What causes postpartum hair loss? Part I
I remember the first time it hit me. I’d been a new mother for two and a half months. I’d just had a C-section and an emergency appendectomy. My hair was thick and lush from pregnancy but the baby wasn’t cooing in my arms any more, and I hadn’t slept in weeks. I decided I needed a break and a facial. As I rolled my hair – thick and shiny from pregnancy – into a topknot, I stared in horror at my receding hairline.
Assuming I was losing my mind, having been up for more hours than I could count, I took a photo. I wanted to remember what this looked like. It was only then that I could really see it. I really did have a weird post-partum case of Almost-Bald. And then I noticed I could see more thinning, and a bunch of little 1mm spikes poking straight up out of my head. Call in the bald sisters! It’s one of those things that’s surprisingly difficult to find any information about online. Instagram is where I found the other women who lost their hair after having kids. Dozens of them, all hiding Trail of Carrot snaps on Instagram, and measuring their own regrowth in stages: half-inch hairlines Victim of Science (2018), which includes a scene in which a child gazes dreamily into the rump of a pig forced onto her lap. In the film’s document of the swine depilatory, the viewer sees something delicate, recoiling, caught between those blunt spikes As an artist, I’d already encountered Hartwieg’s ‘Untitled’, a 2010 painting showing two silhouettes, one partially undressed, both dimensionally compressed and bearing the artist’s name: one word for a boy, another for a girl. His work, fascinated by our body shapes and our skin, expressively suggests the intimacy of suffering, as well as powerfully asserting both sexuality and consent.
I wasn’t alone: postpartum hair loss (the loss of significantly more than 100 hairs per day, the average daily amount) is extraordinarily common. A 2004 study on postpartum hair loss found that 68.4 per cent of subjects experienced it to some extent or another. Still, the shock of learning that this was happening to me – that it could continue for months – left me feeling despondent.
‘Hair is a huge part of who they are as women,’ says Aaron Chen, DO, a board-certified dermatologist at Skincare by Amy Peterson Clinic in Miami Beach. Perhaps because of that, ‘hair loss can be devastating at any age. But for new mothers who are not only suffering from significant hormonal changes, but also are sleep-deprived and nursing, it can be even more crushing.’
But exactly what is postpartum hair loss, and what can you do about it, if anything? Here, six experts share their best advice.
What causes postpartum hair loss?
To understand why and how it happens, you have to get to know the life cycle of hair, says Dr. Chen. Hair growth occurs in four stages: growth (anagen), transition (catagen), resting (telogen) and shedding (exogen). ‘Pregnancy temporarily alters this cycle because of a boost of oestrogen and progesterone – two hormones that help keep hair in the resting phase longer,’ says Dr. Chen. (This is why so many women say that their hair is thicker and fuller in the third trimester of pregnancy.)
The hormone levels drop sharply after birth, and ‘combined with the stress of delivering the baby, nutritional deficiencies, and possibly postpartum depression, the hair will shed fast and you will get thin hair’, he explains.
When does postpartum hair loss start?
Every pregnancy is different, but experts say postpartum shedding tends to start two to three months after giving birth, often peaking around the fifth-month mark and stopping by month six. Of course, not everyone is the same, says Marisa Garshick, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in New York City. ‘Some patients may experience it for longer.’ If you feel you’re shedding for a prolonged period of time, consider visiting a dermatologist, who can evaluate you for other possible causes, suggests Garshick. ‘Bloodwork [can be] performed to look into other medical conditions, nutritional deficiencies, thyroid disorders and hormonal factors that may be contributing to hair loss,’ she adds.
What does postpartum hair loss look like?
As is often the case with pregnancy, postpartum hair loss can have a light to heavy impact depending on who you are. Elaine F Kung, MD, a board-certified dermatologist and the founder of Future Bright Dermatology in New Jersey, says the naturally increased hair shed can result in noticeable hair loss for a woman who has recently had a baby – especially near her temples. But she adds that there’s no ‘one size fits all answer in regards to a firm “yes” or “no”’ about when – if – and how hair may react to its plummeting estrogen levels.
‘Your hair can feel different during postpartum, and dryness or oiliness can increase or decrease,’ says Dr Garshick. ‘You might even notice it changing in texture.’ The good news? ‘We tell the majority of women that by the time their child is a year old, they will have returned to their previous thickness,’ Roy says.