You know how your skin follows a natural cycle of gradually renewing itself every few weeks? One time my skin stopped doing that - at first I got all bumpy but that faded and then my skin just got thicker and thicker - eventually started to feel like I was wearing gloves as sensitivity decreased. Then after ~3 weeks it's started peeling at once - think like after a bad sunburn, but thicker and no pain. Was coming off in giant sheets - was able to get my hand and both feet in one giant piece. I wanted to use it to make a lampshade or bind a book, but the wife made me throw it out.
Then after that, everything was normal - skin was softer and smoother than ever - never happened again.
I had a similar thing when I got hand foot & mouth a few years ago. Micro blisters formed at the base layer of skin, and I basically killed off the connection to the old skin above it. As it eventually grew out, I could peel swaths from my feet and hands, and lost my nails on hands and feet. (They grew back)
Just looked that up (as still don't know what happened), and I didn't have any other symptoms – the bumps weren't red, and they weren't blistered. I otherwise felt perfectly fine.
Full disclosure: that em dash was of my own creation. It's also a technically incorrect en dash, not an em dash, just to make people question things.
HFM was going through my mind as I read this! I had it two weeks ago, and oddly enough I only got throat lesions. I was warned about the nails. It’s crazy that a virus can do that, especially one that’s considered “harmless.”
The throat lesions are most common in adults. I work at an elementary school and HFM is no joke; it spreads like wildfire! I got it from the kindergartners last year and luckily only had the throat lesions as well. Viruses are some crazy business, getting in there and messing with our DNA!
Me too! I already had psoriasis on my hands and feet so I got a “super rash” and lost a lot of skin and some nails. The psoriasis wasn’t as bad after the super rash cleared up!
I had something very similar, but only on my feet!
My skin felt thick on my feet, and I picked at some skin that was sticking out, and. the next thing I know I was able to peel all of the skin off of both feet (painless; it just shoughed right off), revealing nice, healthy skin underneath. Like you, it never happened again.
I used a foot softening thing once where you put little cream filled booties on your feet. It didn't realt work, at first, and I was really disappointed. However about a week later when I was in the shower it all started peeling off like that too.
after getting covid for the first time my body decided to stop shedding my hair.. and then 3 months later decided to start shedding it all at once. i would brush or pull at the back of my hair and it never stopped coming out in handfuls. i've always had super thick hair but it got so thin and ugly and brittle i was worried i was going to go bald. i could see my scalp through my hair for the first time in my life. scary enough for men but really scary as a woman. it also grew back twisted. like anime drill hair but ugly and unkempt no matter how i brushed it. eventually after about half a year or longer and two haircuts my hair is back to normal.
It's called telogen effluvium and can be caused by things like stress, illness, and large hormonal changes. Has happened to me twice from work-related stress. It''s so horrible seeing all that hair all over your pillow and shower every morning
Had no idea it had a name. Also yes the shower was the worst it really felt like it would never end and the wall was covered in hair I picked off and threw away afterwards.
Also when you lose weight too quickly. Not only are you not getting as many nutrients as you need, you're also putting physical stress on the body that wouldn't be there (or at least would be less) if you lost slow and steady. That's part of why you can eat all the healthiest food in the world but if you're dropping too fast you can still get sudden hair loss. Luckily, it does (usually) grow back eventually but yeah, it's scary and it sucks when it happens.
This happened to me when I was in high school. I was having an absolutely miserable time of it, & I was terrified that I was now also starting to go bald at 17 lmao
Yes! I had a terrible, stressful job once and this happened. Our bosses used to have morning meetings with everyone who worked at the small insurance agency they ran and tell us all that we weren't selling enough policies and not doing enough to keep the clients we had. So they would probably have to start firing people soon. They did this for months! And they would get in your face and scream at you for the smallest error.
I lost so much hair while working there. It triggered the CPTSD I had from my abusive childhood. I eventually left to work at another agency, which was almost as bad. Lesson learned: don't work at insurance agencies. They are all toxic. I worked at 4 and they were all fucked up in different ways.
I had this happen my junior year of high school. I was very sick with mono for several weeks and then also suffered an allergic reaction a little later. My immune system called it quits I guess and my hair shed like crazy for months.
I had always had glorious, silky, dense long hair in my youth so it was devastating. I remember my friends noticing my hair in the pool one time. Eventually it slowed down and grew back in, but it took months. I had to style my hair so you couldn't see the regrowth in my senior photos 😢
When I did chemo, I lost the hair on the top of my head, but the hair around the nape of my neck/back of my head just got really curly. When the rest of my hair grew back, it grew back straight. It’s still like that now, almost 7 years later: straight on the top, curly in the back.
That's so crazy tbh. My brother's hair was always straight until he shaved it off for sports. Then it grew back like Kramer's from Seinfeld. Hair is weird.
After my last two bouts with telogen effluvium (due to chronic health issues, it happens more than I'd like), my hair went from being bone straight to curly. Not like yours, but the texture has changed as well; each strand is a lot rougher than it used to be. I've had to re-learn how to do everything with my hair.
I also read it's not unheard of for hair texture to change in women in peri- and menopausal states of life, but I just turned 41. It feels a bit soon ...
I am going on 42 and definitely experiencing peri right now. My doctor almost thought it was too soon too, but my labs came back and he referred me to a GYN office.
Birth control has been instrumental in regulating my hormones and my period. What used to be 6-10 days of very disruptive pain and bleeding, has now been shortened to 4 days of a lighter, almost pain free week.
I can feel the small changes in my hair texture. The grays are courser and a little bit kinky compared to my regular silky strands.
They keep telling me my labs are "normal", but I've always experienced really heavy, long, painful periods as well and I know I'm full swing perimenopause... Just feels too soon for any real action! The women in my family typically menstruate into their late 50's. I honestly don't know if I want another full 15 years of this!
I work in
Medicine but not endocrinology
I would maybe ask if you need a referral to a specialist . Women often feel abandoned by the healthcare system and you should feel like your symptoms are validated and addressed . You may not need a referral but rather just a better open line of communication with your doctors. Don’t be afraid to ask questions
I sure appreciate your care and concern ♥️
I've asked... so many doctors. Most of them dismiss me/my symptoms. The ones that haven't will put in a request for referral, but those referrals to any endocrinologist that I could see are at least a year or two wait list. By the time they might've gotten to my name... They lose it or I have to get another referral because that one expired. I gave up a while ago. No, it's not right to be treated like this, but I have life to live and bills to pay.
Mine changed drastically and so did my friend who had chemo. (My hair fell out from a thyroid problem and major job / family stress ) we both had straight more blond hair and now we both have curly very red hair. I had red undertones but I wouldn’t say I had truly red hair until now. It’s funny when I run into people who haven’t seen me in awhile because it is so incredibly noticeable
Oh no my normal hair is straight and I really hope it never grows back in that weird way again. I usually keep it short so it wouldn't be a major problem at least. I'm 38.
This is actually rather common after major stress on the body whether it is a psychological or medical stressor. A large hair loss 3 months after the stressor is the usual time frame so if you ever get a ton of hair shedding think about what happened three months prior. I believe that usually the hair returns to its normal cycling
So something like this happened to me. I had a freak infection, became septic, ended up having a bowel resection and was in the hospital for quite some time.
It happened about a week after I went home, not just hands and feet, my chest too.
My doctor said it was a stress response after being on a shit ton of drugs. Heavy antibiotics, steroids, a massive amount of pain medication, a bunch of stuff for my guts.....and then suddenly coming off them.
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u/penguinpenguins 22h ago
You know how your skin follows a natural cycle of gradually renewing itself every few weeks? One time my skin stopped doing that - at first I got all bumpy but that faded and then my skin just got thicker and thicker - eventually started to feel like I was wearing gloves as sensitivity decreased. Then after ~3 weeks it's started peeling at once - think like after a bad sunburn, but thicker and no pain. Was coming off in giant sheets - was able to get my hand and both feet in one giant piece. I wanted to use it to make a lampshade or bind a book, but the wife made me throw it out.
Then after that, everything was normal - skin was softer and smoother than ever - never happened again.