During pregnancy and postpartum many physical changes occur, also affecting the condition of the hair. Does hair grow more during pregnancy? Is it usual for you to fall after giving birth? When is that fall slowed and the capillary density recovered? Ricardo Moreno Alonso de Celada, dermatologist at the Hospital Universitario del Henares , in Coslada (Madrid), answers the most frequently asked questions.
“Hair loss is a constant throughout life, it is something physiological. In our hair, under normal circumstances, there is always a part of the hair that is growing, another that has stopped growing and another that is shedding ”, Moreno contextualizes. In some moments, in relation to situations that affect our health, we suffer effluvia, or periods where we have a hair loss higher than the physiological one. A characteristic one is postpartum telogen effluvium, which occurs 3 or 4 months after giving birth.
Causes and solutions for hair loss after delivery
It seems that during pregnancy the amount of growing hair increases, due to estrogens , increased in the pregnant woman during the months of pregnancy. Therefore, “when the pregnancy ends and the hormonal pattern changes suddenly, many hairs enter the arrest or telogen phase synchronously, and 3 or 4 months later they shed their roots,” explains the specialist in Dermatology.
As we see, Moreno continues, the telogen effluvium is nothing more than a striking way for our hair to return to normality ; and the organism is capable of regulating this phenomenon by itself. But it must be borne in mind that exceptional nutritional circumstances such as iron deficiency may occur during pregnancy and postpartum , and this could contribute to aggravating the effluvium or to not recovering normally. Therefore, postpartum feeding should not be different, it must be careful and adequate, any nutritional deficit must be detected and, sometimes, we must use dietary supplements to contribute to the recovery of the organism.
Over time, does all that lost hair recover?
“Typically, all lost hair will be recovered when there are no aggravating factors. Hair density has usually returned to normal 12 months after delivery. Normally, the obvious effluvium (the period in which we observe the greatest fall) lasts less than six months, but a later period is necessary until the detached hair is repopulated, “says the dermatologist at the Hospital Universitario del Henares.
Common doubts about how pregnancy affects hair
Some women comment that they lose hair during pregnancy. It is common?
In addition to physiological hair loss (from 100 to 150 hairs per day in a normal way, and less during pregnancy), thyroid disorders, iron deficiency (decrease in iron in the body) or other situations of metabolism are possible during pregnancy which They make hair loss increase, rather than decrease -as is typical in pregnant women-.
Others report having stronger hair during pregnancy. It is a myth?
“During pregnancy we will have less hair in arrest and fall, but the thickness or resistance of most of the hair does not increase with respect to its normal state,” says Moreno.
Can a thyroid malfunction influence more hair loss?
Both hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism characteristically associate effluvia by different mechanisms. In fact, since both thyroid gland disorders are possible and relatively common during pregnancy, a striking hair loss in this period should alert us to the possibility of a thyroid problem.
Hair dyes, pregnancy and lactation
” Hair dyes are a group of cosmetic products that have been extensively studied and that pass strict safety controls, so we can make it clear that their use is safe in pregnancy . They are also considered safe during breastfeeding , according to the Spanish Association of Pediatrics, “ says the specialist in Dermatology. This expert points out that it is only true that some permanent synthetic dyes, which are the most used, carry oxidizing substances such as monoethanolamine or hydrogen peroxide and can damage the hair shaft and increase the fall, especially if they are in high concentrations.
Other dyes are at risk of allergic contact dermatitis, especially those containing paraphenylenediamine. These circumstances are not specific to pregnancy, but it may be desirable to avoid them at this special period of life.
