Since you are pregnant, you may be wondering about what happens after the baby is born. Of course many things happen after the baby is born – you learn to care for the baby, your body recovers from pregnancy and birth, and you begin watching your baby grow and change. There are also other things that happen too, and you may not know about them until they happen because they are not really things that people talk about that much.
One of those things is postpartum hair loss. Of course, no one is going to say “wow, you’re pregnant – did you know that a lot of your hair will fall out after the baby is born?” I can not even remember whether I lost a bunch of hair a few months after giving birth to my first son. I am sure that noticeable postpartum hair loss is not something that every mother experiences. I am experiencing it now, though, that’s for sure.
Postpartum hair loss happens anywhere between three and six months after the baby is born. Women who experience postpartum hair loss experience a lot of shedding, and sometimes hair even comes out in clumps. Why does that happen? During pregnancy, your hair may have seemed thicker and fuller. Your pregnancy hormones were preventing your hair from falling out at its normal rate of 100 hairs per day. Once you give birth, your hormones gradually subside (thank goodness) and your scalp will make up for lost time by shedding more hairs than normal until all of that “extra hair” that you accumulated during pregnancy is gone.
Even though the sheer amount of hair that is coming out in your brush may cause you to think that you will end up with thin hair or bald spots, that is not likely. Your hair is simply returning to the way it used to be before you were pregnant. You can keep your hair healthy during this period of heavy shedding by continuing to take your prenatal vitamin, shampooing less frequently, and avoiding heat styling as much as possible. Those last two helpful tips will be no – brainers because life with a new baby usually means less time for personal care tasks like showering and styling your hair.
Photo by ronnieb on morguefile.com.