Tackling Postpartum Hair Loss
Why it happens, what’s considered ‘normal’ and how to deal with it!
But WHY?!?
- Normally your hair falls out in small amounts every day. However, during pregnancy an elevation in certain hormones plus an increase in blood volume causes your hair to shed less than normal.
- Once baby arrives and hormone and blood levels drop, your hair makes up for lost time by falling out much more than it normally does.
- The total volume of your hair loss is the same, or so say the researchers. However if you are a woman who has experienced this (like I am!) it seems like it is way more!
So what is considered ‘normal’?
- Hair loss usually peaks around the 4 month mark and should wrap up completely by 6 months postpartum.
- Non-pregnant, non-postpartum women will shed about 80 hairs a day whereas new moms shed about 400 hairs a day!
- The glorious sign of regrowth is in the form of ‘baby bangs’ or what I like to call ‘spikey-frizz’ along the hair line.
How can I lessen the hair loss??
- Eating protein, fat and a variety of vegetables at every meal.
- Continue taking your prenatal vitamin.
- Add essential oils like peppermint, eucalyptus or tea tree to your shampoo. About 10-30 drops in a bottle of clean ingredient shampoo and give yourself a good scalp massage to get blood flowing. Our friends at The Detox Market have a ton of great options!
- The Flourish Method to addressing postpartum hair loss first involves extensive blood testing to determine the cause for the loss. From my experience, it is rare to do blood work on a postpartum mama and have them fall in optimal ranges for nutrients. Even those moms diligently taking their prenatal vitamins are often nutrient deficient!
- At Flourish we test nutrients, blood sugar markers and do a full thyroid panel to design an individualized Health Plan to reduce hair loss and optimize new growth.
- We often include vitamin and mineral IV Therapy in our Flourish Your Health Plans. IV Therapy is the absolute best thing for postpartum hair loss as well as boosting energy and metabolism (yes please!) And of course we only use nutrients in our IV’s which are safe for breastfeeding.