After 5 months of postpartum life, I was starting to think I’d somehow avoided the dreaded postpartum hair loss I’ve heard about.
Boy, was I wrong.
I didn’t realize you could just start experiencing postpartum hair loss so long after delivering. I’d really convinced myself I somehow dodged that bullet because five months had passed and nothing seemed off. Thankfully, postpartum hair loss is a very normal event in the postpartum life cycle, and there were lots of friends out there to support me.
Note: this wasn’t a topic I planned to touch on, so I don’t have any progress photos. I’m taking a look in hindsight and sharing what tips and products I used to get through that rough time for anyone struggling.
Best Postpartum Hair Loss Prevention Product
I sent out the bat signal on Instagram Stories in the fall to ask about postpartum hair loss product recommendations. A majority of my mama submissions were rave reviews about the Divi Scalp Serum. Seeing as it’s conveniently on Amazon, I ordered a bottle to try it out.
The recommendation from the brand itself is to allow three months of directed use to start seeing results. Normally, I’d think that’s just a ploy to keep buying the product, but I got so many glowing reviews on it that I took a leap of faith and used it for the full 90 days.
Can I just say… I’m SO glad I did. I’ve been using it since right around Labor Day 2022 and am just now slowly reducing use and will likely be finishing up with my last bottle for now.
Helping Slow the Postpartum Hair Loss
Aside from the scalp serum which was my heaviest hitter in my effort to combat the hair loss, I had a few other rituals.
Keep Taking Prenatal Vitamins
My doctor suggested to continue taking my prenatal vitamins as they have lots of goodness in them for your hair. These are my prenatal vitamins that I’ve been taking since we started trying to conceive. Always check with your doctor first, though!
Be As Gentle As Possible
So as to not exacerbate an already delicate situation, be as gentle as possible with your hair 24/7.
This includes washing your hair only as necessary. For me, that’s 1-2 times a week but will vary by person. When you are brand newly postpartum you’ll surely have stretches where you inadvertently go several days without washing it, so you can gauge from there how long is *too long*.
Finds ways to pull you hair back and style it without heat. A super popular style right now is throwing it all up in a gorgeous neutral hair claw clip, which I also own and recommend! It’s easy and takes virtually no effort, which is my ideal hair style. 🙌
Avoid Hot Hair Tools
Heat is never great for your hair, and that’s especially true if it’s already in a particularly fragile state.
However, the world will keep on spinning, and sometimes you’ll still need to style your hair. When doing so, always use a heat protectant spray as directed to protect your strands as much as possible. Honestly, I use heat protectant spray every single time I style my hair, postpartum or not!
One hairstyle I recommend is a DIY blowout. They last a few days so you don’t have to keep using heat on your hair. This is my blowout hairbrush recommendation. I’m usually awful at hair styling, but I’ve truly never felt so good at doing my hair when I use this brush!
Try a Heatless Hairstyle
My go-to heatless hair style are French braids. Let your hair air dry for an hour, then braid it in one or two French braids and leave them in until dry. I’ll commonly do this at night and sleep in the braids as long as they’re not too wet still.
Another common heatless hairstyle I’ve seen are braids done with this heatless curler. It’s super inexpensive, comes in a few colors and is really well-rated on Amazon!
Add Collagen to Your Diet
I’ve made it a point to incorporate collagen powder into my daily diet (or as much as I can remember). I do feel like it has helped get me through that wild hair loss phase. While I started using the scalp serum right away, it wasn’t until a few weeks in that I added the collagen. That made it easier to see a difference before and after adding it into my diet. This particular collagen peptide powder came highly recommended by a lot of friends and is found in stores like Target and Walmart, and online at Amazon.
When Will Postpartum Hair Loss End?!
Ugh, that’s the million dollar question.
For me I felt like postpartum hair loss was especially present and heaviest between 5 months and 8 months after delivering. It’s going to vary for everyone, but I hear that it starts commonly around four or five months postpartum.
It lasted a solid three months, which was really rough and felt like it would never end at times, but thankfully it did. At some point around eight months postpartum I noticed I wasn’t pulling as much hair out after washes, or during brushing. It felt normal again, thank goodness!
Again, this was my experience and it will surely vary for everyone, but I hope this helps. Three months is a long time to feel like you’re losing hair left and right and can be really rough mentally. Do some reading, talk to your doctor, and don’t be afraid to ask mom friends questions. Most moms are so open and helpful about the rough parts of postpartum self care and are happy to help new mom friends.
Just know it’s a very normal occurrence. While it seems like you’re losing a lot of hair, in most cases the excessive shedding is just caused by falling estrogen levels and you should see it level off around your child’s first birthday. This article from the American Academy of Dermatology has a lot of good information if you’d like more from a certified source.
How have you combated postpartum hair loss? If you have any additional advice please share it in the comments! While postpartum hair loss can be a traumatic experience, I’m hoping we can information share and help each other out. No one’s in this alone!
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