Why Does Your Hair Fall Out Too Much in the Shower?

When you find that the hairs of your scalp fall out too much in the shower, you may worry that it can be a sign of abnormal condition. Yap, sometime it may become a warning sign, but fortunately many times it can be a normal part of your hair follicle life cycle or may be triggered by lifestyle factors that typically can be reversed.

Hair follicle is very crucial to support the hair growth. It also plays a key role in each phase of life cycle (resting phase, transition phase, and active growing phase). See this section for in-depth information about the life cycle of hair.

Each hair follicle on your scalp has its own normal life cycle. This can be helpful to make sure that you still a full head of hair. Imagine when all of hairs on the scalp of your head go into the resting phase (the time of when the hair stops growing and falls out), your head can be completely baldness.

There is about 10-20 percent of hair follicles that can go with the resting phase at any time. But don’t worry – this still leaves up to 80 to 90 percent for hair follicles that are actively growing [1].

So, most hairs on the scalp usually go into the active growing phase. This phase can last for several years which typically can provide about 1 cm of growth per month.

Furthermore, the resting phase and transition phase last much shorter than active growing phase. Typically, not more than 3 months for resting phase, and only about two to three weeks for the transition phase.

Now you know that hair follicles on your scalp don’t produce hair shaft (the hair that you can see) all the time. Again, there is a time for them to go with the resting phase.

Actually, there is no exact formula to say about how much hair you should lose in the shower that is considered normal or abnormal.

In general, experts only can say that having hair loss for about 100 to 125 per day is still considered normal [2].

However if you have prolonged excessive hair loss in the shower, it’s better to see a doctor /dermatologist – particularly true if you are taking a medicine or after surgery, and you believe that this have an effect on the problem.

In the normal scenario, you can commonly notice a few hairs on your shoulders or more that fall out each time when you shampooing. This should not be worried since about 1 in 100 hairs on your scalp are at the end of the life cycle and ready to fall out.

But when you find that your hairs are falling out too much in the shower or when shampooing, this may point to a condition called ‘telogen effluvium’

Moreover, it’s also good idea to re-check the way on how you wash your hair. Poor hairstyle such as ‘too much’ shampooing, the use of inappropriate shampoo, or the way on how you apply the shampoo on the scalp, or other poor hairstyle practices can have an effect.

In addition, many experts say that the issue of frequent shampooing that can cause hair loss is a myth! But too much shampooing may become counterproductive.

How often should you shampoo your hair? It can vary from person to person, because actually this issue is a matter of personal preference.

In general, getting shampoo for 3-4 times per week is considered plenty [3]. However there are some people that need to wash their hairs every day due to certain reasons, such as having too high oil production on the scalp.

But if you need to shampoo daily, make sure to choose a lightweight shampoo to keep safe. This kind of shampoo is usually also labeled with ‘everyday shampoo’. It is designed and produced with milder detergents.

It is a condition when there are more hair follicles (greater than usual) that go into the resting phase.

If you have telogen effluvium, your hairs can shift more quickly than usual from the anagen phase (active growing phase) into the telogen phase (resting phase). As a result, it is often characterized by the excessive hairs that fall out at any one time.

The effect of telogen effluvium is often noticed by a condition in which large amounts of hair can fall out when shampooing, brushing, or styling [4].