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mommyofatoz
November 6th, 2010, 11:37 AM
I feel as if I shed a lot, and I have felt this way for as long as I can remember, however, I do not have time to sit around and count shed hairs, so what does it look like? What does normal shedding look like? I keep meaning to take pictures of the hair I shed while in the shower, but keep forgetting. If there is another post here with this info, please direct me. Searching was getting me no where! :o

Thanks!

mira-chan
November 6th, 2010, 10:11 PM
Unfortunately considering the varying lengths of hair it would be hard to compare shedding by hair balls. :p

at 40+" 10 of my hairs make up a pretty mighty ball. A few more and as Tanuki (DF) put it "Whoa! That's a gerbil!" When I'm having a big nasty shed, ferrets and even larger are not too unusual, otherwise lovingly termed as "wookies."

At a shorter length the gerbil might be a large shed. My gerbil contained a couple of days worth of shed hair and was nothing to get concerned over. Coarse hair also looks scarier than fine hair in a clump, even though there may be less hair in the former than in the later.

Your best bet to check is to actually count, but that as you said is time consuming. I've regularly heard a lot of shed hair be described as a "squirrel" so that may be the size average for larger sheds. :flower:

UltraBella
November 7th, 2010, 12:40 AM
I shed a whole lot but I have a lot of hair so I guess it's to be expected. If it's always seemed like you shed a lot and you aren't noticing any areas thinning, it's probably normal.

ericthegreat
November 7th, 2010, 01:56 AM
Well according to most textbooks, you can shed up to 100 strands of hair a day and it would still be normal compared to how much everyone else sheds. Often, when we think we are shedding a whole lot of hair it really isn't a lot of hair at all, especially if your hair is very long then most of that hairball are just single strands that are balled and bundled up together.
I wouldn't worry about the shedding at all, unless you are literally finding that chunks of your hair are falling out or you can see noticeable thinning of your scalp, then your shedding is most likely normal.

girlcat36
November 7th, 2010, 09:06 AM
Hhhmmm...I have somewhere in my blog(I think), a picture of a 300 hundred hair shed ball.
I will try to find that pic and post it in this thread tomorrow.
Depending on length sheds will vary according to length.
I did actually count for quite a few months so I have a good idea of when shedding is a sign of health problems.
For me, 25-60 hairs per hair wash in the shower is normal. And this is after pre-shower detangling. When I start to get upwards of 100 hairs in the shower, it's a sign of trouble.
When my thyroid medication is off I will lose 150-300 hairs per shampoo.
It is worth counting just to set a baseline.
I got so good at eyeballing how many hairs were in shed that I could look at a hairball shed and say,"That's about 75", and be pretty darn close.
I realize that I sound completely obsessed with shed hair in this post.

girlcat36
November 7th, 2010, 09:17 AM
Here are some sheds:

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd63/girlcat36/P1020063.jpg

Right to left: 300...150...50...rounded off a bit. Should have photographed them in my hand for reference. Maybe I did, I'll have to look around my old computer to see if I have a picture of that.
My hair length at the time of that picture was just shy of BSL.

mira-chan
November 7th, 2010, 02:21 PM
Here are some sheds:

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd63/girlcat36/P1020063.jpg

Right to left: 300...150...50...rounded off a bit. Should have photographed them in my hand for reference. Maybe I did, I'll have to look around my old computer to see if I have a picture of that.
My hair length at the time of that picture was just shy of BSL.
This is great, and more matching to the OP. Thanks Girlcat!

My 50 looks like the 150 ball up there, if not bigger. Coarse hair has scarier looking sheds. :D

curlymarcia
November 8th, 2010, 09:28 AM
I think the best is count the hair that you lost, because thicker and longer hair can look like a lot of hair even when is between the normal rate of shedding.