• Hyperthyroidism
• Hypothyroidism
• Thyroiditis
• Nodules & Cancer
• Goiter
• Thyroid Disease in Pregnancy & Childhood
• Iodine Deficiency & Excess
• Radiation
• Aging & the Thyroid
• Thyroid Related Disorders
• Treatments
• Special Medications for you
• Additional Reading

HAIR LOSS AND PREMATURELY GRAY HAIR

Changes in thyroid function are associated with a change in the body's use of oxygen (metabolic rate). If the metabolic rate is too high or too low, hair growth may be imperfect. As a result, you may lose some of your hair if your thyroid is either overactive or underactive from any cause. In most cases your hair loss will be generalized and mild, and your hair growth will return to normal as soon as your thyroid problem is controlled.

Patients with Graves' or Hashimoto's disease may notice a patchy hair loss instead. This condition, known as alopecia areata, is characterized by bald spots anywhere on the body where hair grows, including your scalp and beard. Generally, the condition goes away by itself after several months, regardless of the level of thyroid function and thyroid treatment, but occasionally, such hair loss is permanent.

Physicians have recognized for some time that prematurely gray hair, by which we mean hair that starts to become gray before age 30, occurs more frequently in patients with thyroid dysfunction than in the general population. This common and easily recognized condition is of course harmless, but is important because it can be helpful to you in tracing the pattern of inheritance of thyroid diseases within your family.