Post natal hair loss

[TinyDiamond]

Not sure if it's feeding related or not but wasn't quite sure where to put this.
Dd is now 7 months old. Hair started falling out at 4 months pp ad hasn't stopped at all. It has got to the point that I avoid washing my hair if I can as it is just horrible to see my hair coming out so much. Same when I brush it.
I am bf 6-7 times per 24 hours.

The other thing is that my daughter was born with loads of really thick, long dark hair. She kept all of it and it just grew longer until recently she is losing all of hers aswell. I know it's normal for babies to lose their hair and I'm sure I'm being silly but is there any chance it's connected?

Is it normal for me to be losing such significant amounts of hair still every day?

I started noticing hair coming out when DD was about 2 months and its still happening now :(. Read somewhere that it happens to about 50 percent of women but no idea if its related to breastfeeding or your DD's hair loss.

I think you lose something like 100 hairs a day normally (non-pg) so it may just be you are hyper-aware of any hair loss now. Also the longer your hair is the more it looks when it falls out.

I doubt very much your baby's hair loss is connected (could be rubbing off on bedding/pushchair/highchair/car seat) but if you are very worried about your hair loss you could ask for as thyroid screening test (thyroid problems can occur post-birth and can involve hair loss too) and perhaps also ask for iron and Vit B & D levels to be checked as being deficient in those could lead to hair loss. You would have to be incredibly deficient for it to affect your milk quality though and you would probably have lots of other symptoms too so try not to worry!

Still have to clear the plug hole after a shower every time. DS is 26 weeks. Don't quote me on the 'science' here, but it's something to do with the 'resting' period of hair. All hairs have a growth period, then a resting period before being shed naturally (if they're not pulled out of course). During pregnancy, existing hair stays in the resting period for longer, while new hair grows, which is why many women report lucious locks in pregnancy (I certainly did). As soon as pregnancy hormones are out of the system that hair in its resting state is shed, so lot more comes out than in a normal hair 'cycle'.

Blinding science aside, it is really disturbing to comb out 2 or 3 sizeable hairballs a day! I really hope it tails off soon. Nothing (as far as I know) to do with breastfeeding per se.

Oh, and DS has 2 bald patches. One on the back from where he lies (growing back now he sits up, or is on tummy more), and one on the side where he runs it when tired (growing back now as I'm better at spotting his tiredness cues). He has a long shaggy mane elsewhere so his patches make him look rather peculiar!

My hair loss started at 3 months postpartum and was at it's worse at about 6-9 months old. My hair looked obviously thin and had some really bare patches. I will admit now I completley panicked. I freaked out big time, however all my friends and family said I was overreacting and that it didn't look patchy to them. It did loose it's natural curl due to being thinner than my usual thick curly locks. However I was blocking up the shower with the hair coming out and though I tried to wash my hair less and brush it less it was still coming out. I did see my GP, my thyroid levels were fine [though i had an overactive thyroid during my pregnancy] and they couldn't find an actual cause for it. I was taking a postnatal vitamin supplement and don't think it would have been any different. I am breastfeeding.

It did get better, I had a bad haircut last year that made me feel really crap, I changed stylists to one who was meant to be an expert in hairloss and can find a style to suit you, turns out it's the same as she currently has, which was a very short cut. But I had a really good one with my usual stylist last week and she was amazing with the advice. Just because she isn't a hairloss expert doesn't mean she didn't know what suited me.

I think my advice would be.. it does stop falling out eventually, you won't notice the new growth at first, keep getting your hair cut with a stylist who knows your hair and can give you the right advice.

Sorry I just read it back and realised it was a bit rambly. I didn't mean is it connected to the breastfeeding I just wondered if there would be any reason that mine and my daughters hair started falling out at the same time?
Hers has thinned allover and she's still losing more every day and mine is allover the house. Very depressing

I have long hair and before I was pregnant, when I washed it I would plug the sink. When I was pregnant, I would literally shed just one hair when washing it which was really unusual for me. Now that DD is 15 weeks old, I've just gone back to plugging the sink.

The plus point for me is that I have also lost the hairy belly I had when I was pregnant!