Hair Loss-Post Pandemic

Recently I came across an article, “The Year America’s Hair Fell Out” in The Atlantic. Why? Well, for many this past 18 plus months have been immensely stressful-either dealing with politics, pandemic, and actual illness directly with Covid-19 itself, this isn’t even addressing the “usual” hair loss culprits. 

If you had Covid-19, there is a likelihood that you could have hair loss later, as it can trigger Telogen Effluvium,

I’m a little embarrassed to say Teolgen Effluvium wasn’t part of my normal vocab as a doctor. Basically, it’s from a stressor-emotionally or physically, that can put your hair into the “telogen” phase of the growth cycle, which basically starves the hair follicle, and it then fall out.

But even if you didn’t have “the vid” as Kevin Hart calls it, the stress of our nation since March 2020 could have done it alone!

The timeline of hair loss following a stressor is usually 2-4 months, which is what happened to me, and in part has motivated me even more to help my patients, because I’m in it too. Normally I wouldn’t consider myself “vain” but for some reason, seeing more scalp, and less hair-is really disturbing to me, and has made me a little more self conscious unfortunately-despite self-talk of trying to be grateful I still have a decent amount of hair. 

The good news is that your hair will grow back-it just requires patience! I wish we could buy patience in pill form 🙂 

So if you are suffering dear, please have hope-as I remind myself too-our hair will come back! If your like me though, you want to “do something” about it….here is a good check list: 

1. Get good blood work: full thyroid panel, thyroid antibodies, iron, copper, vitamin d, hormones: estrogen, progesterone, testosterone and dihydrotestosterone, inflammation marker: hsCRP, and possibly heavy metals.

Also, if you have gut health issues, you may want to test your microbiome, or for SIBO.

2. Take a quiz: this is cool tool to told me potential causes of my hair loss  https://www.advancedtrichology.com/pages/quiz

be aware they do sell products, and don’t necessarily feel that that is the answer, use it just to help guide, not to buy, unless you want to. 

3. Biotin isn’t always the answer: while this can help some, I have found patients who I work with, it hasn\’t fixed the problem, probably because many aren’t deficient in biotin.

Of Course I don’t know if someone is or isn\’t deficient, until I run a test like the NutrEval by Genova, or Metabolomix to help tell me about someone\’s nutrients and biochemistry. 

4. Supplements: my good friend swore by collagen powder for her hair, I’ve been faithful for years now (adding it to coffee or tea) and it hasn’t done anything for my hair. While 

5. Shampoo: I think some on the market that block DHT can be helpful, but I’m not certain yet, as I just started one. Limit hair washing to 1-2x/week if possible. 

6. Serums: I have recently invested in a lower cost one, made with Ayurvedic herbs and oils, hard to say if it is working, I do apply it 1-2x/week at night, and wash in the morning. I think it’s worthwhile to consider helping stimulate the scalp, but not always a must

If your experiencing hair loss, we’d love to help, schedule a new patient appointment, online or phone 951-466-9339