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

… Continued …

It is one of common types of hair loss that often reported many people to their doctor. Even it may be the second common form of hair loss problem.

Unfortunately, the exact cause of the problem is not fully understood. It is often linked with lifestyle factors such as high stress and losing lots of pounds of weight at short time (crash diet).

Other conditions that can be potential to trigger telogen effluvium include [2]:

1. After taking a major surgery.
2. The side effects of using certain medications such as beta-blockers, anti-inflammatary medicines, and antidepressants.
3. Pregnancy. Many new moms experience excessive hair loss after childbirth – here is more detailed information about this topic!
4. Other hormonal imbalances such as in the first months in taking birth control pills, and menopause.
5. Thyroid disorders.
6. Anemia.

Fortunately, the effect of this problem is typically not permanent. Many times, people with telogen effluvium can get back their normal hair growth once the trigger factor is fixed.

If telogen effluvium does play a key role in causing the problem, the hair loss can be fully reversible. Actually, there are just more follicles of hair that go into the resting phase than there should normally be!

Typically, the shed hairs are not anagen hair – but telogen hairs. This can be marked by a small bulb of keratin on the root or end of the shed hair.

In other words, they usually fall out in the resting phase, and there is a little chance for the whole hair follicles to also fall out with the hair shaft. This means that the prognosis to grow back is very good. See also the prognosis of the pulled hair follicle to regrow!

And there are two major ways on how TE occurs [3]:

1. It can occur rapidly – this type is usually triggered by environmental or lifestyle factors such as high stress or crash diet. The effect can be clearly noticed about 1-2 months after getting the shock. This type usually will last less than 6 months, and about 12 months or less afterward you can get back your normal scalp density.
2. Unlike in the first type, sometime telogen effluvium can occur gradually – but it can persist longer. In this type, not all follicles of hair suddenly shed and go into the resting phase.

Furthermore, telogen effluvium also can go with truncated growth cycles. As a result, you can have persistent shedding of thin, short hair fibers. Unfortunately, there is less information about this type.