Any clues why some of my short new hairs are shedding?

[Charlotte]

Hello everyone, I am a newbie to this site after having lurked about for a few weeks prior. In fact, this is the very first time I have joined any forum/community on the net!! I'm very happy to finally be able to talk about all things hair with other long haired ladies :) I'm still trying to work it all out so I hope you'll all be able to be patient with me while I learn how to get around. I was hoping that I may get some answers to something that is perplexing me...:confused: I seem to have had quite a lot of shedding over the past two years coinciding with early meno (only 41 when it started), in fact, I have probably lost half of my thickness. :sad I have had to clean my shower drain of three large rodent sized clumps of hair over a 6 month period and think the drain is blocking up again. Now to make me even sadder, I am losing new hair that is only about 4-5 inches in length????? Can anyone "shed":o some light on this for me and how I can lessen the fall out rate? My hair is naturally very fine and almost waist level with blonde highlights (thinking of growing them out but not sure yet as natural colour is extremely boring mousy dark blonde with a little grey...) I hope this message isn't too long and boring and any imput from you would be most gratefully received. :violin: (I love the smileys.) Thankyou, Charlotte.

[Pierre]

Welcome to LHC! I live in Charlotte. :D

I can't help you with the meno (or womeno;)), but my first guess is that you're low on some nutrient because of it. Look around and you'll find some threads about nutrition and hair, and some about nutrition in general.

ETA: Is the rodent a mouse or a capybara?:)

[Charlotte]

Thank you Pierre, I will look up more about hair and nutrients - I was diagnosed with very low iron and am now taking supplements for this otherwise everything else checked out within normal range...? The "rodents" that were pulled out of the shower drain were about fully grown rat sized clumps - no kidding! :disgust::wail:

[Renbirde]

Yikes. That's tough! I honestly don't know enough about shedding triggers to help much in that department, but there have been a few threads recently that have mentioned it. The search is helpful to find references, especially if you have the results come back as posts instead of threads.

As far as the plumbing issue goes, brushing your hair before you shower/bathe helps to get rid of shed hairs before they hit the water (and the drain). It makes the hair easier to detangle after washing too! They also sell these gizmos that fit over the drain to catch stray hair.

Also, are you sure that the short hairs you are finding are sheds? You have enough length that you could be racking up enough damage to break off short pieces.


Good luck with your capybara hunting!

[Charlotte]

Hello Renbirde,
Yes, the shorter hairs are definately shedded hair. They just drop out at the root and have tapered pointy ends - not broken off ones. It's just so strange that I get so many of them falling out at the same short length....:? Thanks for the tip about brushing before getting into the shower - what comes out of the drain is seriously unpleasant! :brains: