Is this a lot of hair to be losing the shower? Why is this happening to me? 😭

[Jesscarbqueen87]

Hi everyone. With both of my DC I seem to have suffered with really bad postpartum hair loss. The good thing is though, I don’t seem to have any bald patches, a widened parting or a receding hairline. It seems my hair is snapping off rather than falling out at the root as I have lots of short bits around my hairline along my parting and around the nape of my neck, and my hair feels extremely fine all over. Which has me wondering if it is postpartum hair loss after all? My DS is almost two, I stopped BF’ing when he was 11 months old so I thought I’d be way past the hair loss stage by now. Although my hair is feeling finer finer everyday I had noticed there was slightly less in the shower for the last few months, but this morning was the most hair I’d lost in a while and it has really alarmed me and I’m starting to wonder if the hair loss is kick starting again 😩 I really can’t afford to lose any more hair! 😢

Also would like to add that generally I only wash my hair 2 - 3 times a week. I let it air dry and I only use straighteners once a week at the very most! I also only have my hair coloured once a year at the hairdressers (I don’t use box dyes) and I never use chemicals or products on my hair. I also very rarely tie it back tight, I either wear it down and shove an Alice band on to keep my hair out of my face or tie it back into a loose ponytail. I really don’t get why my hair seems to be snapping off when I’m doing all the right things? (I think??)

I know it sounds silly as it is just hair and there are far worse things going on in the world than me losing my hair, but this is really affecting my confidence. Ordinarily I would go straight the the GP for something like this that has been ongoing for such a long time but I feel a bit silly going to the GP over something so minor at a time like this and I probably wouldn’t get to see or speak to a doctor even if I wanted to.

Why could this be happening and what can I do about it?

When my hair was falling out at different times it was either
Thyroid issues
Ferritin issues
B12/folate deficiency
Vitamin D deficiency

For most of the above it was a mixture of snapping & coming out at the root. All issues needed a blood test to diagnose so it is worth booking a telephone consultation with the GP to request a blood test to check.

To me that doesn't look like a lot but I have quite a lot of curly hair and it only comes out in the shower when I comb it out, never really falls out on my clothes and round the house.

That said if it's not your normal id get checked out because your hair, skin and nails can reflect your overall health

I only wash my hair once every three or four days and lose my than that!

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Vitamin deficiency I'd say. Worth seeing a GP.

the short bits are the post partum loss growing back, this is why it feels finer all over, because you lost a lot all in one go and the individual hairs' growth/rest/fall cycles are still getting back into their natural pattern. It's hard to say if that's an excessive amount of hair fall without knowing how long your hair is, or if you brush it (I never brush my hair except to detangle on wash day once a week so I always lose tons).

To be on the safe side I would get some decent supplements, and make an appointment with the gp to check your iron levels and thyroid function. It's possible that having young dc and so naturally feeling more tired/stressed than normal is masking other symptoms. Don't beat yourself up over supposedly wasting the gp's time - atm it's less of an issue rather than more because it'll probably just be a phone call initially.

Loosing your hair after pregnancy is quite common and perfectly normal.

hair loss

Thanks everyone, I think I will give the doctor a call in the morning.

That's nothing! I regularly shed a mouse's nest of hair! One of the reasons I don't wash hair that regularly. Never been pregnant. I use a biotin shampoo and am trying to remember to take a multivit/mineral pill each day.

@Deathraystare it’s reassuring to hear that some of you don’t think it’s that much. I suppose because my hair is already really fine even losing a small amount is quite alarming for me as I feel I really don’t have much left to lose 😩 now that I think about it I probably did shed more hair in the shower on occasion pre kids, but my hair was so thick and full and grew so fast then I was probably more bothered by the minor annoyance of picking it out of the plug hole more than anything else. Do you find the biotin shampoo helps? If you don’t mind me asking what shampoo is it that you use? I’ve taken (very expensive!) supplements before and found they did nothing so gave up on them. Maybe I didn’t take them for a long enough amount of time to see a result?

Also, I finally got to speak to an actual human on the phone to the doctors this morning, and I’ve scheduled a call back with my doctor tomorrow so will have to discuss possibly going in to have bloods done and finally get to the bottom of this.

It can be normal to start losing hair 6-9 months after you stop breastfeeding. But it’s also likely that you might have stopped eating as healthy (or stopped taking multivitamins) when you stopped breastfeeding - it can take a while for your metabolism to reset. For example I’m still maintaining my weight on 2,400 calories per day even though my son is 12 months and the extra benefits brought by breastfeeding should have long gone - if I reduce calories by even 200-300 per day my skin feels dry and I start to feel sluggish.

I lose about that amount but I have shedloads of hair and thin it own with thinning scissors in between haircuts who do it too . Do you brush your hair a lot ? Mine is curly so I don't brush my hair so I presume it all comes out in the shower when I wash it 2x a week .

I went through a stage of losing hair even mentioned it to my hairdresser but she said everything looked normal, think mine was menopause not happening now.

My hair was past my shoulders and I felt I was losing a lot . Menopausal so I reckon my hair growth cycles had changed .
I had a few inches chopped so now it's just skimming my shoulders and it has improved . I think the extra weight on my poor scalp didn't help it .

I'm surprised at how many people think that's normal. I have never noticed losing any at all when I wash my hair so it's probably only a couple of strands. I would get the blood test to check for vitamin deficiencies but then start taking vitamins after the test anyway. Good luck x

@hennersley

I'm surprised at how many people think that's normal. I have never noticed losing any at all when I wash my hair so it's probably only a couple of strands. I would get the blood test to check for vitamin deficiencies but then start taking vitamins after the test anyway. Good luck x

It depends on your hair length and your hair style. I’ve always had thick hair so losing loads in the shower was completely normal. Other people have quite thin, straight hair that would easily shed hairs across the day. So I’m washing not much would come out.

As it happens I’ve recently experienced TE hair loss and I’ve certainly noticed much more falling out than normal. I guess it’s knowing what’s normal for you and then evaluating that against what happening currently.

Post pregnancy hair loss is extremely common and it’s probabky nothing to worry about.