Our subject today aims to answer the following question: “hair loss during pregnancy is normal”? Many women know that, during pregnancy, the skin changes, the hair changes… Well, everything changes. A lot of changes occur in the female body during pregnancy and, consequently, could not fail to bring impacts to the hair, right?
For most women, hormonal changes in pregnancy leave hair with a stronger and healthier appearance. This is usually remarkable and true for most women!
It is easy to understand:
The hairs have phases, and they are 3: anagen phase (hair growth); catagen phase (intermediate) and telogen phase (rest / fall). During pregnancy, some hormones act on hair follicles by stimulating them almost exclusively in the anagen phase of hair. That is to say, throughout the pregnancy, our hair stays the whole period in the phase of growth, with ample irrigation. During that time, the metabolism of the root is quite active and ensures the rapid division of hair cells: a new hair is formed and grows quickly.
In this way, throughout the gestation it is common that the hair becomes bright, full and very healthy. Therefore, it is true that hair looks better during pregnancy.
However, we hear many complaints about hair loss after childbirth and, unfortunately, we have a duty to further confirm this truth!
Just as during pregnancy the gestational hormones intensify the duration of the anagen phase, after the birth, the hair continues its cycle passing through the other natural phases of hair: catagen and telogen. This last phase lasts about 3 months, because the hair first rests – no longer being irrigated by the follicle – and then weakens and falls, that is, falls.
That is why postpartum hair loss, due to hormonal fall, is a normal and common problem that affects many women. This problem arises around 3 months after the birth of the baby, just the average time needed for all that new strong hair that came during gestation to fall into postpartum.
If you are going through hair loss after childbirth, do not despair! Most women who are breastfeeding go through this problem, which is the result of large hormonal oscillations occurring in the body. Over time (about 4 to 6 months), everything normalizes and the hair relives its 3 phases at natural speed.
Responding, finally, to our initial question: it is much more common for the hair to fall a few months after the baby is born than during pregnancy. If you have already gone through some gestation, tell us how your experience was with the hair loss theme.
