How much do you shed?

[RainbowHawk]

I've seen a lot of references to shedding, that the average person loses about 150 hairs a day (was that right?) or some such. . . but how do you know how many hairs you're losing? Do you count them? Weigh them? Just guess? I have no idea how many hairs I lose in the shower on average, for example.

Last year I was ill for a time and I lost a lot of hair, it seemed like it was all over the house all the time, but since I went water only there has been much less shedding. . . but still, I have no idea whether it's average, severe, or very minor. So how can you tell?

[WaitingSoLong]

My hair is long enough I cannot really shed one without it trailing or coming off on my brush or getting caught in the drain of the shower. I gather them up (I am somewhat anal about my hiars being shed on the ground, not if I can help it!) and, yes, sometimes I count them. More from curiouslity than obsession. I shed less than 50 hairs a day, some days a lot less.

Since I keep my hair up mostly, I brush twice a day, it is easy to empty the brush and know how much I shed, at least by wad-size if not counting the actual hairs. A couple strands of my hair looks like quite a lot, like 10 hairs and it is only 2.

[RainbowHawk]

Mine is only shoulder/armpit length, and it's very fine so even though it's dark I can miss individual hairs (even on a light-colored background).

[Madora]

I've seen a lot of references to shedding, that the average person loses about 150 hairs a day (was that right?) or some such. . . but how do you know how many hairs you're losing? Do you count them? Weigh them? Just guess? I have no idea how many hairs I lose in the shower on average, for example.

Last year I was ill for a time and I lost a lot of hair, it seemed like it was all over the house all the time, but since I went water only there has been much less shedding. . . but still, I have no idea whether it's average, severe, or very minor. So how can you tell?

According to Dr. George Michael, average hair loss is 80 hairs a day.

I shed maybe 20 tops..and not every day.

If you want to count the hairs every day, then get some envelopes, date each one, and collect the hairs each day, count them, and place them in the envelope and mark the number of hairs in the upper corner. At the end of a week, consult the envelopes and see your "hair count" for that week.