Hair Loss After Giving Birth Is Due To Hormone Fluctuations While Pregnant
Saturday, November 27th, 2010Much more changes go on inside you during pregnancy than you might think of. Although lots of books on childbirth deal with hormonal changes, mood swings, back aches, and the need to wear low-heeled footwear, one thing that many manuals neglect to discuss is what happens to your hair during and right after pregnancy. It’s likely you have no idea about the cycles your hair undergoes when you aren’t pregnant, that makes it difficult to fully understand the differences that are evoked following childbirth and precisely what is going on and find the causes of hair loss.
There are actually thousands of follicles of hair set in your scalp. Each one goes through three cycles about twenty times throughout your life. These cycles are:
1.Anagen – this is actually the growing period of your hair. About 80-90% of your follicles are in this particular phase at any given time. Hair will grow continuously during this 3-7 year period at the rate of about a half inch a month.
2.Catagen – after the Anagen period of hair growth, the hair undergoes a 2-4 week time period when it detaches from the blood supply, the particular follicle shrinks to about 1/6 of it’s original size, and as the new hair starts developing, the bulb of the old hair is pushed upward. Somewhere between 2 and 3% of your hair is going to be in this period during any specific period.
3.Telogen – during this 3-month period of time, 50 – 100 hairs will fall out on a daily basis. Hair follicles become vulnerable as well as thin. As soon as the hair falls out, a brand new follicle will grow up in its spot.
As you can see, some hair loss is to be expected each day in your life. While you are pregnant, however, your hair may go through the cycles differently. When pregnant, a larger percent of hairs enter the Catagen period. They don’t fall out, however, because of the increase of hormones inside you. You can see, then, that following pregnancy, as soon as your hormone levels go back to normal, all of this hair that is within the waiting stage and didn’t come out while you were pregnant reaches the Telogen phase and starts to fall out. It generally takes 3-4 months for this to take place before your hair will get back to its normal cycles.
hair loss after pregnancy is a very usual occurrence, and it’s nothing which should cause you undue worry. After experiencing its normal processes, your hair should get back to normal in a couple of months. You can chill now. You aren’t going bald!