Just sharing... (It really is about hair!)

[aksown]

Last year the 11 month old baby girl that I had babysat since birth, died due to complications from MRSA. I spent the three weeks of her illness with her two older sisters, having to stay strong and not let them know just how terrified I was, since I couldn't be at the hospital and depended on her parents to keep me informed. Since she died in an out-of-state hospital it was about 24 hours before their mother could get home after she'd passed. I couldn't tell the girls that their baby sister had died.
Sorry, cathartic outpouring here, just to say something else. :o Four months later my hair started falling out! I kind of expected shedding of some amount but not to the extent that did. I lost over half my circumference in less than two months, not that I had much to begin with. I was really upset! In the midst of dealing with loss, I was going bald!:( I went to a new, gentler method of caring for my hair and refused to measure it anymore. I know it's longer, 4 inches to hip!!!!! but it was thinning on the ends and I thought it looked horrible. A few days ago I took the first length shots since July 09 and was horrified! Straggly ends, flat hair, ugh.
However, just now I discovered a bright, shining ray of hope. My ponytail circumference is thicker now than it was when I joined LHC!!! I have thick chunks of hair that are finally long enough to get into my ponytail! The mega-shed continues unabated and I fully expect to lose all of the hair I had during those three weeks, before the year is over but I know my hair is growing and I will get the lost length back! One less source of stress in my life!!

[jera]

That happened to you really fast. Usually it takes 6 to 18 months for trauma to become evident in hair loss due to stress related issues.
I'm happy to hear your ponytail is thickening up. I'm sure your hair will fully recover. :)

[FrannyG]

Thank you for sharing this story. What an awful time that must have been for you and for the family whose children you cared for. :grouphug: It's not easy to stay strong and put on a happy face at such a time, and I can only imagine what a toll it put on you. I hope that you are proud of what you were able to do for that family.

I am sorry to hear that you have experienced a stress-related shed. As Jera says, the textbook average of the time-frame is 6-18 months, but that's only the average. Our bodies are all different

I recall a crisis of my own after which I not only experienced a big shed, but also had a patch about the size of a 50 cent piece that went completely bald literally overnight. It was stress-related alopecia, and fortunately it was at the side of my head and was covered by the rest of my hair. The good news was that it began growing back immediately and within a week, there was enough hair there to mask the bald spot.

I suspect that you are also regrowing all of your lost hair now. If you still think you're seeing more hair loss than usual, it could be just the fact that your hair is longer now, and 10 strands today in a hairbrush or in the shower looks like what 20 strands may have looked like when you were at a normal shed rate before this crisis.

It sounds as though your hair is definitely coming back if your circumference has grown.

I wish you all the best with this. :blossom: