There are a lot of things that happen to your body when you are pregnant. Mainly, your hormones increase which cause a lot of other things to go out of whack. One of the things is that your hair changes. This was one of those things that I read about either before or while I was pregnant, but I didn’t really pay attention to it. Honestly, it truly didn’t hit me all of the changes that my hair went through until earlier this week.
Stage 1: Luscious Hair
While I was pregnant, I did not notice much of change in my hair. I wore it twisted up most of the time so I didn’t have to mess with it. Five days before I went into labor I had it braided and kept it that way for probably the next month and a half. When I took it out I went to a salon and had it straightened. It was immediately noticeable how long and full my hair was. However, I chalked it up to not having it out for months. I forgot about how my hormones had affected me and just enjoyed having beautiful hair.
Stage 2: Losing Hair
Within a few weeks, though I started shedding like crazy. I would comb my hair and it would come out in clumps. That’s when I started doing some research and was reminded that the hormones that helped make my hair grow were now leveling out and causing me to shed it.
In addition to that, I started balding around my edges, to the point where it was noticeable. How embarrassing right? So then I did more research to see what I could do about it. I came across several different articles that recommended various oils. I decided to use Vitamin E oil because I already had it for use on my stretch marks (that’s another post for another day). Every day I would massage it into the problem areas and then do my best to leave it alone and not touch it. After a period of time, I can’t remember how long exactly, my hair filled back in enough where I no longer felt self-conscious about it.
Stage 3: Normal Hair
Fast forward now to being almost one year postpartum and I went to the salon to have my hair straightened again. This time I left thinking, “wow, I don’t remember my hair being this thin.” I started thinking that maybe the stylist this time did a better job, and it felt thinner because it was straighter. It wasn’t until about a week and a half later that it hit me that my hair is thinner than it was the last time. I think it is finally back to its “normal” state. Although I sometimes wonder if I will ever be “normal” again.
If you have an interesting pregnancy/postpartum hair story I would love to hear about it. You can comment below or use the message box.
Martina