Long hair Mamas...advice please

[whiteisle]

I recently had our 3rd (and last!) little one at the end of May and I'm now in the throws of post-partum shed. My hair is sooooo thinned out compared to what it once was even before pregnancy. With my previous two pregnancies my hair was short so the shedding didn't bother me as much and wasn't quite as noticeable. So I'm wondering how freaked out I should be this time because my hair is much longer than before and I've tried so very hard to take good care of it ~ I hate to see it just falling out all. the. time! I find them everywhere! My shower looks like Chewbacca has been in there. :(

I understand some people cut it short and go from there but I don't know that I can stand to go through more growing out than necessary. What, if anything, did you do if you experienced pp shed with long/very long hair?

[WavyGirl]

Well, I have no real experience of PPS as I had drastic cuts after both my children were born. I immediately started growing out after both cuts and had all those awkward, above chin, stages to go through. Not a good combination with exhaustion and poor body image. :(

I can relate to the shedding though, as I experience that daily and always have. A lot! My advice to you would be to relax and carry on as normal. You are probably the only one who will notice a difference in the thickness of your hair. Most of us are way more critical about our own appearance than anyone around us is likely to be. Also at your current length you can put it up if it's really getting you down and ignore it for a while.

When the new growth starts to show some length in a couple of years you may feel that you can't stand the relatively thinner ends and decide to trim/reshape them. By then it'll be so much longer that you probably won't mind.

[Magrat]

I didn't cut my hair when I got my daughter, and yes, there was a lot of shedding. Several people said I should cut it before having her, and I never understood why. It's not as if it would be easier to put it up if it were shorter. :rolleyes:

I didn't do anything about the shedding, really. It bothered me a bit, but at that time I started to braid it or in other ways put it up more often than before, just to keep it out of the way and forget about it, and I don't think anyone else noticed anything. When the shedding lessened I probably had about the same amount of hair as before the pregnancy (don't think I shed a lot during the pregnancy so I had some to spare).

When my daughter was around two years old, I became interested in 'no poo', and then I had another period of having hair that wasn't behaving as I was used to. That, too, got better. ;)

[Aer]

I'm pregnant now, due anytime, and I know your anxiety. My hair is great right now, but when I had my son around two years ago, I went through the shedding process. I hated it. Although now that I look back, I think I was the only one that noticed it. I had long hair then, still do, and after a period around 8 months, my hair started feeling thick again. I did trim about two inches off, but that was all I needed to do, in order for my hair to feel normal again. Also what I think helped a whole lot was biotin, and eating lots of jello. I noticed a difference in my hair and growth, within about a month and a half. I wish I had started doing that as soon as I had my son, and now I know to when this one is born. You're probably the only one that notices the shedding, so don't worry too much about it. And I've been through the cut-your-hair-before-you-have-the-baby advice, you're right it doesn't make it easier and how would you pull it back? Keeping my hair long and as healthy as possible really helped me avoid having bad self esteem issues post-baby. Plus, giving a little tlc to myself and hair, made me not feel like I was losing my identity as a individual, which can happen when your a new mama. I think your hair will be fine, even if you have a little shedding, as long as you make a effort to pamper yourself, you'll be less stressed, and won't notice a hair or three missing.

[Tangerine]

I had my son last December and started noticing a lot of shedding around March/April time to the point where my hairline was noticeably receding and my parting got wider.
And I had the whole Chewbacca thing going on in the shower as well. I was frantic! My husband. luckily, was his usual laidback self and told me to relax because I had the same thing after my daughter was born and it all grew back.
Funnily enough, I don't remember that and it was only 2.5 years ago!:rolleyes: (I did have pretty short hair then though and wasn't focused on my hair like I am now.)

The "bald" bits did immediately have regrowth on it (nice and spiky, yum;)) and now, several months later, I have mini bangs, a wirey baby-hair mohawk on top, whiskers, and a little curtain of hair in my neck. :lol: :cheese:

So from my experience my advice is: try not to stress, put it up, don't worry about it, and soon enough it will grow back again in its own crazy way :D

[Medievalmaniac]

If you keep taking your prenatals, gradually shift to half pre-nat, half-hair/skin/nails supplement, and keep taking care of your hair, it will be OK. You can't avoid PP shedding, and you can't even really slow it down - your body's going to do what it is going to do. But if mentally you feel better about it because you are being proactive - taking biotin, gelatin, etc. etc. and caring for it as you always have - then you're going to weather the shedding a lot better. Put it up and forget it for the next six months, and all will be well. :)

[Fiferstone]

I too had great hair during pregnancy and noticed a big shed postpartum. It's hormonal and there's nothing you can do about it really, except to not stress yourself over it, and be patient. The baby's hormones in your system put more of your follicles than usual on active duty. Once the baby was born and the baby's hormones were no longer in your system, your own hormones took over and restored things back to normal: which means that more follicles than average went into "dormant" mode and shut down = chewbacca shed. It will grow back, but my perception that pre-pregancy hair was thicker than post-pregnancy hair could very well be skewed by how wonderfully thick the "pregnancy" hair was, so that I remember my pre-pregnancy hair as thicker and nicer than it actually was :lol:

[twolunarspring]

What did I do? Nothing :shrug: I mean, I just had thinner hair... I would have had thinner hair if it was long or short, right? And I like my hair long, so it stayed long. It has grown back, anyway. I actually had pregnancy alopecia too, so I lost patches of hair before my daughter was born, but that has grown back too.

Of course, because I lost patches as well as general shedding, I have odd areas where my hair is much, much shorter than the rest, but it doesn't really show and one day it will catch up so I'm not going to worry about it :)

[Katze]

My daughter is almost six months old, and I have been shedding handfuls (over 1000 hairs a day) since June.


I didn't cut my hair when I got my daughter, and yes, there was a lot of shedding. Several people said I should cut it before having her, and I never understood why. It's not as if it would be easier to put it up if it were shorter. :rolleyes:

I totally agree with Magrat here. If my hair were as short as the longest new layers, I could not get it out of Baby Kitty's way at all.

I didn't do anything about the shedding, really. It bothered me a bit, but at that time I started to braid it or in other ways put it up more often than before, just to keep it out of the way and forget about it, and I don't think anyone else noticed anything. When the shedding lessened I probably had about the same amount of hair as before the pregnancy (don't think I shed a lot during the pregnancy so I had some to spare).

When my daughter was around two years old, I became interested in 'no poo', and then I had another period of having hair that wasn't behaving as I was used to. That, too, got better. ;)

My shedding seems to be more than what I didn't shed during pregnancy, especially since I kept shedding for the first 5 months of being pregnant.

I have shed what feels like 3/4 or more of my hair. My avatar pic is a pregnancy hair pic - if I were to take a picture of my hair now the entire area from chin to BSL would be see through.

I can't really offer you much of anything but commiseration. People say it will get better, but in my case it seems to have to get REALLY bad, to the point that I cannot wear my hair down, before it gets better. I am taking my prenatal vitamins and fish oil and drinking water but nothing seems to help.

All I can do and advise you to do if it is as bad as mine is is to trim thin ends, keep it up and perhaps oiled to prevent the new growth from sticking up as much, and just keep hoping. :flower:

[sagebabies]

I had a baby at the end of June and my shed has been pretty bad, too. I would only lose a handful of hairs after I washed during my pregnancy; I had almost no shed at all. The last few weeks have been pretty bad. Before I had the baby my hair girth was 4"5 inches, now it's at a 4" or 4.25". I'm hoping it'll slow down. I plan on just letting my hair be. It is past my bra strap now and I'm heading towards waist. I have not had a hair cut in a year and I plan on seeing how long I can go w/out one.

I guess my plan is just to treat my hair gently, only wash it once a week (that is when I have the biggest shed), and just tough through it. This is my fourth (and last, too) so I've been through it before and my hair has recovered w/ my other pregnancies. It's just not good timing because you already have the post baby-body to get back in shape and bad hair on top of it is not good!

Hang in there, it'll be fine and grow back.

[windinherhair]

I just read through the replies... I had no idea that one could shed so much after pregnancy and it seems like all of you have experienced it. It sounds depressing but if you could go through it and still keep your long hair in the end... then I suppose I could hang in there too! And I already feel like I lose enough hair now. I couldnt imagine having a bigger shed. My husband and I arent having children anytime soon, but just something to think about.

[twolunarspring]

It's just not good timing because you already have the post baby-body to get back in shape and bad hair on top of it is not good!



I think as much as anything it's to do with outlook... does it really matter whether you get 'back into shape'? Does it really matter if you hair appears thinner? Especially given that you can't really do anything about the latter anyway, it's probably best to choose not to worry about it.

But then, the whole 'getting back into shape after having a baby' thing has always baffled me. It's just not something I thought about at all... and after about four months of breastfeeding on demand I was back to my pre-pregnancy size anyway. But I wasn't the same shape and I never will be again because I have a mother's body now, and that's a beautiful thing.

New parenthood has enough pressures of it's own, without worrying about what you look like all the time.

Just my two pennies :flower:

[Tangerine]

I think as much as anything it's to do with outlook... does it really matter whether you get 'back into shape'? Does it really matter if you hair appears thinner? Especially given that you can't really do anything about the latter anyway, it's probably best to choose not to worry about it.

But then, the whole 'getting back into shape after having a baby' thing has always baffled me. It's just not something I thought about at all... and after about four months of breastfeeding on demand I was back to my pre-pregnancy size anyway. But I wasn't the same shape and I never will be again because I have a mother's body now, and that's a beautiful thing.

New parenthood has enough pressures of it's own, without worrying about what you look like all the time.

Just my two pennies :flower:

Just wanted to say, I completely agree with all of the above.

[JamieLeigh]

My hair has been waist length or longer throughout all five of my pregnancies. I went in with full, thick, coarse hair, had a 6 year period of fullness alternating with a shed, and came out on the other side with a fine/medium mix and considerably thinner. I have taken Biotin for nearly two years now and have not noticed a major difference - I think it just takes time to let all the hormones get back to normal. My circumference is starting to get thicker again, and it will be 3 years in November since the end of my last pregnancy. It just unfortunately takes time and patience, and the best advice I can give is to baby your hair as much as possible...and to grow to a length you love, and then maintain for thickness. Both of those have worked for me, and I'm still pretty happy with my hair at nearly 44". :)