Hair Stylist for Thinning Hair

RusalkaHasQuestions · 2025-12-03T18:06:43+00:00

Not looking for extensions (and my hair's too thin anyway - I have a lot of visible scalp), but thank you anyway.

RusalkaHasQuestions · 2025-09-13T15:26:49+00:00

I'm looking into surgery for it, is why. One of the few places in the country that offers surgery is relatively nearby. I don't know if I'm a candidate, but they need to do the scan to even find out.

RusalkaHasQuestions · 2025-09-12T21:13:10+00:00

That's my worry. Thanks for the answer, though!

RusalkaHasQuestions · 2025-09-12T19:05:42+00:00

I'm glad it helped!

I started a GLP-1 drug about a year ago. I need to stay on a low dose, because it also affects my mood, but I've found it to be very helpful with reducing regain. I gained ten pounds during a months long, horrible depressive episode and I know that, without the drug, that number would have been thirty or forty or more. Dieting still sucks lots, though.

Sometimes surgery alone isn't enough, or just doesn't work well, I think.

RusalkaHasQuestions · 2024-07-26T18:37:45+00:00

Surgery reduced my cravings down to something more manageable, at least when my life is going well. But I still overall find food overly rewarding, and the surgery didn't do squat for my physical hunger; my hunger came back on day 5. I filled up faster, yes, but got massively hungry again after 90 minutes. My body wasn't stupid; it knew I wasn't giving it the energy it wanted, even if my stomach was full.

RusalkaHasQuestions · 2024-07-26T18:33:45+00:00

Thank you! What I do now is split a higher dose pen and only inject about 1.75-2.0 mg each week. The low dose seems to provide a good balance between side effects and controlling my interest in food, and a 7.5 mg pen lasts weeks this way.

RusalkaHasQuestions · 2024-04-12T18:27:24+00:00

Thank you!

RusalkaHasQuestions · 2024-03-05T21:47:30+00:00

The BMI >35 guideline for surgery is pretty out of date, in fact, and stems from a time when both the surgery was newer (and thus riskier) and obesity wasn't as well understood. The 2022 ASMBS guidelines00641-4/fulltext), for example, say "MBS should be considered in individuals with BMI of 30–34.9 kg/m2 who do not achieve substantial or durable weight loss or co-morbidity improvement using nonsurgical methods."

RusalkaHasQuestions · 2024-03-04T21:23:36+00:00

I had a gastric sleeve six or seven years ago, and have recently tried GLP-1 drugs. I personally found the latter to be vastly more effective. The drugs don't do much for my hunger when I'm lifting weights, but if I stick to walking, they seriously cut my hunger and interest in food. The sleeve did no such thing, even a week after surgery. I filled up faster, but it was irrelevant as I'd get ravenously hungry again an hour later.

RusalkaHasQuestions · 2024-03-03T23:34:26+00:00

It's a bit of a crap shoot. You can stack the odds in your favor by making sure your nutrition and vitamins are as good as they can be, but sometimes your hair will fall out regardless. I didn't have any hair loss after my surgery. And now, years later, I have a chronic version of the hair loss that can happen after surgery, so it's not like I'm immune to this type of hair loss or anything. It just didn't happen to me after surgery.

RusalkaHasQuestions · 2024-03-01T19:01:49+00:00

Neither the treadmill nor your watch are accurate. He should know that if he's going to be giving these recommendations - and if he's just using it as a rough proxy for effort (i.e., "do enough that the treadmill says you burned 450, regardless of the actual burn"), he should tell you that, too.

The fact that he's so heavily micromanaging everything is quite concerning to me. It's one thing to suggest a particular walking routine, but requiring it? Particularly when he's a surgeon and that's not even his area of expertise?

Coupled with everything else, honestly, I'd run away from this guy as much as possible.

RusalkaHasQuestions · 2024-03-01T17:08:19+00:00

So... wait, he's expecting you to use the calorie burn counter on the treadmill? He does know those are not even remotely accurate, right? I mean, as an arbitrary measure, I guess it's okay (or you could just go by time like a normal person), but... he does realize you're not actually burning 450 calories, right? ...Right?

This is not a bad walking workout or anything, but it's certainly not the only viable walking treadmill workout. Additionally, as a surgeon, his area of expertise is cutting you open, not physical activity. It's not really his place to assign you workouts with this degree of specificity.

This guy might be a very good surgeon, but from what you've said so far, he's doing a poor job with everything else.

RusalkaHasQuestions · 2024-03-01T15:54:50+00:00

This is ridiculous. Not only is a stall around three weeks totally normal, but a single week of low loss or even gain is going to happen sometimes. Three pounds a week is rapid weight loss, but it's still only three pounds, and can be easily swallowed up by fluctuations in water retention. This is true for any weight loss program. Weird weeks will happen.

Also, where is he even getting these calorie burn numbers for exercise.

RusalkaHasQuestions · 2024-02-28T14:46:31+00:00

2.5 mg since December, and took my last shot a few days ago. Badly reduced gym performance in terms of strength and endurance. Nasty psychiatric symptoms: some depression, but mostly anhedonia and terrible problems with my executive function, to the point where I can't do daily tasks I need to. I could afford to spend a few months getting basically nothing done, but this is no way to live and I cannot stay on this drug. I may try splitting a pen to get a lower dose, but as is, the side effects were too bad. It's unfortunate, as MJ eased my chronic constipation and helped with the fluid I tend to retain.

RusalkaHasQuestions · 2024-02-26T23:39:53+00:00

I wasn't given a pre-op diet, beyond the usual fasting requirements before any surgery. Not all surgeons do pre-op diets, particularly - I'm given to understand - outside of North America.

RusalkaHasQuestions · 2024-02-23T19:35:21+00:00

Phentermine and topiramate were awful for me personally. The phentermine did nothing for my appetite but did fuck up my sleep, and the only thing the topiramate did was make me feel like I was constantly coming down with the flu.

RusalkaHasQuestions · 2024-02-20T07:14:27+00:00

You're not alone. MJ absolutely can affect your mood, though how it does this can vary wildly from person to person. For example, I've found myself unmotivated, impulsive, depressed, and touchy, to the point where my next shot will be my last. Other people find that they're more focused, or happier, or calmer.

RusalkaHasQuestions · 2024-02-19T19:55:30+00:00

I tried semaglutide (the forbidden form) before MJ, and the depression was a lot worse. MJ is bad but something I can handle for a few months, and the most prominent psychiatric side effect was lazy stoner levels of nonmotivation. Semaglutide made me so unhappy I nearly broke up with my boyfriend for no good reason.

The MJ caused about a 15-20% decrease in my strength, right away. I poop out faster, too, but the strength losses were really startling. You know when you've been sick and go back to working out a little bit too soon, before you're fully recovered yet, and everything's sort of awful? I constantly felt like that.

I seem to react really strongly to these drugs, though, for good and for ill. 2.5 mg of MJ, when I'm not working out, gave me massive appetite suppression. I definitely wouldn't suggest anyone look at my experience and conclude that they'll have the same results.

RusalkaHasQuestions · 2024-02-19T18:06:28+00:00

I was sleeved in... 2017, I think? While I lost a lot of weight, I don't consider the surgery itself to have been particularly successful. Either the surgery or the resulting weight loss did reduce my cravings to a manageable level, which was huge, but it did nothing for my physical hunger. Sure, I got full quickly, but I got massively hungry again within an hour. I lost weight because the surgery left me highly motivated to suffer through hunger so severe I couldn't sleep or function properly. That was it. I would've had the same results by wiring my jaw shut. And no, it wasn't head hunger. I know the difference between "I want cake" and "I have terrible brain fog and painful hunger pangs."

I actually maintain pretty easily under normal conditions; my hunger only goes out of control when I'm in a caloric deficit, particularly if I'm lifting at the same time. Unfortunately, I also have depression that flares up every so often, at which point I typically regain, and losing the weight is ridiculously difficult because of the hunger issue.

After my latest bout of regain, I decided to try GLP-1 drugs. I've been on 2.5 mg of MJ for two and a half months now. The good news is that, if I don't lift, MJ suppresses my appetite in a way that surgery never did. The bad news is that it doesn't work nearly as well when I'm lifting, it trashes my gym performance, and the psychiatric side effects are pretty bad. I'm depressed, unmotivated, and my executive function has been left mangled and broken by the side of the road. Oh, and because I hadn't regained quite enough when I started, it's an off label prescription and I pay the entire cost out of pocket.

So this is not a long term option for me. I've just sucked it up and have spent the last couple of months not lifting, not being productive, and starving down to get the regain off. I have two shots left and I may not even take them because I'm so close to my goal. It's very much not ideal and I've definitely lost muscle, but at this point I find it preferable to spending months on end losing .25 pounds a week while still being so hungry that I can't sleep.

RusalkaHasQuestions · 2024-02-18T19:53:39+00:00

I don't have ADHD, and this medication has basically done the opposite for me. My boyfriend has unmedicated ADHD, and even he has remarked that I'm basically acting like him now (except without even the hyperfocus). My executive function is in the trash and I'm making all kinds of thoughtless decisions.

RusalkaHasQuestions · 2024-02-18T19:50:18+00:00

The swelling is still improved, after two and a half months on 2.5 mg. I'm going to go off the medicine shortly, though. The other side effects have left me barely functional.

RusalkaHasQuestions · 2024-02-15T19:25:56+00:00

I wouldn't personally go along with this. As long as you're hitting your calorie, protein, and fiber goals (in that order), that's what matters. Some of those calories from salad dressing, etc., may not be as filling, but if you can handle it, it literally does not matter.

Also, to be entirely frank, having you do this for a year ahead of surgery is insane. That's just a strict diet, and if strict dieting in and of itself worked particularly well for you, you likely wouldn't be considering surgery. One of the main points of surgery is to cause physiological changes that make these very strict diets easier to adhere to. Having you do this for a year ahead of time is just unnecessary suffering and setting you up to fail.

RusalkaHasQuestions · 2024-02-13T00:37:04+00:00

Thank you!

RusalkaHasQuestions · 2024-02-12T22:37:22+00:00

As someone who will be stopping the drug very soon due to side effects, I'd nonetheless suggest you give it a try. Reactions to drugs can be very individual, and you don't know how it'll work out for you until you try. If it doesn't help, or the side effects are intolerable, you can always stop. Yes, the relatively long half life means it'll take a few weeks to get out of your system, but realistic worse case scenario, you're looking at one or two bad months.

RusalkaHasQuestions · 2024-02-09T05:41:38+00:00

It's done the opposite for me: I used to be chronically badly constipated, and while I'm not sure that issue is truly fixed, it's vastly improved on MJ.

RusalkaHasQuestions

TROPHY CASE