Pregnancy and Hair

[Vegan_Mama]

Hi guys! This is my first thread post. I am currently 21 weeks pregnant and have noticed my hair seems a bit flatter these days. I have naturally curly hair but one spot on the left side has gotten crazy curly. How did your hair change during Pregnancy? Did it change again after?

[GalaMoon]

I went through two pregnancies, both experiences were very different. With my first pregnancy I noticed that my hair started to get oily a lot faster, I went from washing 2 times/week to having to wash it every day or every other day. It wasn't the usual oiliness either, it felt more waxy. My hair was shedding as usual so I did not have issues with post-partum shedding. With the second pregnancy, things were normal except for the shedding, I was shedding less and right before birth I had this thick, luscious mane. Of course, 4 months after birth, the great shed begun and I lost about a third of my thickness. Sadly, in my case, the oiliness stayed the same, I have to wash it every other day now, but that could be related to other things. Congratulations and have an easy pregnancy!:blossom:

[hayheadsbird]

Congratulations! I'm just a week or two ahead of you.

I honestly can't say I really noticed any changes during pregnancy but after my third I did notice my hair which had always been really straight now had a decidedly wavy patch!
Waiting to see if it curls more after this one arrives :)

[Mega Moose]

Never been pregnant, but planning on it sometime soon-ish and I'm afraid of this big "post partum shed" I keep hearing about. To the people that have dealt with it, did your hair just go back to the thickness it was before pregnancy, or did it turn out thinner than what you started with?

[lapushka]

Never been pregnant, but planning on it sometime soon-ish and I'm afraid of this big "post partum shed" I keep hearing about. To the people that have dealt with it, did your hair just go back to the thickness it was before pregnancy, or did it turn out thinner than what you started with?

For my mom, it shed, then remained thinner than it was in her childhood & teens. Then she went through menopause, and it went thinner as well. She went from a medium ii to a i (on the edge with ii). Not *that* much but it makes a difference for her.

And when I went through hormonal changes at age 13/14, my hair shed bucket loads (up to bald patches). It took 2 years to get better. The doctor was right when he said nothing could be done. For me, thankfully, it went back to its normal thickness but it took its time and it was hard as a young teen to be suffering with that issue. My hair grew in 2b/c while it was 1b/c before. I'm not sure what menopause will have in store for me, but I'm dreading it. I have no children.

[GalaMoon]

Never been pregnant, but planning on it sometime soon-ish and I'm afraid of this big "post partum shed" I keep hearing about. To the people that have dealt with it, did your hair just go back to the thickness it was before pregnancy, or did it turn out thinner than what you started with?

In my case, the shed lasted for about two months. My hair did feel thinner after it was done, but it wasn't too bad, I could still wear my hair down and it looked OK. I started to get new growth pretty soon after. It takes time for the new growth to get to a length that will make you feel like your hair is thick again, but now I'm at about the same thickness I had before having my kids. I was scared of the post partum shed too, especially after reading that, for some women it lasted for a year and they got bald patches, but every woman is different and every pregnancy is different, it's not a rule that it will happen or that it will be as bad.

[Lady Stardust]

Congratulations Vegan Mama, and welcome to the forum!

I didn't notice a texture change when I was pregnant, but my hair was very short then. The noticeable thing was how little I had to wash it, I went from every day pre-pregnancy to every 6-7 days during pregnancy. Now I wash every other day.

My hair seems to be drier than it used to be, but I can't be sure if it is.

Postpartum shed wasn't too bad for me. My daughter is 2 now and I have lots of new growth at different stages, so I think it will fill back in OK. Just in time for the menopause I expect :-) My ends were a bit thin but I'm growing out a pixie cut so not sure how much of that is due to shedding and how much is layers. My fringe is looking a bit pathetic, but I have fine straight hair so I'm never far away from that risk! It'll soon fill out again, the new growth is there.

Mega Moose, try not to worry about postpartum shed. Your whole body goes through so many changes during pregnancy, it's just another thing that happens, and I didn't pay much attention to it. I know some people do have more severe shedding, and that must be awful. I haven't met anyone who has suffered that way, but I know some people on the forum have gone through it.

No one other than my hairdresser has noticed any difference to my hair.

[Vegan_Mama]

Thank you all for your input!! I have also been a bit worried about the big shed because I feel like my hair is thinner now but that might just be because it's less puffy than usual. Everyone tells me their hair grew really fast during Pregnancy. I don't notice a difference personally. Anyone feel like their hair grew really fast?

[Lady Stardust]

The shed usually happens some time after the birth and I think that breastfeeding might delay it, but I'm not sure.

My hair grew fast during the first few weeks, I can't really remember if it did after that because I changed my hairstyle slightly and it wouldn't have been so noticeable. I wasn't growing my hair back then though, what a wasted opportunity!

[Vegan_Mama]

Congratulations!! I'm excited for you!! Do you know what you're having? I found out a couple days ago I'm having a boy.

[gin]

OK, I'm going to revive this thread as I'm 18.5 weeks pregnant now! So far I haven't noticed too much difference, except that MAYBE my shedding is a little less the past couple of weeks (from ~45 hairs/day to ~35 hairs/day - and yes, I keep track of my shedding because I'm nerdy like that!). At the very beginning of my pregnancy my scalp seemed to be a little more oily, but that didn't stay and it seems back to normal now. I have no idea if my hair is growing faster or not since I haven't measured it in awhile... maybe I'll go do that soon!

[hayheadsbird]

Congratulations!
I think you just lose less hair during pregnancy, so when it sheds after it can go into over drive, or normalise out. I did have growth spurts, but only noticed a shed after the last one, and it wasn't excessive. My skin really changed last time though, much drier and I was easily able to stretch washes past a week. Still nursing 2 years on but my skin has gone back to normal, and settled back to 3/4 day hair wash cycle.

[Gaalsong]

Hi guys,
I am 19 weeks pregnant with my third, and my hair is shedding less. Last time I was pregnant, my hair was just thick and glorious the whole time. Of course, after the birth, I had a huge shed. Because my hair is so long, the amount that came out looked horrifying. But you couldn't really tell much of a difference on my head. The hair did get back to normal after a while, but I have hip-length hair and so I had some short hairs sticking out as things were growing back. My hair texture didn't change.

[cm006j]

The only change I noticed during pregnancy was it literally just stopped growing. I gained maybe a quarter of an inch over nine months both times! I didn’t notice a shed after but I know have massive shirt regrowth all around my face so I guess it must have happened!

[hayheadsbird]

I def have texture changes after pregnancy too, although it's possibly age related. From 1a/b though to heading for 2b.

[gin]

I washed my hair today and there was a drastic decrease in shed hairs compared to other wash days. Prior to pregnancy I was shedding maybe 110-120 hairs on wash day. The last month or so it had decreased a little bit to 80-90. Today, it's looking to be less than 55ish or less! (It's in the low-40s now and I'm just accounting for how many more hairs that shed before I go to bed)

It's such a huge difference that I just had to say something. :) I'm super curious to see how my next few washes go...

Outside of this decrease in shedding, I haven't noticed anything else different hair-related so far. I'll be 20 weeks tomorrow!

[demonamay]

my hair grew like a weed when I was pregnant. Didn’t have texture changes though it is possible. Some women go through hair changes that recover after giving birth.

[gin]

I went from averaging ~45 shed hairs/day to basically 12-14 hairs/day. I'm not looking forward to the postpartum shed that's going to happen!

It looks like growth wise it's about the same as before. I'm about to enter my third trimester now.

[gin]

Another update (in case anyone might be interested in the future). I'm 36.5 weeks now, so home stretch! I've found that as I've gotten further along in the pregnancy, shedding has basically also decreased over time. Basically I shed less and less week over week. I'm now at the point where I average between 6-8 shed hairs/day. Crazy!