rest of your health picture?”
Because looking at one number (TSH which is often the only value run when you are told it is ‘normal’ )rarely tells the whole story.
4. NUTRIENT STATUS
Hair growth requires adequate nutrition. A diet high in iron & ferritin, Vitamin B12, Folate, Vitamin D, Zinc, Copper and sufficient protein are necessary for strong, healthy hair
DIGESTION & ABSORPTION
Here’s a question that often gets overlooked: “You are eating a healthy diet, but does how you feel and look reflect that?Are you actually absorbing the nutrients you’re eating?” This is where I may use GI-MAP testing to take a deeper look at the gastrointestinal environment.
Depending on your individual situation, we may look at factors such as: digestion, absorption, microbial balance or overgrowths, SIBO, inflammation and other gastrointestinal factors.
Because if we’re trying to improve your nutritional status, it makes sense to consider whether your digestive system is supporting that process. You can’t just put nutrients into the mouth and assume they’re all getting where they need to go. Often they don’t and you can tell in how you feel and look. Including dry, dull and brittle hair.
6. STRESS, SLEEP, CIRCADIAN RYTHYMS & YOUR HAIR CYCLE
Your hair can respond to physiological stress — and sometimes not immediately. Significant stress, poor sleep, illness, rapid weight loss, restrictive dieting, pregnancy and other stressors can affect the hair-growth cycle.
This is why I want to know: What was happening in your life and your body in the months BEFORE the hair loss started? A comprehensive health history, looking at past labs, daily routines, significant life events can provide important clues.
7. SEX HORMONES & STRESS HORMONES
Hormones can be a significant piece of the hair-loss puzzle. Depending on your symptoms and history, I may use DUTCH testing to take a more detailed look at hormone patterns, including: sex hormones AND stress hormones (including cortisol and DHEA). This can provide additional information about what’s happening with your hormonal picture and how it may relate to your symptoms.
Again, the goal isn’t to find one “bad” hormone that is causing the hair loss. It’s about understanding the pattern.
SO WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Once we understand what may be contributing to the problem, we can be much more targeted.
That might include:
FOOD: Increasing iron-rich foods and pairing plant-based iron sources with vitamin C to support absorption, eating more protein, including foods high in B vitamins, folate and copper.
TARGETED SUPPLEMENTATION: Depending on your individual results, supplements such as iron, ferritin, copper, vitamin D, B12, zinc or other nutrients may help.
DIGESTIVE SUPPORT: Running GI MAP testing, and working on digestion or absorption if that appears to be part of the picture
LIFESTYLE: Sleep, stress, adequate nutrition and avoiding overly restrictive diets can all be important foundations for healthy hair.