So you just had a baby; you’re hormones are all over the show, your painful and still recovering physically from giving birth, you’re beyond exhausted and maybe you’re not entirely happy with this new post baby body you’re rocking but now just to top the post partum cake, your hair starts falling out. I mean it feels like you can’t possibly have any hair left.
It’s everywhere, in every crevasse of the house, blocking up the shower, it’s in all of your clothes, yours partners clothes, the baby’s clothes, you even found a stand in your baby’s nappy. I swear people who have long haired dogs don’t encounter this much hair on a daily basis, you might as well add emptying your hairbrush to the endless list of jobs you do everyday.
So if this is completely normal and happens to everyone, why did no one tell us? Why are we warned of the baby blues, the unexplained emotional sobbing at an RSPCA advert, the whirlwind hormones, the desire to eat everything in existence but no one tells you that your hair is going to fall out by the fistful.
I spoke to my hairdresser about it, I told her that I knew it was normal but why? this is how she explained it to me; our hair goes through three stages, growth, rest and fall out. During pregnancy the ever changing hormones in our system cause our hair to grow and rest but not to fall out. So pregnancy doesn’t make our hair thicker and better, it just stops it from falling out, we keep adding to what we have and never lose any. Not for those 9 months anyway. Once your baby is born your hormone levels normalise (somewhat) and the fall out stage returns, expect now you have an abundance of hair from all the months it wasn’t falling out.
Now it feels like you’re entire head of hair if falling out when in reality you’re just losing what you should have lost whilst you were pregnant, why it has to all fall out at once is beyond me but you know Mother Nature is a bitch sometimes.
In theory, once all of your excess hair has fallen out and your hormones have righted themselves you should return to your normal grow, rest and fall out routine. That being said, wouldn’t it just be typical that along with not getting your pre-baby body back, you also don’t get your pre-baby hair back.
There are some things you can do to help, avoiding extreme heat and harsh chemicals is always a good idea for your hair but when you have approximately 0.0001 seconds to get ready a quick blow dry is really the only option so it’s easier said than done in reality. I’m six months post-partum now and let me tell you there is no let up yet, not only is it still falling out but now it’s starting to grow back, in lovely little baby hair tufts. Great, just what I needed, a messy mum bun and a lion cub mane.
At least my skin is bright and glowing, oh wait…
Rachel xx
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