Saturday, November 29, 2008

Pregnancy-Induced Follicular Dysfunction

A new disease or symptom to be worried about? 

No--just my tongue-in-cheek term for the changes pregnancy can have on your hair. Some women experience a fairly dramatic hair loss at about three months postpartum, which is actually not hair loss so much as a new cycle of hair growth. Others find that their hair color changes during pregnancy. My mom's leg hair fell out during her pregnancies. I was hoping this would happen to me, but no luck so far. 

I have noticed a fairly dramatic change in my hair that began during Zari's pregnancy. My hair became a bit wavy, especially on the back of my head. I've always had straight hair, and now I have this slight wave--more like a kink, really--that makes my hair look frizzy and messy if I let it air-dry. I was talking with my sister-in-law, who is a hair stylist, and she says this is fairly common. Another sister-in-law, who had curly hair, told me that her hair has gotten curlier with each pregnancy. 

13 comments:

  1. My hair got straighter after my second pregnancy!

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  2. I am 5 months PP now and my hair has been shedding in enormous amounts for the last 1-2 months!! When will it end? Ugh!

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  3. My hair was wavy/slightly curly, and has got curlier with each pg. Now I have pretty tight curls.

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  4. My wavy hair became curlier with each pregnancy. Four children later my hair is very curly. My nails also got stronger with each pregnancy. I used to break my nails all the time. Now they break only if I hit them or catch them on something very hard. Fringe benefits of pregnancy?

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  5. I have been shedding hair like crazy I am amazed that I have any hair left on my head. But my leg hair didn't grow during my pregnancy. Quite the perk in the summer.

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  6. lol, so glad I'm not alone. I had my ob, with my first and my widwife remind me with my second that this was completely normal...but still, but times, it's so scary!

    With my first, I did "lose" quite a bit around 3mos.pp.

    This pg., I shaved MAYBE 4 times while pregnant!!! It was wonderful....until, 3mos., again, the hair started to fall out...and I think it regenerated in my legs! wow...amazing! I can't shave often enough...

    so strange!

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  7. My hair got lighter during and after pregnancy. When I went to the stylist 6 months postpartum, she called over her coworkers to look at the color change. You could see the line where it became 2 shades lighter. She said that it struck her as very strange because in her experience women's hair gets darker because of pregnancy. It went from very dark blonde/almost brown to about the same color as yours in the pic you just posted.

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  8. oh yes. i definitely had hair loss from 3-6 months pp. it was BAD..

    from my understanding the pregnancy hormones keeps your hair in a continuous state of growth that after those hormones fade out your hair is allowed to finally "die" and shed.

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  9. I used to have hair that was straight as a board. Lots of body, but definitely not wavy or curly. Not so anymore! With my first, it got wavy, and now it's *really* wavy. Craziness!

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  10. Oh and I forgot to mention that I used to know someone who literally lost all the hair on her body every time she got pregnant. No eyelashes, no eyebrows, no hair on her head, none on her legs...totally and completely hairless. It did nothing to diminish her beauty, though, she had amazing eyes and face-structure and somehow loosing all her hair actually accentuated that, rather than took away from it.

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  11. How far along are you now? you know we're pregnant together again right? Anyway, currently my hair is going through a disturbing trend of growing in completely white, and thick, and fast...my temples are now coming in all white and thick....yuck.

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  12. I have curly hair and it has gotten straighter with each pregnancy. It used to be very curly and now it is very relaxed and frizzy.

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  13. I used to have nice curly hair before I got pregnant the first time around. Now it's a horrible frizzy mess instead of pretty defined curls. I hate it! I'm curious to see what pregnancy #2 will do to it. I hope that it might re-do whatever pregnancy #1 undid and I will end up with pretty hair again, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up!

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