Hair thicker and fuller after menopause: how?

April 23, 2024 12:45 PM

This is mostly idle curiosity but, I know a woman who had thin, fine hair her entire life. During menopause and for a bit after, it was pretty standard menopause hair -- thinning even further, scalp visible, etc. Now, 10 years out, all of a sudden she has insanely thick, fast-growing hair. Like an absolute ton of it. What could cause this?

I have definitely heard of women's hair texture changing during menopause but typically the changes are in the opposite direction, or an increase in curl/texture. This is rather more than that; I would estimate that her hair quantity and thickness have tripled in the past two years.

She is taking biotin supplements but she has always taken them, because her hair was always quite thin and brittle. She doesn't seem to have rapid hair growth anywhere ELSE -- not legs, face, eyebrows, anything. She is not taking any new medications at all besides an antidepressant and an antacid, neither of which has big hair implications as far as I know.

Basically she just seems to randomly have a perfect head of hair after a lifetime of shitty hair!

She's curious about this for a couple reasons: first, if there's something she is accidentally doing to cause this, she doesn't want to stop! And second, if there's some bizarre disease that causes this she'd want to look into it.

Just wondering if the MeFi hive mind has any thoughts or references on this. Is it a thing? What's up with this thing!

posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese to Health & Fitness (12 answers total)

Just a thought, but maybe she had low iron caused by heavy periods and it improved after she stopped bleeding regularly?

Anemia definitely causes fine hair/ hair loss.

This study states, "For example, levels of serum ferritin are increased by two- to threefold from before menopause to after menopause"

I've always had fine hair and anemia. So, fingers crossed I get the same benefit from menopause!
posted by CleverClover at 12:52 PM on April 23 [7 favorites]

any chance she started taking hydrolyzed collagen? I take it for my skin but it made my (post-menopausal) hair grow faster and get thicker. (disclaimer: I already had fairly thick fast growing "good" hair)
posted by supermedusa at 1:06 PM on April 23 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Nope, no supplements apart from the biotin and a regular multivitamin -- both part of the picture before this mystery hair development.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 1:17 PM on April 23

Seconding CleverClover's iron hypothesis. It could also be reduction in testosterone. For some women, pre-menopausal testosterone levels can be high enough (especially if the woman is efficient at converting T to DHT) to cause andropogenic hair loss. Both total and free testosterone can decrease post-menopause, which could potentially contribute to the hair difference.

Based on the information you provided, I'm assuming she isn't doing any sort of HRT? That could obviously make a big difference.
posted by Thysania at 2:04 PM on April 23 [3 favorites]

In the early stages of pregnancy, many women experienc thicker hair growth:

Many women experience their hair feeling thicker at around 15 weeks of pregnancy.

This is not because each hair strand itself becomes thicker, but because the hair stays longer in the growing phase of its cycle, which means that less hair falls out than usual. This is due to an increase in the hormone oestrogen.

And some post-menopausal women have so much β-hCG they have positive pregnancy tests:

Slightly raised β-hCG levels are also seen in some normal post-menopausal women. The β-hCG concentration in these older, non-pregnant women may routinely be as high as 8mIU/mL and even slightly more in some individuals.

Note that the first link attributes this thickened hair to estrogen, but beta-hCG can raise estrogen levels

It is concluded that HCG injections in the luteal phase stimulate estrogen and progesterone production, with progesterone increasing before estrogen, but with the increased estrogen levels being maintained for longer periods of time.

posted by jamjam at 6:14 PM on April 23

Speculation but: is it possible she thought of herself as having greasy hair and/or washed it so often when she was younger that it was always heavy with conditioner? And now she's finding she's washing it less, and it's much fuller? Just me?

Also, does she color her hair? Years of damage from dyeing can add up to thicker hair.
posted by bluedaisy at 8:28 PM on April 23

How well do you know her? Because this sounds like some kind of wig to me.
posted by Chausette at 10:51 PM on April 23 [1 favorite]

My mother has been taking supplements and definitely noticed her hair getting better, but if this isn't the case here then changes in the hair growing phases might be the answer.
posted by torturedpoet at 5:48 AM on April 24

Since the person in question is confused, I think we can rule out wigs…. Beyond that, maybe ask her GP at the next checkup?
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:45 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

According to the Australasian Menopause Society, women’s testosterone levels decline steadily from their 20’s through menopause and then reverse course and rise back to their original levels by their mid-sixties. Given testosterone’s well known connection to hair growth, that may be a possibility.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:22 AM on April 24

Response by poster: This person is my mother, and I have personally curled and styled her hair, both now and in the past, so I can confirm both the substantial difference and the realness of the hair.

Given all of the comments above, it sounds like it might be a combination of things. The post-menopausal hormone changes are almost certainly a part of it, one way or another. And also I would bet that she does not wash her hair as often as she used to, because she is retired and doesn't have to be presentable for work every day anymore.

She's the youngest of many sisters and all of them have had the more common experience of rapid hair thinning and breakage post-menopause, so it's just kind of bizarre!
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 2:38 PM on April 24 [1 favorite]

I'm really happy for your mother! As a lifetime owner of very fine hair who is now firmly in the postmenopausal camp (57), I have not seen my hair change except for having more drop out on a regular basis. There is more grey, which just sticks out at weird angles. And I wash only about twice a week.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 4:12 PM on April 24