o no! my hair is falling

When I noticed strands of hair leaving their marks all over the place, I consoled myself, “it’s alright… this is normal for most women after giving birth, don’t fuss about it.” My family and friends did warn me about hair loss after pregnancy and I, somehow, mentally prepared for it.  Ditto!  But hey, wait a minute…they forgot to tell me that I might experience a probable massive hair-fall too! That I would be experiencing a handful of hairs so easily falling off from my scalp, anytime, anywhere, several times a day!

This has become an issue of late.  The experts call this sort of problem “postnatal hair loss or postpartum hair loss”. As I write this, I am still clueless as to how long this condition will last.

When my baby was about 3 months old, he started to shed his baby hair, and I was apparently shedding mine too.  Serendipity!  It didn’t enthuse me (still doesn’t ) to be able to duplicate what my lovely baby can do, believe me  or not.  At first, the hair-fall was slow and seemed normal. Then, I started noticing strands of hairs on my shoulder, the floor, the pillow, the bath towel, on my hair brush, even on the plate.  My preparation has apparently not been sufficient enough – I was in awe!

The big lump of hairs (which looked like mine) trapped in my husband’s folded newspaper was an eye opener. When asked, I told him I was as baffled as he was as to how such thing happened.  His puzzled facial expression suggested otherwise.  He after all saw me reading the paper before him.  Nonetheless, I stood tall and defended my stand!  Yes, my defence was strong:  I was reading the paper for only about half an hour, and the hair he found stuck in between the paper was a lot.  I mean, a lot (you know what I mean). My reasoning was clear: it is impossible to have my hair dropped that lot in a just matter of 30 minutes.

Funny but true, after the hair-in-the-paper incident, I started to see hairs everywhere, especially on the floor. My vacuum cleaner picked up more and more hairs every day. Suddenly, to be gentle and careful when working the shampoo on my hair became a need.  Not only it was a need to save my hair, I also needed to avoid stashing a handful of hairs into the waste basket so that my shower drain won’t get clogged! The reality hit me hard. I felt defenseless. Still feeling a wee bit miserable and of course uncertain, I have finally accepted this undesirable fact – that my crowning glory is about to disappear!  My hair, after all, is part of my beautiful components.

“You must do something about this postpartum or postnatal hair falling (whatever names they call it) before such a time comes when there’s no longer hairs left to shed”, I heard an inner voice assuring me.

Some decisions have to be made.

First, thorough reading on hair loss. Hair loss after Pregnancy came in handy!

“Pregnancy hair loss is both temporary and completely reversible.  When you first conceived, your body began turning you into a more efficient crèche for your baby.  It did this by enhancing the levels of certain hormones, specifically estrogen.  These elevated estrogen levels meant that your comfort kind of took a back seat to your baby’s well being.  Once your baby was born, your body started the job of changing you from an incubator back to your good self.  This meant siphoning off all the extra estrogen.  The problem is that estrogen is good for your hair.  It keeps more of your hair active and growing and less of your hair from going dormant and falling out.  When your estrogen levels tumbled after you gave birth, all that hair that was kept active went dormant.  You are experiencing pregnancy hair loss.  And the dormant hair follicles will soon produce brand new hair.”

Such detailed information which explained what was going on with me. Losing hair in this manner isn’t that bad after all.

Second, changing my hairstyle. The kind of style that came to mind was very short but not cropped. Sienna Miller’s hairstyle which I came across on Women’s Weekly attracted my attention. I asked my friend (who owns a salon) to do the same hairstyle on me.  Even though her professional opinion was the opposite from what I wanted – that my hairstyle suited me well and only needed a little trimming and color, I still insisted on having Sienna Miller’s hairstyle! It’s simple, easy to care and beautiful. The most important thing at that point of time was “it’s going to solve my falling-hair problem”. Less weight, less drop, so to speak!

Every inch of my decision has been careful scrutinized: easier to look after, wash, dry, and style. Important – less drops!  So, I was persistent, and she gave me what I wanted.  Voila!  Mirror doesn’t lie – I love my new look!  “So, what if you wanted to look gorgeous with long hair style when attending some dinner functions?”, my friend asked. “A trendy wig would be able to fix that!”, I said.  We both had a good laugh.

Third, added item on hair care regimen. Stretched my usage of Himalaya Herbal line of products.  I added hair oil on my list. Religiously massaging the scalp and waiting about an hour before washing the hair have now become my routine.  I’m not an ambassador for the company, nor am I their marketing agent, or own a shop that sells the Himalaya brand but I have faith in Himalaya Herbal brand.  I use most of the product line, i.e. skin care, baby care, hair care, and health care.  Based on first-hand experience, without doubt, I believe Himalaya brand delivers what it offers to consumers; the promise of good health and well being (to me and my family at least). Check out its webpage.

“How did I get hook with Himalaya brand?” is a very interesting question.  You bet, the revelation is unbelievably more than interesting…