Postnatal Hair Care Tips!
Most of us girls look forward to pregnancy. For some of us, it’s the satisfaction of bringing a new life into the world, whereas for some, it’s just the thrill of knowing how it feels to grow a human being inside us. Whatever your reason is, there is one thing your hair is likely to go through around your pregnancy. You will probably see a lot of healthy hair growth during your pregnancy and quite a bit of hair fall post pregnancy.
A lot of women face hair loss post pregnancy. So, let’s address this today and talk about what actually happens and how to reduce hair fall post pregnancy.
WHAT IS THE TYPICAL HAIR GROWTH CYCLE?
Before we get into how pregnancy affects your hair cycle, let’s first understand how your hair functions in the first place. To begin with, your hair goes through three phases in their lives.
Phase 1: Anagen
This is the most active phase for your hair. In this phase, the cells in the root of your hair divide rapidly, and thus, a new hair is formed. It goes on to grow and push the club hair out (we shall discuss ‘club hair’ in just a bit). This new hair then makes its way up your hair follicle and all the way out.
In the anagen phase, your hair grows about a centimeter every 28 days. Ordinarily, your scalp hair stays in this phase for about 2-6 years. So, your full-length hair comes to about 18-30 inches.
One thing to note here is that the duration of this phase is different for different people. This is very evident when you see that some people can grow their hair only to a certain length, whereas, some others can grow them longer. Those who can only grow them to a certain length have a comparatively shorter anagen phase here and vice versa for those who can grow comparatively longer hair.
Phase 2: Catagen
While we all love it when our hair is in its active phase, there comes a time when that phase ends and the next one begins. We call this the catagen phase or the transitional phase. In this one, the hair’s growth stops. It also leads to the outer sheath of the root to shrink and get attached to your hair.
This phase is the one where the hair enters into its resting phase. Remember we mentioned ‘club hair’ earlier? This hair in its resting phase is known as a club hair. Now, this phase lasts for approximately 10-20 days. At any given point, approximately 3% of your hair is in the catagen phase.
Phase 3: Telogen
The final phase, the telogen phase, is when your hair enters completely in the resting phase and the formation of your club hair is completed. You might have read that every human sheds approximately 25-100 hair per day. Well, the hair that you shed each day is in this phase.
At any given point of time, about 6-8% of your hair is in this phase. This phase lasts for approximately 100 days, and in this time, your follicle stays inactive. It is only after this stage is complete that your hair growth cycle goes back to square one viz. the anagen phase.
HOW DOES PREGNANCY AFFECT THIS CYCLE?
When you are pregnant, your estrogen level rises. This leads to a prolonged anagen phase, which means beautiful, thick, lustrous locks for you. It actually seems as though the best hair fall shampoo has flicked its wand!
However, about 3-4 months after your pregnancy is done, your hormone levels normalize. This allows your hair to go back to its normal cycle. This is how we witness hair loss after pregnancy. In fact, due to the delay in going through all the phases, up to 60% of your hair can go into the telogen phase at this point. We call this phenomenon as telogen effluvium.
While this dip in estrogen may be one of the biggest hair fall reasons causing hair fall post pregnancy, it’s not the end of the world.
Read on to know a few hair fall tips that you can employ to combat this hair loss after pregnancy.
WHAT TO DO ABOUT THIS HAIRFALL?
Hairfall after pregnancy can be quite a handful to deal with. But before you freak out, you kust remember that this is only temporary.Let's look at what we can do about this, shall we?
Don't Stress
One of the main reasons why hair fall post pregnancy happens is stress. Owing to this, we do recommend you try and keep calm. Top hair fall tips suggest that going for oil massages or natural hair masks can help quite a bit. Moreover, using a good hair fall shampoo can also work out in your favor. The all-new Pantene Hairfall Control Shampoo has proven to battle most hair fall reasons, so that might just turn out to be a good choice.
Be Patient
We know that you probably want to go back to having picture-perfect hair. But you might want to not rush into it. Whether it’s heat styling and coloring that you want or simply your hair before the fall that you crave for, it is extremely important to be patient. At the end of the day, you must remember that hair loss after pregnancy is only temporary.
Healthy Living
A lot of women don’t quite pay attention to themselves once their pregnancy is over. This is one of the major reasons for hair fall post pregnancy. To address this, you should make sure that you are taking the necessary nutritional supplements as recommended by your physician. You should also invest your time in choosing a healthy diet plan with vitamins to restore hair that you can stick to.
Dealing with hair fall reasons of this order can be quite challenging. And a hair fall shampoo that is an absolute must for you is the Pantene Hairfall Control Shampoo. Top hair fall tips recommend pairing this with Pantene Hairfall Control Conditioner and Pantene Open Hair Miracle so better conditioning can happen.