This is a photo of me last time I was pregnant.
Do you see that? Look, just look at all that glorious hair…
Having read roughly zero pages of What To Expect When You’re Expecting, I had no idea that thick, luscious hair was one of the upsides of pregnancy.
My previously fine and hard-to-manage hair became the best hair of my life. It was easy to style and I had never had so much of it.
Sadly though, I took it for granted. I didn’t realise just how temporary it was going to be.
I figured it was only fair to have this one upside, especially when my boobs were taking on comical dimensions and my stomach was constantly expanding. I thought in exchange for some more stretch marks, the trade-off was going to be excellent hair.
So imagine my surprise (and horror) when all that glorious thick hair fell out in the weeks and months after I gave birth.
I know that with everything that’s going on with your body post-pregnancy (don’t worry – I won’t go into details), hair loss can seem trivial.
But that doesn’t make it any less terrifying when it’s coming out in clumps in the shower. So one time, when everyone else at my mother’s group was talking about cracked nipples and babies who refused to sleep, I blurted out, "Is anyone else going bald?"
They were. It’s one of the main reasons why so many women opt to cut their hair short in the months after having a baby.
According to thinning hair brand Nioxin, up to 75% of new mothers notice more hair shedding than normal after giving birth. This is thanks to those raging hormones you (and your significant other, no doubt) have become so familiar with.
When you’re pregnant, increased levels of oestrogen prevent hairs from falling out (this is called the resting stage), so you maintain about 5-15 percent more hair on your head than you usually would. But after you give birth, your oestrogen levels return to normal, and the hair you were retaining starts clogging up your shower drain and hair brush and annoyingly gets absolutely everywhere.
