With the current popularity of weight loss drugs (like Wegovy and Ozempic), some people are reporting that the weight loss aids also cause hair loss. Yet doctors say weight loss medications have no impact on hair growth while confirming that people taking those medications are sometimes experiencing hair loss. Sound contradictory? The reason is actually very logical.
What Weight Loss Drugs Cause Hair Loss?
Some of those taking Ozempic, Mounjaro, and Wegovy have been reporting hair loss. It can be easy to blame the newest drugs for anything that happens while you are taking new medication… but sometimes correlation does not mean causation.
So, taking Wegovy or any version of the Mounjaro drug family may coincide with hair loss but that does not necessarily mean the drug is at fault. Well, not exactly.
Do Weight Loss Pills Cause Hair Loss?
When a person loses weight rapidly, it can cause the onset of telogen effluvium. That’s because while the person taking the medication has chosen to lose weight, the body that suddenly is consuming less calories thinks that it is starving. That creates physical stress that can trigger telogen effluvium.
A more thorough explanation is that, according to Medical News Today, when a person experiences rapid weight loss – through drug assistance or surgical assistance — they often experience hair loss three to four months later. In theory, this loss occurs because of the shock to the body caused by the rapid weight loss… or by the restrictions of nutrients caused by lower food intake. If the person is also experiencing mental or emotional stress related to their health, weight, or life in general, it can increase the risk.
Essentially, if you stop eating as much, your body stops producing hair. Some of your hair follicles will make a rapid transition into the telogen phase – the time when hair falls out before it starts to grow again. The good news is that means that hair loss from weight loss is almost always temporary.
How Common Is Hair Loss with Weight Loss Pills?
In the clinical trials, Wegovy (which is the highest dose of the drug Mounjaro) led to hair loss in about one in 25 participants or four percent. That is below the 5% threshold to be considered a common side effect. And experts told NBC News that they believe the weight loss is causing the hair loss, not the weight loss medication.
Does that mean that the drugs do not cause hair loss? Well, not exactly. Since the drugs are designed to cause the weight loss and the weight loss causes hair loss, the drugs are responsible by the transitive property. If you weren’t taking the drugs, you wouldn’t be losing the weight… and you likely would not be losing your hair.
But the drugs are much less likely to cause hair loss than some other forms of rapid weight loss. According to a 2018 study published by the National Institutes of Health, as many as 50 percent of the people who went through bariatric surgery reported hair loss.
Doctors believe in both that study and the clinical studies of Wegovy that the common denominator was the stress shedding. Your body simply does not react well to massive changes, like rapid weight loss. This is called telogen effluvium and can be countered when your body adjusts to the shock – and you have returned to proper nutrition.
A shift in dietary nutrients could also be a factor. For example, many people who have weight loss surgery become anemic (low blood iron) and that may be the actual cause of their hair loss. Or a combination of the anemia and telogen effluvium.
RHRLI Can Diagnose and Treat Hair Loss
If you have taken weight loss drugs and are concerned about thinning hair, we can help. Call us today for your free consultation. After all, working towards a new, healthier you should also include a healthy head of hair!