How To Deal With Postpartum Hair Loss

How To Deal With Postpartum Hair Loss

Having a baby can be a really daunting time for many women. Then, when you add on all the changes continuing to happen to your body, your hair and your emotions, it can all feel a little overwhelming. We want to reassure you how normal and valid those feelings are, especially when it comes to postpartum hair loss. Keep reading to find out more…

Having a baby can be a difficult time for women for a multitude of reasons, including the effect it has on their bodies. But what many women don’t expect is the effect it can have on their hair, too.

During pregnancy, everything tends to be great hair-wise. It’s after giving birth that things can then begin to decline; hair coming out in clumps, noticing considerable thinning, maybe even bald spots? This is what’s known as postpartum hair loss. But the question is, why does this happen and how do you deal with it?

At Stranded Hair Group, we know the effect hair can have on our confidence. A good hair day can make all the difference when it comes to how we’re feeling about ourselves and the confidence we have to face the day. And that’s why we know how difficult it can feel when you suddenly start losing your hair.

Our brand is built on making women feel confident, but that isn’t just without our clip-in hair extensions. Learning about your hair and how to care for it gives you autonomy over something that can feel completely out of your control - and that’s why we write blogs, just like this one.

In this blog, you will learn everything you need to know about postpartum hair loss, including; what it is, why it happens, what it looks like, if it’s reversible and how to disguise it. We’ve also added some advice from real postpartum women, so that you know that how you feel isn’t just normal, it’s valid.

By the end of this blog, you will feel more confident in facing your postpartum hair loss and know what you can do to support yourself and your self-esteem, until everything goes back to normal.

• What is postpartum hair loss?
• Why does postpartum hair loss happen?
• What does postpartum hair loss look like?
• Is postpartum hair loss reversible?
• How to disguise postpartum hair loss
• Advice from real postpartum women

What is postpartum hair loss?

Postpartum hair loss is an extremely common cause of hair loss, affecting most postpartum women 3-6 months after giving birth. It is a stage many women go through, where they notice excessive shedding of their hair.

Why does postpartum hair loss happen?

Postpartum hair loss occurs due to the fluctuation in hormones women experience during pregnancy and after childbirth.

During pregnancy, women’s bodies begin to produce more oestrogen. This results in their hair cycle staying in the growth stage for far longer and therefore growing more hair than is being naturally lost. Many pregnant women notice that they experience unusually thicker and healthier hair during their pregnancy, along with thicker nails.

Postpartum, which is the stage 3 to 6 months after birth, these women’s hormones begin to slowly stabilise, causing the hair’s natural growth cycle to return to normal. Because of the amount of excess growth during pregnancy and the cycle’s return to natural shedding, this thickness begins to fall out excessively.

The postpartum hair loss stage is almost always temporary. Once the hormones completely stabilise, normal hair growth returns, often back to the growth cycle these women had pre-conception.

What does postpartum hair loss look like?

Postpartum hair loss looks like excess hair shedding. Some women experience this slowly over time, noticing more hair loss when they brush their hair or slightly thinner spots, whereas other women experience large clumps of hair falling out.

This can be quite a scary time for women, especially with the stress of having a new baby and often feeling an unnecessary pressure to return to how they looked pre-conception. If you feel like your hair loss could be caused by excess stress, please reach out to your health visitor, GP or your support network.

Is postpartum hair loss reversible?

Yes, postpartum hair loss is almost always reversible!

It will often just take some time for your body and hormones to stabilise and return to normal, which will cause your natural hair growth cycle to return to normal too! As a rule of thumb, it can sometimes take until your baby’s first birthday to notice a complete revert back to normality.

The best way to help reverse your postpartum hair loss is to look after yourself. Engage in healthy habits, such as eating well, exercising, ample rest and taking supportive vitamins and supplements.

If you’re noticing extreme hair loss and no return to normal, we suggest reaching out to your GP who may refer you onwards. There are many causes of hair loss (discussed in our blog ‘Why Am I Shedding So Much Hair?’), which may need to be ruled out.

How to disguise postpartum hair loss

If you’re worried about how your postpartum hair loss looks, there are many tips and tricks to try and hide it, such as:

• Hair extensions - many women with hair loss use hair extensions to thicken their hair back out
• Root spray - some women use a coloured root spray to disguise thin patches in their hair
• A new haircut - often, a new haircut that compliments the thickness of your hair can help hide any loss
• A new hair colour - like above, a new hair colour can compliment the thickness of your hair, along with adding needed depth and dimension to disguise hair loss
• Hair styling - using volumizing hair products, root teasing and bouncy hairstyles can help disguise hair loss
• Accessories - these can be used to distract from hair loss or to help style your hair to disguise it, such as headbands, hats, scarves and clips.

Advice from real postpartum women

The changes your body goes through during pregnancy and postpartum can be really difficult to get used to and get your head around. It can also feel really isolating, having a baby and struggling with your emotions and body constantly fluctuating.

We talked to 4 real postpartum women for their advice on all the changes your body goes through, including on postpartum hair loss:

Yasmin: My advice would be to try not to stress; your hair will return to normal in the long run. I wish I would have used hair extensions as a confidence boost because I didn’t realise you could get ones that are so easy to use.

Christina: Remember that what you are going through is completely normal and extremely common. I think that so many women are going through a big number of changes both physically and mentally that hair loss isn’t talked about as much as it should.

Also, know that you feeling insecure about it is 100% OK. Your body has gone through trauma and slowly things will go back to what they were. However, if you experience some changes that are a bit more permanent (like I do with having a web of stretch marks on my belly), remember that the new you is strong and beautiful.

Chloe: Try not to worry too much. Hormonal changes and all sorts that are going on in your body will cause so much to change and we never really know how or why until it happens. Everything will soon return back to normal.

Samantha: Embrace every moment of your pregnancy and be reassured that your body, mind and hair will return to normal. You just need to be patient. It really is a small price to pay.

What now?

You came to this blog concerned about how you could manage your postpartum hair loss - which is a completely normal and valid thing to search for advice for.

Since reading, we have reassured you that postpartum hair loss is completely common - just the impact of your hormones being everywhere. We’ve reassured you that it can look different for many women, but it is reversible and you can disguise it.

But now what?

At Stranded Hair Group, we’re committed to making you feel confident. Confidence can come from many different places; from looking good to knowing how to make yourself feel good. That’s why we invest as much of our time developing blogs like these, as well as our quality clip-in hair extensions.

We want you to know that you are in control of how you look and how you feel, and we’re here to support that.

Shop Stranded

Stranded clip-in hair extensions may be a crutch you can use to start feeling better about yourself, postpartum.

Stranded clip-in extensions come in a variety of different lengths and styles, as well as in our Stranded Clever Fibre synthetic hair and our Stranded 100% Human Hair. With so many options to choose from, we will have a style perfect for you, your needs and your confidence.

Did you know that we also offer free expert colour-matching? With up to 33 multidimensional shades to choose from, take one less stress away and let us do the colour-matching for you!

Read Stranded 

Our Stranded Blog is full of advice, from choosing the right hair extension method to learning how to use hair masks.

If you found this blog helpful, we recommend reading ‘How To Be a Confident Woman’; a blog full of advice and tips on how to feel like your most confident self - without relying on your hair to do all the magic for you!