On top of all the new and exciting things that a woman experiences while a living being resides within her womb (and even after birth), she also experiences not so pleasant things like thining hair. As with everything else in life, you’ll just have to take the good and the bad in stride, even in the face of one of the most exciting, beautiful, and life-changing events you’ll ever experience. Even those who have never been pregnant realize that it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, after all.
The Changes in Your Body Include Hair Loss
Although this fact may be surprising to some who are used to the popular cliché of male pattern baldness, even women suffer from hair loss as well. In fact, it’s one of the “side effects” of pregnancy (aside from weight gain and stretch marks) is hair loss. There are a lot of negative changes that can happen in a pregnant woman’s body, and hair loss isn’t the worst of the bunch (it also affects your nails, apparently).
Postnatal hair loss, contrary to popular belief, is quite a common phenomenon, so pregnant women everywhere should be wary of this condition. Then again, they should also keep in mind that it’s a temporary problem, so they shouldn’t feel too alarmed if ever this happens to them. Nevertheless, here are some of the ways you can cope with this weird and (somewhat) embarrassing situation that you barely hear about on television or media depicting pregnancy.
Post Pregnancy Hair Loss Tips
One thing you need to keep in mind when undergoing post pregnancy hair loss is the natural hair cycle. That way, you’ll have a good idea of what to expect if ever this inconvenient problem happens to you. Your hair undergoes three stages of growth, and they are the first stage where your hair actively grows, the second stage where the hair is resting on your body and doesn’t grow at all, and the third stage where your hair actually falls out. The terminal growth stage occurs for a number of years; even if you cut it, your hair will just grow back.
The second stage wherein there’s no growth with your hair whatsoever occurs for one to three months because there are chemical changes in your hair follicles. The third and final stage is the shedding part of your hair; a normal, healthy person sheds about a hundred strands of hair is shed everyday. This is all right because every hair shed gives way to a newly born strand of hair. It’s when the replacements don’t come as you shed that hair loss happens in both men and women.
Causes of Hair Loss in Women
As mentioned above, the primary cause of hair loss is pregnancy, particularly of the postnatal variety. Pregnancy can lead to hair loss because of the inevitable hormonal changes that goes on in the female body during such an event. As such, it should be par for the course for pregnant women to take prenatal vitamins in order to allow their strands of hair to remain intact and continue growing instead of falling out. The vitamins will also help your hair to become thicker and fuller even while pregnant.
However, keep in mind that this precaution isn’t enough to protect you from postnatal hair loss. In fact, once you’ve shed that hair, it may take a while for your body to grow them back thanks to the changes in your body chemistry. To be more specific, it typically takes women one to three months after labor to observe differences in hair growth. Changes in diet following birth and discontinued use of prenatal vitamins can also cause hair loss as well. To avoid such issues from surfacing, it’s suggested that you allow vegetables and fruits to become part of your diet plan (which should also help you shed those pregnancy-induced extra pounds too).
This is a good article. It’s also important for women to know that stress, not eating enough/properly, and a condition called PCOS can also cause hair loss in women. There are actually many reasons that a woman may experience hair loss and women deserve treatments just as much as men do!
nothing sexier than a women with a full head of hair.
I’d probably stop looking at the mirror if I start losing my hair. Oh boy, that’s something that would really cause me distress. I hate wrinkles, I hate age lines and crow’s feet, but I hate hair loss the most. I wish aging is not a word in existence. It makes a good deal of anguish not just for me but for a lot of people, I’m sure.
If there is one effect of aging that I would want to skip, that’s losing my hair. I can’t imagine my head without those flowing, silky soft, and smooth strands intact. I’d definitely feel ugly if I have no hair rather than if I have wrinkles. Come on, let the wrinkles appear. Just spare me from losing hair. Can I take vitamins to prevent hair loss? I want to be vigilant and move before it even starts to happen. Every time I see lose strands on my brush, I have a bad day. Imagine what more I will have if I start to have a bald head.
i always thought hair loss can only happen to men as i’ve lost count of how many bald men I encountered in this life. i didn’t known women are at risk, too. excellent article. this is very useful for women as clueless as i am to be vigilant for the possibility of hair loss. Im sure lots of them will find your piece of great use in tackling the problem.