Expert: Dr Ian Jackson - please note UK based - 4/22/2009

Question
my mom has been in the hospital on and off for the last several years she has 2 backsurgeries and gallblader in which she spent 8 days in the hospital. she is 71 yrs old.Her hair will no longer keep a perm or curl with a curling iron, her hairdresser says it is because she has had too much anesthetic in her body from the surgeries and not to waste her money on perms,she keeps it very short now because there is nothing she can do. also it is growing with a waxy texture to it. Could you give me an answer please?

Answer
HI Dawn
This is the first time I have heard of a hairdresser blaming anaesthesia for problems that they are struggling to explain - usually it is surgeons or primary care physicians!
Always seems to be the first step - if you find something you can't explain then blame the anaesthetic.
I'll try and make some sense of this...
We know that any drugs given to someone can leave traces in the hair - this fact is used to test hair samples for traces of drugs e.g. drug abuse etc. As the hair takes time to grow this leaves a record of drug exposure going back a considerable time. So depending on how long your hair is then their could be traces (very small amounts) in your hair. Now hair grows at around 1/2 an inch per month or 6 inches per year - so someone with long hair could have quite a lengthy history stored there.
Now as to if this can have an effect on if your hair can be permed or not - then sorry I couldn't state for certain, it seems unlikley but I suppose could be possible.
However even so this should be a short term issue unless we are now suggesting that the drugs have led to a longterm effect on how hair is produced by the hair follicle. Sorry I don't have any information about that but the only drugs we know have an effect on these are certain hormones and chemotherapy.
I hope the above helps a bit.
Dr Ian Jackson