Hair loss

[Christmasevesofa]

Morning all,

I am currently losing a lot of hair when washing and brushing. I am aware this is due to stress as I have been struggling a lot lately. I have changed my brush to a more gentle one and I am doing all I can to reduce my stress levels but unfortunately the problem is still continuing.

Has anyone else been through this that could offer any advice?

Many thanks

To add I'm 35, always had thick-ish long hair. Some days my hair is coming out literally in clumps 🥺

I've had this twice, but both times were a long time ago so my memory is bit hazy. The first time was stress, the second time was after a rotten bout of food poisoning.

This is not exactly scientific, but this is what I remember when I googled at the time:

There are three phases of hair growth, with approx a third of your hair in each phase at a given time. When your body has a shock, it can cause the hair in one of those phases to fall out - so essentially a third of your hair. The rest of your hair will be fine as it wasn't in that phase of growth.

I lost less than that the first time and about that the second time (based on the thickness of my ponytail). No one believed me as I had thick hair to begin with and still had thick hair at its thinnest! It was only noticeable with the regrowth as it was so short and fluffy. Once the new hair grew out a bit it was fine. I've had more stressful events happen since that didn't trigger any hair loss, and I've heard of people having it after covid which I didn't even though I did have other lingering symptoms.

Everything I've said above may well be contradicted by someone who knows more

Should've lead with: but also speak to your GP as it can be a sign of various physical illnesses such as thyroid problems so you should get checked out just in case.