Hair loss may result from discontinuation of birth control pills or any other hormonal type of birth control method, miscarriage or stillbirth, abortion, and a hormonal imbalance. Under this title, I want to share your hair loss for postpartum, pregnancy, and menopause processes, which are three important stages of women’s life.
You will learn how to handle it when you experience or when you need to give advice to your best friends. Not the problems you face, but the solutions will save your beauty again after hair loss that women really hate about.
Postpartum Hair Loss
Pregnancy has a strong influence on your life. You emoticons have changed during this period. The way you sleep and the food you eat have changed during this period. They are all connected somehow to the changing of your hormones. The level of estrogen has increased in the process of your pregnancy.
Your friends might say that your face and hair are shinier and thicker during pregnancy but this condition would change after giving birth. Your hormones suddenly decrease to the normal level, and it gives a kind of effect like a shock to your body. As a result of this, you experience some difference in hair loss than usual times. It is because after you give birth, your hormone levels return to normal.
Thus, your hair begins to fall out again, and might even be seen pale sometimes. However, there is nothing to worry about. It is totally a normal result to experience hair loss in the postpartum. You will see that it will become a normal level of hair loss in time within the first six months.
Although preventing hair loss totally immediately is not possible, you can avoid this shedding severe damage of it as a new mother. Actually, women generally begin to experience postpartum hair loss two to four months after childbirth, but the personal features and characteristics might change this for sure.
When it comes to the amount of hair loss you experience, it is completely different for every woman, but no women would make happy for even a bit of hair loss, right?
There is a saying that it is also about to the type of your hair and the length of your hair. For example, if you have longer hair, your hair loss may seem more extreme. Also, if you experienced a lot of hair growth during pregnancy, your hair loss might be more than others, according to some people.
What To Do About Postpartum Hair Loss?
- You should know that it is not something like you are getting bald. You will experience postpartum hair loss for the six months, and it will not make you bald. Therefore, the first thing you need to do is to keep calm and search for the solutions to limit the damages.
In fact, you should reduce your stress level in order to regulate hormone imbalances. For instance, you can make a practice of different relaxation techniques. They can be listed as mindfulness, meditation and breathing exercises. It will work also to reduce your stress level not only hormonal but also the newcomer of your house.
- Some people change the hairstyle after giving birth. It might be also a good idea. It will make you feel like you are a new mom with a new and attractive hairstyle.
- You should care a lot about your health in terms of your eating habit. You can take some supplement for Vitamins, for example. You can ask your doctor about vitamin and mineral supplements if you have no idea about it. Iron and zinc are also other options to keep your health strong and stable.
- In other words, your diet should be rich in nutrients so that it can support your changing body and then it can help your postpartum recovery. Not only what you eat, but also the order of your eating habit is so significant. Therefore, you should eat regularly, and needless to say, you should no skip the breakfast for sure.
- You should be careful about which shampoo and hair conditioner you use. This period is already sensitive and critic, so you should avoid using any extra chemical products that might damage your hair and scalp more.
- Alternatively, you can try to use some postpartum hair loss products. Those type of shampoos is fortified with biotin and silica and a deep-moisture conditioner, which will help the reduction of hair loss.
- There are some natural olives to nourish your hair. For example, you can try to add a few drops of peppermint oil to your shampoo. The reason for it is to help moisturize the hair. It will surely improve its shine when you use it in a short time period.
- You can also consume fish or flaxseed oils, not only for your hair but also because of other positive effects of your health after the pregnancy. This may help restore optimal levels of essential fatty acids like omega-3, omega-6, and also omega-9. As a result of this, it will promote healthy hair and make you happier in your daily life.
- There are some oils in the supermarkets of pharmacies that you can use for the message. For instance, you can try to gently massage almond oil or castor oil into the scalp so that it can stimulate hair growth easily and reduce your stress level.
- A wide-toothed comb might be a good option in order to minimize tangling.
- Rubber hands can make you feel under kind of stress or tension. Not to pull your into tight ponytails, I recommend you use scrunchies or barrettes to put hair up, not rubber bands.
- Blow-dryers has always some side effects for your hair. Especially this time period of postpartum months, you should avoid using this kind of practices. It also includes curling and flat irons.
You should give up using all, and any other chemically based treatments such as highlights, perms, straightening. It will be very effective for your recovering process until the shedding stops.
- It is normal to have hair loss after giving birth, but if your hair loss is excessive, and then it is time to get worried about. At that time, you should go to a doctor to ask for advice.
It is important since if it’s accompanied by other symptoms, hair loss after pregnancy could be a sign of postpartum thyroiditis. You should just go to a doctor to take advice, and prevent any possible damage if there is a potential.
- You can use a dry hair mask for your hair by knowing that if you want healthy hair, it starts with a healthy scalp. That is why you can apply a hair mask to your scalp to moisturize it. You can use egg, coconut oil, and avocado for it. It is just easy.
All you need it 2 egg yolks, 1/4 cup coconut oil, and 4 tbsp mashed avocado. First of all, you need to mix these ingredients together. After that, you can rub the mixture into your hair, and cover your head with saran wrap. You should sit for at least an hour.
And then, you need to wash it. If you do it regularly, depending on your time and your hair time, you will get the best result.
- Lastly, it quite important to know that, whatever the process you experience is, it will pass! The most critical part is to be patient and stay this condition during the postpartum process. Instead of getting stress, you should enjoy with your baby during those months.
Taking those precautions are important than you think since it hair loss after baby can be a sign of future permanent hair loss. That means women who experience hair loss when hormones shift after childbirth might face more problems in the future such as future permanent hereditary female type of hair loss.
In fact, many women with significant hereditary female pattern hair loss during menopause often stated that their shedding and hair loss after pregnancy was severe. In conclusion, as the sad end of the story, their hair never returned to its normal pre-pregnancy state.
Pregnancy Hair Loss
Pregnancy affects our life as women in many ways. Your emotions are affected, your parents and their behaviors are affected, the attitude of your husband towards you is affected by the process of pregnancy. The health and your body including your hair are one of them.
Although some pregnant women claim that they had a positive changing in their hair after four to five months by noticing it looked and felt thicker and had more body and shine, the majority suffer differently. Of course, it is possible to experience no changing and differences at all.
However, there is another group of people among pregnant women. Those group of people thinks that their hair face more problematic situation during the pregnancy than usual.
For example, it can be drier. That means it is needed extra moisture immediately. One of the reasons for it is that the sensitivity of hair follicles to these changes varies from women to women. That means, not everyone affected by hormonal changes in the same way.
Generally, many women feel thicker during the first trimester because pregnancy immediately increases estrogen levels and reduces the circulation of androgens that are male hormones. That is the reason why your follicles produce less sebum that is oil.
Therefore, you can get bouncier roots and more body. Yet at the same time, less sebum has the potential to make your hair feel drier. You need to be sure to moisturize your hair and hydrate after it.
When it comes to your scalp, like psoriasis condition, it can temporarily disappear during pregnancy. However, there is nothing to get it serious that you need to be worried since your hair and scalp usually go back to their previous state once your baby is born.
To make it short, approximately 90% of your hair is growing at any one time during the pregnancy, while the other 10% enter a resting phase. The general version is that every two to three months the resting hair falls out. Afterward, new hair can grow in its place in a short time.
When it is something abnormal than usual hair loss in pregnancy, it is called as Telogen Effluvium is the excessive shedding of hair that occurs one to five months following pregnancy but this is not uncommon, and it affects somewhere between 40 to 50% of women. Despite being excessiveness, it is still temporary and you can find a solution to decrease the damage.
What Are The Causes of Hair Loss in Pregnancy?
1.Poor nutrition
During the pregnancy, most nutritious you have might end with hair loss because of nausea. That means when you are pregnant, your body requires more nutrition. If you take insufficient intake of nutritious food, it may result in hair loss. For example, lack of iron, proteins, minerals, and vitamins might be a reason for hair loss.
2.Illness
Pregnant women might have gestational diabetes and some occurrence of ringworm (fungal infection). This illness can lead to hair loss but there is nothing to get afraid of because you can use some medications to treat high blood pressure or depression. It will increase the chances of hair fall too.
3. Genetics
Hair loss is associated with the genetic background without any surprise for us. If you are very likely to be affected by hair loss, you can search for your mother’s past experience if she had a similar condition during her pregnancy.
4.Polycystic ovarian syndrome
It is caused by hormonal imbalances. After that, in your body balance, you can experience some triggering of an excess release of male hormones in women.
5.Reproductive causes
The usage of birth control medications or any other birth control method can cause hair loss. You may also experience hair loss as a result of miscarriage, abortion, and stillbirth, so you should be consulted and take your doctor’s advice before using them.
6.Skin diseases of the scalp
You might have some skin allergies you might now even know. This skin allergies and conditions affecting the scalp could also contribute to thinning of hair and hair loss.
7.Iron deficiency
It is because when people do not have enough red blood cells, it happens to get oxygen to different tissues in the body. Not only hair thinning and hair loss but also some other symptoms, such as fatigue, irregular heartbeat, exertional shortness of breath, and headache.
The Positive Side of Pregnancy for Your Hair
The level of estrogen hormones increases during pregnancy. As it is known well by many, estrogen causes hair to remain in a growing phase and stimulates the growth of your hair. That is why you can experience a full, luxurious head of hair when you are pregnant.
What To Do About Pregnancy Hair Loss?
- To have a healthier life not to lose your hair before the pregnancy, the first thing you should to do is to consult with your doctor so that you can ensure a proper balance of hormones.
Please do not forget that hormones affect you in many ways during the pregnancy and after giving birth in many ways. Thus, it is something you should not ignore and postpone to get consulted.
- A healthy diet is key here as usual. You should eat a diet high in fruits and vegetables, and it surely should contain flavonoids and antioxidants because it provides protection for the hair follicles. You can encourage hair growth with the protection of the hair follicles.
For your eating habits, breakfast is the most important one, so you should not skip breakfast.
- For fruits and vegetables, you should eat lots of fruits and vegetables that contain flavonoids and antioxidants since it will help in protecting the hair follicles from damage and stimulate hair growth.
- Even one extra physical pressure to your hair or scalp might affect you so bad. You should not pull your hair and stress it by using cornrows and hair weaves, At the same time, you should avoid using pigtails, braids and tight hair rollers. Being relaxed during pregnancy is the best thing you can do.
- It is better not to use chemical products. However, if you are really willing to use shampoo and hair conditioner, you should prefer shampoos and conditioners that contain biotin and silica.
- Especially when hair wet, it becomes so fragile. To avoid the risk of hair loss at this moment, you should be gentle; for example, you should not use a fine tooth comb. You should do not over-brush your hair as it can cause further damage.
- Apart from regulating your hormones, you should also use some supplementation for your diet with some nutrients. For example, you can use Vitamin B complex, and biotin (orally and appropriately), and Vitamin C. Also, Vitamin E, and zinc are very important in this process.
- You can also massage the scalp so that you can stimulate blood circulation. Massaging the scalp with lukewarm oil is thought to help control hair fall naturally. Coconut, jojoba, almond, olive oil and mustard oils are good alternatives for nourishing the scalp with some massage.
- If you want to color your hair, it would be better to postpone it after the pregnancy period because hair colors as harmful chemicals present in them can lead to excessive hair fall.
- Natural and organic products are also good options to reduce hair fall occurring due to skin infections and allergic reactions of the scalp. You can be sure about the fact that natural ones perfectly safe for those having sensitive skin.
- For your skin, aloe vera extracts help with its gel. You can apply aloe vera to the scalp. You will see how this way will treat your hair loss occurring due to dryness and infection of the scalp.
- You can use avocado oil when taking a shower since it contains vitamins E, D, and potassium essential for the health of the hair.
- Here is a homemade solution: Citric lemon juice may help to fight with hair loss during pregnancy. The thing you need to do is to beat one egg and mix it with one tablespoon of lemon juice.
- And then, you need to apply it on the scalp and leave for about 30 minutes and rinse it. Not only preventing hair fall but also making the hair thicker and silkier will be your reward after applying citric lemon juice.
The Effects of Hair Chemicals While Pregnant
Using chemical hair treatments is not something you need to get worried about your baby, but still, you should avoid using those so that you can provide that your hair dyes might be safe to use during pregnancy.
For instance, especially because permanent hair dyes contain many chemicals in high doses, it affects negatively your scalp, and even they would affect the fetus.
Another thing is that chemical straighteners and permanent curling treatments often contain caustic chemicals. They can be listed as lye, calcium hydroxide, and sodium thioglycolate. These chemicals may irritate the scalp and damage the hair and might break the chemical bonds in the hair.
Menopausal Hair Loss
During fertile years, the level of progesterone and estrogen help to support hair growth. However, when it comes to the decreasing year of hormones because of menopause, then you might start to enter some hair problems including hair loss since this condition and changing of your hormones are directly associated with your hair.
For instance, it may take a lot longer to grow. Or at the same time, it might tend to be thinner, both on the scalp area and also the thickness of the hair, too.
The Psychological Effects of Menopause Hair Loss
There are many emotional and psychological effects of hair loss are more severe in women than in men, leading to poor self-esteem, social anxiety, and even lower job performance. It might lead to conflict and misfit, which is something no women want to deal with.
On the other hand, it is known well that the relationship with the hair often includes anxiety about its general condition when it’s thinning and falling out, or going gray. The reason for this might be about the fact that hair is valued in connection with beauty and femininity for women. It is associated with sexuality and attractiveness for everyone, too.
That is why when a woman lose this sexuality and attractiveness, they suddenly get affected negatively in their self-esteem and self-image. It is also because hair loss threatens our vanity, and how much we value ourselves.
Shortly, when it gets a connection with aging and beauty, it becomes a serious problem for every woman. However, ironically on the other side, there are also emotional factors associated with hair loss. That means that it can mean psychological discomfort.
How to stop hair loss during menopause?
- For this time period, you should take some preventions for some certain events. Swimming is a good example. When swimming, you should make sure to wear a swimming cap because chlorine can contribute to hair breakage.
- Apart from this, when you go outside in the sunny weather or the windy weather especially for a long period of time, you should not forget t to wear a hat. Otherwise, you might suffer from drying and breakage of your hair.
- Artificial chemicals are also dangerous for menopause time because it can compromise your scalp and your hair. What you need to do is to use a good nourishing hair conditioner when taking a bath. Washing your hair with a good conditioner will surely promote your hair growth and prevent to experience hair loss more.
- You should avoid using some heat tools, such as hair dryers and straightening irons so that you can reduce the risk. Moreover, using some extensions and other styling methods are also risky since they can also weaken your hair and at the end of the day it can cause early hair loss.
- During the menopause time, your body needs to be hydrated more than other times. In fact, your body needs to take water in order to function and work properly. That is why you should consume water instead of juices, sodas, and other flavored drinks because all of them contain more sugar than your body needs.
There is no certain amount of water needed of one as it varies from person to person and depends on various factors. For example, your overall health and exercise intensity have an influence on the amount of water you need.
Yet, it is important to know that as a general rule, however, you should aim to have eight 8-ounce glasses of water per day. There is no harm to drink more water a way.
- You should consume fatty acids, they can be listed as salmon, tuna, flaxseed oil, walnuts, and almonds.
- You can also drink green tea for your good to restore hair growth.
- You need to have an exercise that will become an inevitable part of your life in time. You can walk every day, you can join a gym with your best friends, or you can join a running club for regular practices and joggings.
- You will see how it will affect your healthy lifestyle in a short time. You’ll feel stronger and happier for sure. Your self-esteem will increase, which will end with some prevention of some of the other symptoms of menopause such as mood swings, weight gain, and insomnia.
Four Ways for Women to Combat Hair Loss Before Menopause Starts
To prevent the effects of menopause on hair loss so bad, you might take some preventions to fight this situation.
Here are four ways for women to combat hair loss before menopause starts.
1.By changing your hairstyle you can combat hair loss. Although it is now known by the majority of women, there are certain styles and cuts that are especially flattering for women with thinning hair.
For example, long hair can weigh down fine hair while when women have layers for volume, this is easier. For uneven bangs, you can create depth and texture.
For the coloring, you can choose lowlights and highlights because they are tips to add depth and dimension to your hair. Therefore, your hair can look more full. The other advantage is that lighter hair has the potential to make a visible part and scalp look less pronounced.
2. You can try to massage away hair loss. Before the menopause period, using some olives and apply to hair might give you many benefits.
In fact, if you make scalp massages with essential oils, they do indeed stimulate hair growth. You can use lavender, cedarwood, thyme, and rosemary as essential oils.
You can go to a message center or you can give scalp massages to ourselves. Generally, people do it by themselves by rubbing one of the oils listed above, or mixed some of them together, and apply into the scalp before they go to the bed so that when sleeping with it, it spreads better.
Yet needless to say, immediately after waking up, you should wash your hair in the morning. Otherwise, you might face more serious problems.
3. Here is an interesting way to combat hair loss before menopause starts. Many people like me tend to wash their hair every day. However, according to many studies, it is not good to wash hair every day. It is like if you wash your clothes every day, it might get pale easily in a short time.
That is why you should not wash hair every day since it may damage your hair, and create more hair loss. You should get used to washing your hair less than you do.
4. Let us one more time about the reasons for hair loss because of menopause. Your hair experience hair loss or thinning hair since your female hormones are in decline. Therefore, you can have low-androgen index birth control pills but I suggest you do it with a doctor recommendation.
Or alternatively, you can take some pills or creams to make your estrogen and progesterone replace. Yet, you need to know the fact that high-androgen birth control pills can create more hair loss.
