Post Pregnancy Hair Loss Prevention and Treatment
Pregnancy can cause a number of physical changes, including a few changes in your emotions. These changes occur from the early weeks of pregnancy to several months after pregnancy. And did you know that there are many women who experience hair loss after delivery. Is this normal? How long does it last? And what to do to deal with? Fortunately, there are plenty of options for post pregnancy hair loss prevention and treatment.
First things first, the phase of after delivery is the reverse cycle phase of during pregnancy. When you are being pregnant, your body has higher levels of pregnancy hormones. The increased estrogen during pregnancy, for example, is a good thing to help keep your hair grows healthy – as a result, you’re likely to have full luxurious head of hair. But the opposite way may occur after giving a birth.
Before jumping to the underlying cause of the problem, it’s much better to understand the natural cycle of your hair growth.
At any one time, most of your hair (about 90 percent) is continuously growing – while the others (about 10 percent) go to the phase of resting. The resting hairs will fall out every 2 – 3 months and will be replaced by new ones. Most women shed about 100 hairs /day on average, which is perfectly normal.
After giving a birth, your pregnancy hormones decrease and you get back to the levels of normal. And this causes several consequences, post pregnancy hair loss is one of them.
However, don’t panic! Having hair loss problem after giving birth is pretty common – in fact, it affects many new moms (about 75 percent of women after delivery)! So, there are also some women who don’t experience it. Among those women who do, hair loss is usually easier to be noticed if they have long hairs [reference].
As noted before, the decreased estrogen after giving birth play key role in tumbling of a lot of hairs. Soon you will notice more of your hair that coming out on your brush or during shower.
But don’t worry, this will taper off and you should get back to your pre-pregnancy thickness for about 6 to 12 months after delivery or at least after the first birthday of your baby.
Is there a link between hair loss and breastfeeding? Many experts believe that breastfeeding will not cause hair loss. Even breastfeed your baby can help you lose your baby weight after pregnancy!
Breastfeeding is very crucial for the growth of your baby – so don’t ever thinking to stop your breastfeeding, do it for at least 6 months after delivery or follows as your doctor suggests!
Are there any steps of prevention and treatment you should follow? There are also a few ways to help deal with the problem. These may include:
A well-balanced diet is not only useful for your overall health and your hair health, but also important to make sure that you get plenty of nutrients while breastfeeding.
When it comes to diet for healthy hair, get plenty of antioxidants and flavonoids. Both can be found in fresh fruits and vegetables.
Protein is another essential nutrient to replenish your hair. To gain benefits most, eat more foods that contain high protein, such as soy, egg, salmon, etc – and eat them in moderation. Also, get plenty of iron – iron deficiency is a common culprit for hair loss.
Many new moms find that a haircut can help a lot to cope with their postpartum hair loss.
This is also beneficial when you breastfeed your baby, there is no more incident for your baby to pull your hair. Furthermore, you can reduce the amount of time to clean up and style your hair.
About 3-4 months after giving birth, your hairs are more prone to breakage. Therefore, you should handle and touch them with extra care while doing certain activities, such as when washing or brushing them.
Remember that wet hairs are the most fragile time – so make sure you handle them gently. Allow your hair dry naturally before you comb or brush them. And use an appropriate comb that will not pull them excessively!
Cornrows, braids, or ponytails are bad things you need to avoid because they can pull the hair tighter.
If you have to use a blow hair dryer, make sure you set it at the lowest setting. And during the highest intensity of your shedding, decrease your frequency of washing /shampooing your hair.