Hair Loss After a Crash Diet 18 Months Ago

A little under 2 years ago I went through a rough patch in my life and decided one of the ways to get back on track was through proper diet and exercise. I decided to become a vegetarian and began running twice a day. Over the course of 4-6 months what had originally begun as an attempt to get my mind off of my other troubles became and obsession in its own right and I essentially went on a crash diet which lasted 3-4 months. I was not particularly large to begin with but suddenly had lost 40 pounds.

A few months later I noticed the hair at the front of my head seemed to be thinning. The thinning continued to progress in a diffuse manner with no discernible pattern. My hair has been thinning for the past year and a half and, although I still have a relatively intact hairline, there doesn’t seem to be any regrowth. This has all been made worst by the fact that I recently became relatively successful in a career that puts me in the public eye.

I have done a good deal of research online and it seems that I would fit in the time-frame for telogen effluvium. Is it possible that a bout of telogen kicked off by a crash diet could last a year and a half or should I just accept that I have some sort of permanent diffuse hair loss?

I’m sure you realize this, but a crash diet is not a good idea for so many reasons. Malnutrition can impact your hair and cause thinning and hair loss. Generally, it takes about a year before you start to see some form of recovery, but in my experience most men generally do not regain everything they lost from the malnutrition and stress on the body. It’s even possible that your crash diet triggered the genetic hair loss that otherwise would’ve appeared later, but I’m just making guesses at this point.