Dang!  I guess I'm just destined to comment on all your posts!  Hope I'm not being too terribly creepy....yet.    So I always used to make fun of vain people, until I became one of them.  What can I say things just started inexplicably moving around on me?!  Anyway, I've been on "the meth" for two months and I have noticed completely nothing in the hair loss department.  We RA folks are given WAY smaller dosages typically than a cancer paitient would so I really don't think it is a "given" that all our hair falls out.  Besides, it is my understanding this potential side effect is controlled with great success by the additional folic acid that is prescribed. 

I mean I'll let you know if I wake up one morning like Telly Sevalis, I totally promise!  But until then I've also come to the conclusion, with all the other stuff RA can bring?  I'm not sure losing my hair would totally top my list of concerns.  Hell yeah, it would have at one point, but that's what I've arrived at.  All the same, why can't any of these meds give us bigger boobs and make the vericose veins go away??  I mean seriously?!

Good luck to you ScrapHappy and don't be a stranger!

Hi, I have been on mtx for a year and have had hair loss.  No, I'm not bald, but I've had extreme thinning to the point that when my hair is wet there are spots where I can see my scalp.....mostly at the top and sides of my head.  When my hair is dry, it isn't that noticeable.....but that is cause my hair is curly.  (It use to be super thick, too)  I am also on other meds which cause thinning of the hair, and they did, but I have been on those for years.  My doc said that it would slow down, the hair loss and it has, but there were many a days that I would just cry in the shower when I would feel the hair just sliding down my back and legs.  Over time I have grown accustomed to it, but it was very hard in the beginning.

Just last week I discovered that I had been losing a lot of hair for the past few months, and it is now, thin, wiry and freezy, unlike my very thick, smooth, shiny and wavy hair that everyone always complimented me on. I can see a clear through my hair to my scalp in the front.  I even lost some of my eyelashes, an they are also shorter and coarser. I've taken MTX for about two years, started at 4 pills then increased to 6 for a long time, then 8 recently.  This hair loss started just a few months ago, so I was caught by surprise after being on MTX without hair loss. I never expected it. I take 8 MTX pills per week (increased in January from 6) for my RA and nothing else, except the 1 mg. Folic Acid that helps with the side effects of MTX that I must take. Months ago I asked my doctor to take me off the Prednisone, but he didn't lower my MTX when I asked.  I called him alarmed about my hair loss and he said to take only 6 MTX and double the dosage of Folic Acid to 2 mg. I feel like quitting altogether because I am so despondent.  My RA is very much in control, only little pain in wrists and hands, with MTX and the doctor says I will relapse if I stop it.  Other treatments he said would be Humira or Remicaid, that my insurance won't pay for, and I think are too drastic for my RA.  I'm still losing hair.  I will see what I can do about improving my situation and I will post here what happens.  Try to grab your hair in a pony tail and measure the girth, and keep measuring it to see if it starts thinning, and I don't recommend harsh hair dyes, too much brushing with hard brush, blow drying or flat iron treatments because I don't know if this pulling and heat will make matters worse, as they probably did for me. The damage is internal (hair follicles are killed) so maybe it doesn't make much difference.  Also, do your labs every 4 to 6 weeks to check for other more dangerous side effects.  That's what I haven't done either, but I am going tomorrow.

I also take mtx at  high dose (9 pills)  I have been taking it for a over a year.  My hair is also falling out,so much so it clogs the drain in the bath tub at least once week.  I  would discuss not taking it with your dr. , thats what I plan to do.