While it may be worrying to suddenly begin losing hair at an alarming rate, it’s nothing to worry about. The reason for this sudden shedding is that your hormone levels, and particularly your oestrogen level, are returning to their pre-pregnancy levels. Since oestrogen regulates how long hair stays in a growth phase for, while you’re pregnant more of your hair is growing than usual. Normally, about 10 to 15 percent of your hair will be in a resting phase, but during pregnancy, that’s not the case. It’s also the same reason you may have noticed more body and facial hair while you were pregnant.
The hair loss you are experiencing is simply your hair growth normalising, and there’s nothing you need to do – or panic about. There’s nothing you can do to stop the hair loss, but you can try experimenting with different styles or new hair products. You could also do what many new mums do – cut your hair short. It’ll make the hair loss seem less, and it’s a lot more manageable when you have a small baby to deal with. Another good reason to have your hair cut, if you have very long hair, is that strands sometimes get caught around your baby’s limbs, neck or penis. The hair becomes quite tight, and can cause your baby pain. So if your child is crying for no apparent reason check whether any of these ‘hair tourniquet’s’ are present.
While it may be worrying to suddenly begin losing hair at an alarming rate, it’s nothing to worry about. The reason for this sudden shedding is that your hormone levels, and particularly your oestrogen level, are returning to their pre-pregnancy levels. Since oestrogen regulates how long hair stays in a growth phase for, while you’re pregnant more of your hair is growing than usual. Normally, about 10 to 15 percent of your hair will be in a resting phase, but during pregnancy, that’s not the case. It’s also the same reason you may have noticed more body and facial hair while you were pregnant.
