Does The Pill Change Your Curls?

larrymoe&me · 08-20-2007, 07:32 AM

Hello everyone,

I am having hair thickness issues and I'm wondering if I'm not alone.

I usually have a pixie cut but I've been letting my curls grow out for almost a year. My hair is so incredibly fine. Anytime within the past few years that I have let my hair grow out it has been like this. I have to hang upside down and spray my head with tons of hairspray in order to get it to stop laying flat!

It's not an issue of using the right products either, trust me, I know my hair.

The thing is, my hair was never like this! I'm 30 now but in high school I could put a scrunchie in my hair and not even have to wrap it around twice because my hair was so dense. Even in college I recall that my hair was thicker than this, it may have been chin-length but fullness was never an issue.

I've been on the pill for 10 years and it's starting to make me wonder if the change in my hair is related to the hormones. I know that during and after pregnancy women have crazy hair changes (curlies go straight, straight gets wavy, some falls out, some gets thicker, etc.). I'm thinking that it's not such a far-fetched concept.

So I'm curious, has anyone experienced or heard of anything similar?

ECCurly · 08-20-2007, 09:16 AM

Hmm...now that I think about it, I think you might be right. I was on Ortho Tri-cyclen for a long time and started having issues with it so I switched. My curl pattern has changed since I switched. I used to be a solid 3b, but now I'm more 2c/3a. It's the same length so that can't be it. Interested. I wonder what it'll be like once I'm pregnant.

Gemini13 · 08-20-2007, 12:45 PM

Yes, the pill *can* cause changes in your hair. However- you said you've been on the pill for 10 years. When did you first notice this? It seems like pill-related hair changes tend to come on fairly quickly, at least from what I have heard. Our hair changes throughout our lifetime, so it's possible this would have happened whether or not you had gone on the pill.

FWIW, I've been on a few different types of hormonal BCs, and none of them made any significant changes to my hair.

larrymoe&me · 08-20-2007, 05:41 PM

While I was on the pill for 10 years, I couldn't have noticed any change to my hair right away or for many years for that matter. Within weeks of starting the pill I chopped all of my hair off into a pixie cut. I had that style for years. When my hair is super short, it is thick as anything. It's when I grew it out into my curls a few years ago that I first noticed any change. Since then, anytime I grow it out after cutting it all off again the same thing happens.

ECCurly · 08-20-2007, 06:59 PM

Sounds like it might just be dependent on your length. I know the longer my hair gets, the curlier it gets. Maybe yours is sort of the same.

* Willow * · 08-20-2007, 09:55 PM

My hair has changed several times throughout my life - always when there were hormone changes going on. I got curly (used to be wavy) at puberty and my hair changed again with each pregnancy. Hormones can really have a lot to do with it - so don't discount the effect that your BCP's might have on your curls!