PDA

View Full Version : Help! How much hair fall is 'normal' when you wash???



louisemg82
July 31st, 2010, 09:52 AM
Hi all,
I'm a newbie to the LHC after having waist lenght hair for several years. I didn't grow it properly first time round (I just decided to spend my money on nights out instead of hair cuts for 4 years whilst studying at university) but I LOVED my length dearly. Any how, being dry, crispy and abused I took the plunge and cut my hair to my shoulderblanes 4 months ago. (It feels gorgeous now but I want the length back asap!)
My problem is, the first time round it seemed to grow so easy. I don't know if it's because I wasn't 'trying' to grow it then but now because I'm trying, I'm paranoid about every hair that falls from my head. I lose about 10 hairs whenever I brush it but a good 30 whenever I condition it and up to 60 when I'm rinsing out my henna!! Is this normal? I brush daily and wash every other day.
Please help. If it's normal, great and if not, what can I do to help it?
Thank you all,

Lou :(

Lady Cypressa, Keeper of the Olive Grove in the Order of the Long Haired Knights

Cinnamoon
July 31st, 2010, 09:54 AM
I shed about 4 or 5 hairs when I comb, and about the same when I wash. You might want to try combing with a wide toothed comb instead of brushing - when I brushed, I was losing 20+ hairs each time.

Gumball
July 31st, 2010, 10:05 AM
Normally people can shed up to 150 hairs a day. One thing to consider when you shed a hair is whether the hair is shed or if it's broken. If a hair is shed you'll see the root on it, while you won't usually if it's broken off since it would be broken off above the root.

I've noticed that when I seem to have a larger shed in a day it's likely more broken hair than shed hair. I've since adopted a coconut oiling routine (my hair likes coconut oil) and my shed rate dropped a lot, likely because those were broken hairs and the oil makes my hair less likely to easily break.

bunnii
July 31st, 2010, 10:09 AM
Another thing to consider is that as your hair grows it looks like you're shedding more but it's just length :)

louisemg82
July 31st, 2010, 10:46 AM
Thanks for all your suport so far!
I'm definitely going to try changing to combing and using coconut oil - I heard lots of good reviews. I have to say though, it's definitely not breakage - it's the full length...
Wish me luck!

:)

Lady Cypressa, Keeper of the Olive Grove in the Order of the Long Haired Knights

Yozhik
July 31st, 2010, 11:10 AM
I lose pretty large clumps of hair in the shower, and I was worried about it for a while, but then I realized it was just that my hair has gotten significantly longer, so the clumps look a lot bigger than they used to!

Good luck -- I'd second recommendations for coconut oiling and gentle brushing/combing. I find the more I manipulate my hair, the more hair falls out, so I try to leave it do it's own thing the most part :)

LittleOrca
July 31st, 2010, 01:23 PM
Also, be sure to look at the hair! One hair folded up on itself can look like 3-5 hairs and give the illusion of more hair being shed than there really is. I used to panic at all the hair I was shedding, until I realized it was only about 10 hairs just folded up.

mtstorm
July 31st, 2010, 01:34 PM
I usually shed about 5-10 hairs when I wash my hair, however it looks like a lot more than that since each hair is so long. I use a wide tooth wooden comb and loose about 2-7 hairs each time I comb.

jaine
July 31st, 2010, 01:35 PM
Is your ponytail getting thinner? I think that's a more accurate thing to track, not the number of shed hairs. I lose massive amounts of hair in the shower...handfuls every time ... And my hair isn't even shoulder length yet. But I also have a massive number of hairs to begin with since it's thick and fine. I lose more hairs per day than most but it's still quite normal for me.

rags
July 31st, 2010, 01:44 PM
I have very thin hair (only a 1.75 inch ponytail) and I lose around 30 - 50 hairs every time I wash my hair. (Yes, I've counted them. Many times). And yet - my circumference has increased since I've been here; from 1.5 to 1.75. :shrug: I guess I just shed and grow a lot?

However, I almost never shed hair other than in the shower and combing/brushing it. You will almost never find one of my hairs just lying around. My hair only seems to shed when manipulated. I wear it up all the time, so the only chance it gets to shed is combing and washing.

louisemg82
August 1st, 2010, 04:48 AM
The circumference of my ponytail remains the same - Hurrah!! So I hope it really is just hair fall. I totally appreciate Little Orca's point about it looking more, may be I am just panicking because I'm so desperate to grow my long hair back.
My hairdresser tells me that I have more hair than an average person so does that mean I should shed more???? My husband has been complaining for years that he finds my hairs everywhere and my Dad used to say the same thing when I was a teenager. I just pray this is 'normal' for me.
Does anyone have any good natural strengthening treatment recipes I can try to help alleviate the problem? I made a decision 5 months ago to shun chemicals.

Thank you all for your support :)

Lady Cypressa, Keeper of the Olive Grove in the Order of the Long Haired Knights

louisemg82
August 1st, 2010, 12:09 PM
I have an update...
First of all, I've been using a new shampoo for about 4 months. It's supposed to thicken your hair and sells heavily on it's nut oil content. I'm not sure if I should say the name but hopefully the mods can tell me if I'm wrong to do so, any how it's Ojon. Don't know if anyone's tried it but I looked it up on google and was shocked to see pages of people complained it's made them lose hair!!!
So first off this afternoon I threw away my Ojon. Then I mixed up my own mayo using EVOO. It smelt a bit funky so being me, I stuck my finger in and had a taste - let me say, you don't want to put it on your sandwiches! I put it on dry hair and wrapped my head in cling film to keep the heat in, left it for 3 hours and shampooed out. Normally, I'd expect to lose about 30 hairs a wash but after the EVOO mayo treatment I lost 13. So I'll definitely do that again.
One unexpected side effect though was it lightened my hennindigoed hair? It's definitely a lighten brown now - I've lost more of the indigo than the henna. It doesn't bother me at all because I was actually thinking about leaving off the indigo and going red but on the mayo thread it says nothing about lightening. Is this something anyone else has experienced? :confused:


Lady Cypressa, Keeper of the Olive Grove in the Order of the Long Haired Knights

squiggyflop
August 1st, 2010, 12:19 PM
well when i wash i get a giant clump.. rolled up its the size of my thumb.. no idea how many hairs are in there though.. my hair is tailbone length so it could be just 50 or so hairs.. i wash every other day..

Nae
August 2nd, 2010, 07:23 AM
This is a link to a short clip from doctor Oz. It gives you a great visual on the amount of hair you can lose in a day! http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/preventing-female-hair-loss