People taking semaglutide drugs like Ozempic typically expect to lose excess weight — not hair.
But that’s precisely what happened to Desiree Rodriguez, who has been sharing her journey on social media after her hair began falling out while on generic semaglutide.
“My hair started shedding around 20 pounds into my weight loss,” Rodriguez told The Post. “I noticed clumps of hair coming out in the shower that easily made a handful around month three or four.”
“If you’re on a weight loss journey, you need to listen,” she said in a TikTok in September. “You absolutely need to be eating right and taking vitamins.”
She acknowledged that it might not be the easiest thing to remember to do “because if you’re on a GLP-1, you’re probably not hungry,” but that’s also why “it’s important that when you do it, you’re eating the right stuff.”
Nine months in, Rodriguez told The Post that she’s lost 35 pounds and is weight training — and while the hair loss has slowed, the situation is still not ideal.
“Since that video, my hair shedding has decreased, but there is still more than ‘average’ hair loss every time I wash my hair,” she said.
“Thankfully, I started with a lot of thick hair so it isn’t patchy. However, I have noticed many who do use a GLP1 and have thinner hair have experienced patches of hair loss.”
Rodriguez, who lives in Fresno, Calif., is by no means the first person to have this problem. People taking semaglutide — the active ingredient in drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy — have long griped about hair loss.
The US Food and Drug Administration has tracked more than two dozen complaints about hair changes from semaglutide users.
Semaglutide and other GLP-1 medications mimic the GLP-1 hormone that is naturally produced in the gut and plays a key role in regulating blood sugar and appetite.
These popular drugs, used to treat diabetes and obesity, help promote weight loss by reducing appetite and food intake.
But semaglutide drugs shouldn’t shoulder all the blame — hair loss is a known side effect of rapid weight loss.
That’s because suddenly shedding pounds can “lead to a disruption to the natural growth cycle of hair follicles,” Dr. Christina Han, a dermatologist who specializes in hair loss, previously told The Post.
The phenomenon typically occurs at the three-month mark, and while it is usually temporary, medical experts do suggest talking to your doctor about whether or not nutritional deficiencies may be contributing to the hair loss.
“Ozempic does decrease appetite; as a result people eat less and smaller quantities,” plastic surgeon Dr. Jesse E. Smith writes on his website. “For those individuals that do not supplement with vitamins and minerals, the loss of these essential items can cause hair loss, thinning, or delayed growth.”
Smith notes that solutions might include taking supplements that are beneficial for hair health — such as vitamin B complex, vitamin D, vitamin E, calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc — or a topical treatment used to stimulate hair growth like Minoxidil.
In Rodriguez’s case, she began taking Mary Ruth’s Liquid Morning Multivitamin and Minoxidil, which — along with some dietary changes — seemed to help.
“After I started taking a hair loss supplement and adding 100 + grams of protein in my diet, I noticed the hair shedding slowing down,” she told The Post.
“I try sharing on my TikTok account the importance of protein and vitamins while on a GLP1.”
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