Patients who have undergone bariatric surgery may complain of hair loss. A trichogram is designed to measure hair loss by collecting a sample of 40 to 100 hairs that are attached to the scalp and then evaluating their roots under a light microscope. Roots of growing hairs were compared with those of hairs in the process of shedding. Eighty-three patients were examined more than one year after the bypass procedure via dermatological exam and trichogram. We record the fact that 36 patients (43.37%) showed positive history and trichogram-proven hair loss, 12 patients (14.45%) showed trichogram-proven hair loss but without a record of any complaint in their history, 22 patients (26.5%) showed no hair loss via trichogram, but complained of faster loss than before they underwent the surgery, and 13 (15.66%) patients showed no hair loss, a claim proven by their trichogram results.
Data show that patients’ perceptions about hair loss and the real increase in lost hair of approx. 40% of patients do not match reality, when compared with patients’ own recall and trichogram results more than one year after undergoing surgery for obesity.