Hair Loss After Childbirth is Caused by Hormone Fluctuations While pregnant
Much more changes go on on your body during pregnancy than you could think of. Although many literature on giving birth talk about hormonal changes, mood swings, back aches, and the need to use low-heeled footwear, one of the things that most manuals ignore to talk about is what happens to your hair during and after giving birth. It’s likely you have no idea about the cycles your hair undergoes if you are not pregnant, that makes it difficult to grasp the differences which are evoked just after giving birth and precisely what is going on and uncover the causes of hair loss.
There are thousands of hair follicles set in your own scalp. Each one of these goes through three cycles about 20 times throughout your own life. These cycles are:
1.Anagen – this is the growing phase of a hair. About 80-90% of one’s follicles are in this particular stage at any moment. Hair grows up continuously during this 3-7 year period at the rate of about a 1 / 2 inch a month.
2.Catagen – following the Anagen period of hair growth, the hair undergoes a 2-4 week period when it detaches from the blood supply, the follicle shrinks to about 1/6 of it’s original size, and as the new hair starts growing, the bulb of the old hair is pushed up. Approximately 2 and 3% of your hair will probably be in this stage during any particular period.
3.Telogen – during this 3-month period, 50 to 100 hairs may fall out each day. Hair follicles become vulnerable and thin. As soon as the hair sheds, a new follicle will grow up in its place.
As we discussed, a few hair loss isn’t surprising each day in your life. If you are pregnant, however, your hair may encounter the cycles in a different way. When pregnant, a more substantial percent of hairs go into the Catagen period. They don’t fall out, however, because of the increase of hormones in your body. It’s not hard to see, then, that following pregnancy, as soon as your hormone levels return to normal, all this hair that is within the waiting phase and didn’t come out while you were pregnant reaches the Telogen phase and begins to fall out. It usually takes 3-4 months for this to occur before your hair will return to its normal cycles.
Hair loss after pregnancy is a very normal occurrence, and it’s really nothing that should cause you undue worry. After experiencing its normal steps, your hair should return to normal within a month or two. You can chill now. You’re not going bald!