Why does hair fall after childbirth?

Since a woman becomes pregnant and until the end of the post-partum period, the hormonal and physical changes that occur in the mother’s body are many and significant.

One of the most noticeable is that which occurs at capillary level, developing a hair growth beyond  the usual during the pregnancy stage  and producing a fall after childbirth. This last phenomenon is  known as “postpartum telogen effluvium” and occurs three or  four months, after  having given  birth to  a  baby.

Postpartum hair loss

Just as there is a formation of follicles throughout the body during pregnancy as a result of the estrogen increase, at the end of  this stage, there is a hormonal alteration that  has the effect  stopping  the growth phase, which is followed by the fall of a good number of hair follicles within a few months.

This fall has no a long-term effect, insofar as it is a response to that telogen effluvium that has occurred in the organism of  a budding mother. However, it is important to keep in mind that after delivery it is common  for certain disorders to occur that cause or aggravate the fall, such as, for example,  a lowering of blood  iron levels.

That is  why  the doctors of maternity unit  usually stress how  important is  following  a balanced  diet, rich in iron and, in some cases, enriched with  the intake of vitamins  complexes and supplements in order  to help a speedy  recovery of the organism after a considerable effort such as that suffered  during  childbirth.

Under normal conditions, hair lost during the recovery phase after delivery  is progressively restored  until a full recovery  within the year. Thus, after reaching the maximum level of loss between 4 and 6 months after delivery,  hair will  regenerate until it is just  like before pregnancy within  twelve months.

A  significant increase in the hair fall levels of  a mother  is often  related to the presence of hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism that, as a consequence of thyroid gland disorders, causes  a noticeable hair  loss that can be stopped only using a  treatment indicated by the doctor.

As for the use of  hair dye,  during and after pregnancy, specialists state it is absolutely safe having no harmful effects  on hair health, both during childbearing and after giving birth to a baby. However, it is important to make sure about the possible consequences of the use of permanent synthetic hair dye, checking that it does  not  contain high percentages of substances such as monoethanolamine or hydrogen peroxide,  since if so it  might affect  our hair’s health.

We have also to check that another component, such as  paraphenylenediamine,  is not present  in  hair dye,  because although it has no consequences on pregnancy or recovery after childbirth,  it can affect hair growth.