You are home from the hospital and three months has gone by with your new baby in tote. You are finally feeling better, life is moving in a smoother direction, when out of the blue, clumps of hair are falling out in the shower. You think that you must be going bald, start calling around for advice and discover that postpartum hair loss is a normal step in the transition from pregnancy to postpartum to feeling like a “normal” woman again.
Let’s look at the reason that postpartum women feel like they are going bald in the months after giving birth to their baby:
Prior to pregnancy, 95% of your hair is growing while the rest of your locks are in the resting stage, but once the resting period is over the hair falls out and new hair begins to grow. It is a constant process. For example, when my daughter turned three months old(probably on the exact day!) handfuls of hair began coming out in the shower; it continued for two months until my hair resumed its natural thickness. On average, woman lose 100 hairs a day and 100 new hairs begin to grow in their place, but during the post partum months, a woman can lose up to 500 hairs each day, which makes it seem like balding is in your future(1).
When you got pregnant, the levels of estrogen shot up and lengthened the growing stage, making your hair thick, glamorous, and luscious. In the excitement of having a baby, getting super thick hair (not to mention fabulously strong nails), you probably forgot to look toward the future. ..with every reaction there must be an equal and opposite reaction, i.e. hair .
But why did they begin to fall out? Between months one and three your body is busy regulating your hormones to match that of a non-pregnant female(2). By the third month, most hormones are back in regulation and there is a plummet in the estrogen levels, which results in the hair follicles entering the resting stage. This is when moms say good bye to their super thick hair and say hello to the short “mom haircut”, but I wouldn’t advise that drastic change.
Now that you are experiencing hair loss (or have the time to do research on it before it hits you), you are probably wondering if there are remedies that you can use to minimize the hair loss. While there are no cures for postpartum hair loss, there are some ideas that you can twist to fit into your lifestyle to minimize the hair loss. First, continue taking a prenatal vitamin(or switch to another multi) which will continue to give your body the folic acid and amino acids that the body needs to encourage efficient hair regrowth(2). Secondly, after the delivery of your baby, shampoo hair every other day and put it up in a loose scrunchy, rather than a tight band. Tight bands and tight up-dos encourage the shedding of hair(3). Finally, put off any hair coloring, perming, or unnecessary treatments until after the hair loss has ceased(again, your hair needs time t0 adjust to not being pregnant just as much as you do!).
What if the hair keeps falling out? Call your doctor; you may have a condition called postpartum thyroiditis.
Sources:
1. Baby Center- hair loss
2. Pregnancy Today Magazine
3. What to Expect- 2010 version
