Post-partum Hair Issues

[Cait_Mc]

Almost a year ago I had my first child, a little boy who I love dearly.

Now, the issue is this: when he was about 5-6 mo. old, my hair started shedding like crazy, which is apparently normal. Now, (he is 11 mo.) the shedding has slowed down to a normal amount, but my hair just feels so much thinner than it used to be. Last week I was visiting with my mom who has just started growing her hair out, and our hair has always been very similar and hers just felt sooooo thick in comparison to mine. I don't have a ton of free time for things like super-involved hair treatments, or a ton of extra money for super expensive oils and whatnot. Is there anything I can do to get my hair back to its original thickness, or closer to it without chopping it all off and starting over?

TIA

[Avital88]

i experienced exactley the same, and trust me your hair will come back!
What also works is to take vitamin b supplements and garlic supplements.
And of course no coloring and heatstyling for a while!
At this moment my hair its the thickest it has ever been while 2 years ago it was a third of what i have now.
Good luck!

[Cait_Mc]

Thanks! It's good to know that it does come back, I'll just be paitent!

[clichepithet]

(snip) the issue is this: when he was about 5-6 mo. old, my hair started shedding like crazy, which is apparently normal. Now, (he is 11 mo.) the shedding has slowed down to a normal amount, but my hair just feels so much thinner than it used to be. (snip) Is there anything I can do to get my hair back to its original thickness, or closer to it without chopping it all off and starting over?

It feels thinner because it is. You lost a good deal of hair from this shed. I lost enough (after my second child) that I thought I was going bald, literally. It's how I found LHC - it looked like I was experiencing male-pattern baldness it was that bad. Anyway, your hair will grow back in time and return to its original volume. All it will take is patience and time. In the mean, pamper your hair the way you like to but within your budget, there's noting wrong with that.

HTH.

Congratulations and good luck with your wee one.

[EmiliaF]

I don't have children yet so I can't give advice from experience, but maybe I can give some general advice.

To get back to its original thickness you'll have to wait until grows back, but I think there are a lot of things you can do to pamper your hair until then.
Do you wash with shampoo or conditioner? Using conditioner only (CO-wash) is much gentler for hair and might prevent the hair that's still there to get thinner. Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) which is an ingredient in most shampoos can reduce the thickness of a hair to 1/6 of its original thickness (root-thickness), because it is a strong detergent. Conditioner can also clean hair, because it contains surfactants. Those clean gentler, but need more time and some scalp-massaging to help.

Oils: I use coconut oil and castor oil. I paid $5 for the coconut oil in an organic foods store and about the same for the castor oil at a pharmacy.
I've used it for about a week and from what I've used up so far, I can say that it'll probably be good for at least six months. That makes it a lot cheaper than regular hair masks/treatments etc. and those lasted for only 8-10 treatments.

Concerning the time you spend for hair care, I think it might be a little more in the beginning because you'll need to try things but after that it shouldn't take that much longer.
After I switched from using normal shampoo to only using conditioner to wash my hair, I had to wash every day for three weeks. After that I was back to every other day and will now try to stretch it even more.

Maybe this is of help for you. There are a lot of members here that are a LOT more experienced with this , but I wanted to give you a quick answer because I know how I always wait for responses.
I am also not a native english-speaker and it was a little difficult to explain stuff but I hope it's okay.

[Cait_Mc]

Do you wash with shampoo or conditioner? Using conditioner only (CO-wash) is much gentler for hair and might prevent the hair that's still there to get thinner.

I currently am s/c every other day, with sometimes using an additional leave in conditioner, though I am looking into doing CO for a while. I read that you can CO everyday if you want to, which makes me happy because I have pretty oily hair and if the CO cleans my hair well enough and I can wash everyday (at least until my hair re-adjusts) and won't have to worry about that heavy, oily buildup that I tend to get when I try to stretch out my washings.

Thank you all for your help, I think I will end up trying to be paitent, adding perhaps a pre-natal vitamin back into my routine (I should be taking it anways), and just being generally nice to my hair, and doing CO.