4 months almost to the day after giving birth to my son Reggie I started to notice the inevitable post-partum Hair Loss that I had seen many times at my Clinic...
When it starts, at first you are unsure.
But very quickly it becomes obvious that many more hairs than usual are shedding and eventually it seems that almost over night your scalp is peering back at you in the mirror!
When I was washing my hair I would have the biggest ball of hair wound around my fingers, and by the end of the week what can only be described as a HAIR MONSTER was removed from my bath plug (not by me, that was and still is a ‘blue job’ in our house!)
By the second week both myself and my husband were finding my hair everywhere ?
On our pillows
In our socks
In the washing machine
Each week there was a mat of hair around the roller brush on the Dyson that I had to cut off
…One day I even found one in my sons nappy!
and the heavy shedding continued daily for 3 months, when I gradually noticed it start to reduce.
At this point I was left with an apparent receding hair line and my ponytail was about half of the thickness that it had been.
I have seen many cases of this type of Hair Loss at my Clinic so I knew why it was happening, and I knew what I could could do reduce the shedding, and help my hair to recover faster, but it still didn’t stop me feeling conscious of how my hair looked. I knew it should stop but I worried about how much I would lose before it did?!
In every consultation I felt as though I should mention why I had Hair Loss myself, and when styling my hair I still went through hours of trying to conceal the thinning areas.
For first time mums like myself, you go through so many changes to your body and appearance, it feels like this is just another unfair draw of the hand!
Just like most of the inconvenient side effects to pregnancy, this type of Hair Loss is caused by hormones.
In a nutshell – ?
Normally (while not pregnant) around 90% of your hair follicles are in the ‘Growing Phase’ however, while pregnant, due to the hormonal changes there is an increase of the number of hair follicles that remain in the Growing Phase for longer. Hence, in most cases, pregnant women will experience thicker, fuller hair during pregnancy.
Following pregnancy (usually 3 to 6 months after the birth of your child when hormone levels start to return to normal) the hairs that ‘should have’ shed in the time that you were pregnant all start to shed at once.
Fast forward a few months, Reggie is now 16 months old and my hairline is back to looking nice and full!
A good third of my hair is roughly chin length, compared to the rest of my hair which is almost down to my waist, and when I tie it up I have to use plenty of grips to hold the short bits up, but it is getting there and I’m much more confident about the way it looks!
I’m lucky that I have easy access to treatment having my own Clinic. I have been using a combination of Laser Therapy, and 360 OPTIMUM HAIR products.
I use a clinical strength laser with 400 laser diodes, twice a week, and use the 360 OH Shampoo, Conditioner and Treatment Serum daily. Lastly, once I had finished breastfeeding I was also able to start taking the 360 OH Capsules too which provide full nutritional support for optimum Hair Growth – hence how I came up with the name for the products!
I didn’t happen over night, but with consistent treatment I’m finally happy with how my hair is looking again!
Below I have even shared a few pictures that I haven’t shown anyone yet – of my hair in the early regrowth stages. I can laugh now at the text book ‘troll style’ hair as the new hairs started to grow through!
Lastly, theres an updated picture of my hair line – with Reggie getting in on the selfie action!
