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Hair Loss After Childbirth is Caused by Hormone Fluctuations During Pregnancy

13th November, 2010 - Posted by health news - No Comments

A lot more changes go on inside you while pregnant than you could imagine. Although lots of manuals on giving birth talk about hormonal changes, mood swings, back aches, as well as the necessity to put on low-heeled footwear, one of the things that many manuals forget to discuss is what happens to your hair during as well as soon after pregnancy. It’s likely you have no clue about the cycles your hair undergoes when you are not pregnant, which makes it hard to fully understand the differences that are evoked following giving birth and what exactly is going on and discover the common causes of hair loss.

You’ll find thousands of hair follicles embedded in your scalp. Each one of these goes through 3 cycles about 20 times during your life. These cycles are:

1.Anagen – this is actually the growing phase of a hair. About 80-90% of your follicles are in this phase at any moment. Hair grows up continuously during this 3-7 year period at the rate of about a 1 / 2 inch per month.

2.Catagen – after the Anagen phase 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 forming, the bulb of the old hair is pushed upward. Approximately 2 and 3% of your hair is going to be in this period during any certain period of time.

3.Telogen – during this 3-month period of time, 50 to 100 hairs may fall out daily. Hair follicles become fragile as well as thin. Once the hair falls out, a brand new follicle will grow up in its place.

As we discussed, a few hair loss isn’t surprising every single day of your life. While you are pregnant, however, your hair may go through the cycles in another way. While pregnant, a bigger percent of hairs go into the Catagen period. It doesn’t fall out, however, because of the increase of hormones inside you. You can see, then, that right after pregnancy, when your hormonal levels go back to normal, all this hair which is within the waiting phase and did not come out while you were pregnant reaches the Telogen phase and starts to fall out. It generally takes 3-4 months for this to take place before your hair will return to its normal cycles.

Hair loss after pregnancy is a very normal occurrence, and it’s really nothing which 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 are not going bald!