Your hair is falling out in clumps, and you’re starting to panic. Postpartum hair loss after pregnancy is really normal. Here why it’s happening and what you can do to stop it.
Postpartum Hair Loss
Sleepless nights, and constant nursing and the fourth trimester is what you expect as a new mom. Nobody tells you that losing your hair at a scary rate is part of the journey too! Postpartum hair loss effects women differently. It can start as early as 2 weeks pp, wait a whole year or not effect you at all. It also may change each pregnancy. How much hair you lose varies too. You can expect anything from bald spots that never regrow to rapid hair loss. The experience varies from woman to woman and pregnancy to pregnancy.
But wait! “I’m freaking out! Is this normal!?” The good news is hair loss after baby is normal. The better news is there’s something you can do about it!
What Causes Postpartum Hair Loss
Do you remember during pregnancy when you were glowing and had beautiful, shiny, strong hair? This is all thanks to the surplus of hormones in your body. Let’s back track for a minute. When you aren’t pregnant, the life cycle of a hair lasts just a few years. Every individual hair goes through 3 stages before falling out.
The Science on Hair Loss
Each strand of hair enters different stages at different times. The growth phase (Anagen) is where our hair stays the longest. For 3-5 years, hair strands are attached to the follicle and blood supply and are nourished. This is where hair growth happens. The transition phase (Catagen ) is where strands aren’t attached to the blood supply and are no longer growing. During the resting phase (Telogen) because hair is no longer being nourished, it begins to die and fall out. Luckily, a new hair is already starting to grow in the follicle. Otherwise, we’d be bald! Believe it or not, we lose on average 80-100 hairs every single day.
This is what the typical life cycle of a strand of hair looks like. However, your genetics, diet or other factors, like, you guessed it, Pregnancy! Can really impact your hair.
Pregnancy Hair and Postpartum Hair Loss
The extra supply of baby hormones causes your hair to remain in the growth phase of the hair cycle. Estrogen and progesterone allow your hairs to become thick, shiny and long as they hang out in the growth phase longer than normal. This is amazing while you’re pregnant! But once baby is born, your hormones begin to level out again. All of those hairs that pregnancy kept in the growth phase now go into the transition and resting phases. They rest for about three months, then guess what happens?
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All of that beautiful you growth and hair during pregnancy starts falling out. For most, this looks like baby bangs or short wispy hairs around our ears and hairline. How much you shed depends on how much you gained during pregnancy. Remember that the average person loses 80 hairs a day. The average postpartum woman loses 400!
Dealing with Hair Loss
Health
There are a lot of factors that contribute to hair loss. You’ll likely lose hair due do postpartum hormones, but stress and an unhealthy diet will contribute losing those luscious locks. Taking care of newborn can be a lot of work and really stressful. Maintain a balanced diet of fruits, vegetables and good fats, especially if you’re breastfeeding! Make sure that you get as much rest as you can. Lastly, don’t forget to continue taking your prenatal or grab a postnatal vitamin. This will ensure you’re making up for any gaps that your diet isn’t covering. Because let’s be honest, eating healthy with a newborn is tough work!
A healthy diet and rest will lessen hair loss but it won’t stop it. Your hormones are still coming down to a normal level and hair will still go into that resting phase.
Shampoo & Conditioner
If you really want to prevent, treat or reverse postpartum hair loss, you need an excellent shampoo and conditioner. Over the counter products won’t help your hair loss because they are made up of chemicals and fillers. Instead, you need something that will strengthen and thicken hair while stimulating natural hair growth.
This is the exact line that is reversing postpartum hair loss. Red Clover Flower extract and essential vitamins and nutrients help block the formation of DHT (the hormone responsible for the hair all over your floor). CLICK HERE (use the drop down to select pp hair loss) to learn how to save an extra 15%.
Shampoo Science
It’s not enough to just tell you that this shampoo works. Especially if you’ve already tried tons of lines from the store. These are the ingredients that are stopping hair loss after pregnancy and why they help.
Capixyl – Capixyl is an ingredient that reduces hair loss and encourages hair growth. It acts like a topical estrogen. The sudden decrease in estrogen is what causes the hair loss in the first place. Applying the Capixyl topically acts like topical estrogen to both stop the hair loss or increase growth if it’s already started.
Procataline – This pea extract helps maintain the appropriate levels of antioxidants in the hair follicles. This prevents oxidization (the process that turns fruit brown when it’s cut and what ages our hair and skin). It also has been shown to limit cell death that causes hair loss.
Crodasorb – Helps to absorb UV rays to protect hair against sun damage and pigment loss. This keeps your current strands in healthy shape.
Rejuvenique – A blend of 13+ natural oils high in omega 3 and essential fatty acids. It protects the hair and scalp to deliver anti-aging benefits, scalp repair and healthy hair growth. This oil mimics our body’s natural oils no absorb into the hair and skin to heal from the inside out.
These four ingredients are like superfoods for your hair and scalp. They will significantly reduce your postpartum hair loss. If you are already experiencing hair loss after pregnancy, they will stop it and reverse the effects by stimulating hair growth. CLICK HERE to get a hair care system designed specifically for you and your postpartum hair needs. (Use the drop down to select pp hair loss)
Hair Loss & Baby Health – Please Read This!!
Postpartum hair loss is the worst, but if you’re losing your hair, there is something you need to be extra careful of! Lost hairs can become tourniquets on baby. This is a tightly wound hair that cuts off the blood supply on baby’s fingers, toes or other body parts. If left unnoticed, it can cause infection. Don’t panic! The likelihood of this happening is rare, but it’s important to keep an eye out.
Check baby’s fingers and toes when you change her. If you notice a hair tourniquet, gently unwind it, or carefully cut it. If you cannot remove the hair, it’s left a cut in baby’s skin or her toes/fingers are purple, call your health care provider.
Conclusion
Postpartum hair loss is super annoying and inconvenient. But it’s also really hard on the heart. Looks aren’t everything, but struggling with hair loss and confidence is the last thing you need to worry about as a new mom. Hair loss after pregnancy is normal, but there’s a lot you can do about it. Maintaining a healthy diet, getting lots of rest and having low stress is a good start. Top that off with swapping out your shampoo and conditioner for a system specifically developed for hair loss and thinning and you’ll be golden. You’ll having your lustrous, full, shiny and strong pregnancy hair in no time.
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