Why is my hair falling out? Pt 2

Have you ever noticed your hair thinning or shedding and been confused about why?

There are a number of factors that might be at play (which we have covered on the blog before - click here to read more). After ruling out active hormonal concerns, one consideration is something called telogen effluvium.

Telogen effluvium is our fancy way of saying stress-related hairloss. The name comes from the state that the hair follicle is in (telogen, our resting phase) and what is happening to it (effluvium, being discharged or shed from our heads).

Under healthy circumstances, our hair follicles (the area at the root of our hair where it grows from our scalps) go through a predictable cellular growth cycle. They start in an active anagen, or “growth” phase, followed by a “resting” phase (telogen) when they are more mature. Eventually, the hair is shed and the anagen phase starts again. Normally, 85% of our hair is in the anagen phase and the remaining 15% are in telogen phase.

If a stress to the body occurs, this shifts! We start to see about 70% percent of those hairs in the growth phase pushed into the resting phase.Stresses that may cause this include, medications, psychological stress, trauma, major surgery, acute illness, severe infection, crash dieting, low protein, hormonal changes (thyroid, estrogen) and iron deficiency. Telogen hairs typically stay in this state for an average of 3 months (but this could vary from 1 to 6 months). When the hair goes back to the growth phase, it will push the telogen hair out, causing shedding.

In the context of real life, this phenomenon is experienced by our patients as noticeable shedding about three months after a major stressor. We don’t tend to notice the shift from growth phase to rest phase as much as we notice the increased shedding! The disproportionate amount of follicles in telogen are all shedding at the same time. This can be distressing and confusing for patients as it doesn’t seem obvious to connect it to a stress may have occurred up to 6 months earlier. Fortunately, although distressing, it is usually not permanent and our hair tends to naturally grow back after the period of stress.

A notable new discovery? There has been new research emerging that seems to be linking COVID-19 infections to experiences of telogen effluvium. Want to learn more about your hair health as well as your overall health? Book a meet and greet with our naturopathic doctors to discuss how they can support you and your health goals!