Tips for Dealing with Postpartum Hair Loss
After nine months of pregnancy, a woman’s body goes through even more changes postpartum. Similar to the transformation that women’s bodies undergo in the lead-up to labor and delivery, the healing and recovery period after childbirth results in another array of hormonal and physical changes, one of which is postpartum hair loss.
Post-pregnancy hair shedding can be quite alarming but it’s actually pretty common among women. Before you start feeling down about losing your luscious locks, we want to assure you that it’s temporary. Your hair will eventually grow back, new and healthy.
Even more good news, there are ways to deal with it while it’s happening. In this article, we discuss what causes post-pregnancy shedding and outline postpartum hair loss tips to help you avoid shedding after childbirth.
What Causes Postpartum Hair Loss?
During pregnancy, you may have noticed that your hair was thicker, fuller, and more lustrous than usual. Then after giving birth, you experienced alarmingly heavy hair fall. What happened?
This is because while you are pregnant, there are lots of hormonal shifts occurring in your body. One thing that those shifts in your hormones do is promote hair growth. Your hormones are actually preventing you from shedding hair, even though we typically shed about 80 to 100 hair strands per day. After pregnancy, once your hormone levels have normalized, there will be a drop in estrogen. This triggers the shedding to resume, so all the hair that you didn’t lose in all those months, will now shed all at once.
This condition is known as telogen effluvium. It is triggered by events that cause major stress to the body, including childbirth. Stress interrupts the hair’s life cycle, cutting short the growth phase and prematurely pushing a large number of hair follicles into the resting phase all at once. This results in heavy hair fall a few months after the stressful event. That’s why most mothers notice postpartum hair loss around three months after giving birth.
How long does postpartum hair Loss last?
It differs from person to person, but postpartum hair loss typically doesn’t last longer than three months. Your hair will eventually start growing back within six months after you give birth. However, there are cases where it takes up to a full year for the hair to regain normal fullness.
Tips for Dealing with Postpartum Hair Loss
If you’re going through the transitory period, you can try hair thickening cuts and volumizing products, so your hair regrows healthily. From styling your hair to managing your diet, here are the best tips to help deal with postpartum hair loss.
Go for a Blunt Cut
This is one of the easiest and quickest postpartum hair loss tips. Opting for a shorter cut can help your hair to appear fuller and thicker. For instance, a blunt-edged bob softened with layers. This hairstyle will also keep your locks more manageable once you have your baby and become a busier mom.
Don’t Stop Washing Your Hair
A healthy scalp results in healthy hair, especially after pregnancy. But often, the sight of increased hair fall in the shower can make you want to put off washing your hair and scalp.
This isn’t something you should be worried about. Whether you wash your hair once a day or once per week, you will lose the same amount of hair. If your hair’s extra sensitive after giving birth, aim for washing it every other day. Just make sure to use gentle pressure so you put less stress on your scalp and hair. Keeping your scalp clean will aid in healthier hair regrowth.
Eat More Protein and Iron-Rich Foods
This is a popular one when it comes to hair loss prevention tips for women. At any life stage of your hair’s growth, a well-balanced diet is crucial for giving your hair the fuel it needs to grow long and healthy. It becomes more important after childbirth.
As your system rebalances, your hair will need extra internal support as it’s going to be last on your body’s list of priorities to nourish. We recommend eating meals rich in nutrients and food that contains plenty of iron and protein. Food rich in protein includes eggs, lean meats, poultry, fish, nuts, lentils, and chickpeas. Iron-rich food includes red meat, walnuts, almonds, and spinach.
Seek Professional Help
How to avoid postpartum hair loss? Consult the experts. While heavy hair shedding after giving birth is something that cannot be completely prevented, postnatal hair loss treatments done by hair and scalp experts like those at Svenson will help boost the growth of healthier, thicker hair, and keep the hair loss from worsening.
Fight Postpartum Hair Loss with Svenson
When it comes to postpartum hair loss, the most important thing to remember is that it is totally normal. As your hormone levels shift back to normal, so will your hair growth cycle. In the meantime, you can prevent it from worsening by scheduling a consultation with the experts at Svenson.
Svenson is a leading provider of treatments for women’s hair loss in the Philippines. Let our highly qualified trichologists examine your hair and scalp and recommend the best postnatal hair loss treatment for you. Schedule your free appointment today!
