Post Covid-19 Hair Loss: the causes and how to combat it  | Wellness

Why are so many people reporting hair loss since the covid-19 pandemic? What type of hair loss is it? How long does it last? What to expect? And what are the treatment options?

There are multiple factors related to the covid-19 pandemic outside of even just viral infection, that created the perfect storm for the growing number of cases of hair loss. In the majority of cases the type of hair loss that is occurring in people is telogen effluvium. It is a type of hair loss where the hair cycle shifts around so you have an increase of shedding. Is not actually true hair loss and the hair you shred with eventually grow back but still can be highly distressing to experience telogen effluvium.

Now, it is normal to shred about 100 hairs a day but when you are experiencing telogen effluvium you can be shredding several hundreds to even thousands of hairs. It will be coming out in your brush, on your drain, you your pillow and it can come in the company of scalp discomfort – trichodynia. Both these conditions are highly connected to psychological and/or physical stress or immune deficient situations such as surgeries, fevers, pregnancy, different medications…

In sum, any type of stress can trigger telogen effluvium, basically shifting upwards of 70% of hairs into the shredding phase of your hair cycle. And the most confusing thing of this condition is that it only starts roughly 3 to 4 months after the stressful triggering event has been experienced so it may no longer be on people months and once it starts shredding it may last for many months. It is defused shredding meaning is not focused of an area or patch of the scalp which is even more distressing because hair is literally coming out of everywhere.

Nevertheless, the good news is that, providing the stressful event goes away and you no longer going through that experience, in most cases the shredding stops within 6 to 9 months and the hair with go back to its natural cycle. In some cases, if the condition continues and it may be considered persistent or even chronic telogen effluvium. This can be because you are still under chronic stress or it can the because having telogen effluvium can kick off and unmask another type of hair loss that is related to genetics commonly called male pattern baldness or female pattern hair loss.

So, the reason why so many people are experience hair loss to covid-19 is because the severe viral infection it is and because the pandemic situation in general was quite a stressful experience. For instance, disruption in sleep was reported by many people during the covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns and that on its own can result on hair loss and also can result and anxiety and depression. So what to do? Focus on improve your overall health, boost your immune system and above all aim to reduce your stress level and achieve psychological wellness.