Postpartum Hair Loss Remedies for New Moms

It is a common issue that most pregnant ladies face postpartum hair loss after delivery; usually from 3 months after delivery. Let's start from the basics.... Preggers may find that hair feels fuller during pregnancy. It is not that preggers grow more hair, its just losing it at a slower rate than usual. During pregnancy, higher levels of estrogen prolong the growth phase, resulting in lesser shedding of hair and thicker tresses. So postpartum hair loss is actually having your hair loss cycle back to its previous pattern thus you may notice more hair falling out. Not all preggers notice huge changes in their hair before and after giving birth, though for some it may feel drastic especially women with longer hair. I even seen some worse cases that lead to spot balding - so scary :( .

So this is me now, 6 months postpartum. Photo was taken after I had a pampering session with my stylist Charles, from Headlines Hairdressing. 

Im so glad up till now my hair are still intact. Haha.

I won't deny, surely there have been hair lost. But its not anything major. So I guess whatever I've been doing to manage the hair loss works?

1. Oral Supplement - Biotin
About the Product (product information taken from Amazon)

• vitamin, supplement, Natrol, biotin, hair, skin, nails, health, maximum does
• Supports healthy hair and nails, in addition to energy production
• Water-soluble B-complex vitamin necessary for cell growth and the production and metabolism of fat into amino acids.

All these while I have slightly thinner hair on the crown of my head, I've been taking Biotin supplement months before I was pregnant and until I found out I was pregnant. My gynae didn't say it was dangerous to consume during pregnancy, but just advised that I could make do without just to be safe. So I only started consuming this product again after I stopped breastfeeding, which was also just about 2 months before I started shedding hair. Best to consult your gynae/ lactation consultant whether you can take this when breastfeeding.

There's two versions to this supplement brand, one which has 1,000mcg of Biotin and 10,000mcg of Biotin. This is exactly the one Im taking. Im not sure how much is needed to be effective, but being the Kiasu (aka fear of losing out) me I bought the one with the higher content. Haha.

Ingredients FYI.

2. Hair Loss Shampoo & Conditioner

As much as I try to use hair loss shampoo and conditioner to upkeep my tresses and minimize hair loss, I am not the kind who'd spend hundreds of dollars just on a set of shampoo & conditioner. Especially when I wouldn't know whether for sure whether it'll work for me. I got mine off qoo10, where each bottle on promotional price went for approximately $20+? Inclusive of delivery... Of course I did some research and read reviews of the product before settling on the purchase. 

Conditioner on the left, shampoo on the right. Both are of different brands if you can't tell, and both are products from Korea. The conditioner smelt quite nice, similar to regular conditioners. While the shampoo had a herbal smell and also was dark brown in colour - kind of like typical herbal hair loss shampoos. The shampoo actually dries hair out a little. My hair felt dry after washing but it was okay for me since I used conditioner to rinse out after. The herbal smell from the shampoo can be masked by the conditioner but if you are really really sensitive to such smells then you'd most likely still be able to smell the shampoo.

One other tip: use fingers instead of comb (otherwise wide-tooth comb) to brush through your hair gently while it's wet. Remember at this stage hair falls off easier so be gentle if you don't wish to pull out more hair.

3. Hair Loss Tonic & Hair Growth Lotion
I've been using Yanagiya hair loss tonic, the slight-scented version for a couple of months. It has a very mild citrus-y scent to it which was quite refreshing. Previously I tried the unscented version, it was scentless and minty. Both refreshing! You can find this also on qoo10, quite a few vendors are selling this product. Of course I just chose the cheapest one. Hurhur.

I also recently purchased a hair growth lotion from qoo10, same seller as the Yanagiya hair loss tonic. It was an additional (optional) add-on to the purchase of the hair tonic. Apparently also the same brand - Yanagiya. You're supposed to use the tonic on the scalp first after towel-drying hair, massage for 5 minutes then use the Alomail scalp lotion aka the hair growth lotion. What the combi is supposed to do - step 1: prevent hair loss, and step 2: promote hair growth. The Alomail scalp lotion was cooling, and had a mint smell to it.

4. Scalp Treatments

Ever since the start of my hair loss (from the fourth month postpartum), I've been going to my hair stylist, Charles for scalp treatments. Before my hair loss even started, I consulted Charles since I was worried and asked for preventive measures. I was recommended this treatment called the Matrix Sensoria Spa Cream Bath Scalp Treatment.

I'm now 6 months postpartum and till date I've only gone for 3 sessions of the scalp treatment. I tell you after the very last session (i.e. the third session), I could significantly feel MUCH LESS hair falling off. It was super obvious like immediately after the treatment session itself 'cuz when I brushed my hair with my fingers, there was no hair that came off in my hands. Im not joking! I remembered clearly that night I was thinking to myself maybe its just the first day so my hairs all intact since scalp was clean. Over the next couple of days I kept monitoring and tried the same thing, still either no hair or max one strand of hair fell off. That was comparing to previously where at least 5-7 strands of hair fell off EVERYTIME I ran my fingers through my hair. And I vouch till today (16 days since my 3rd session), my hair fall rate still remained the at the improved rate. HAPPY LAH!! Seems like the end of my hair loss days look like its close by, 'cuz I was told some Mummies suffer from postpartum hair loss up till 9/10 months.. :O

Oh ya, I did write about the Matrix Scalp treatment previously. If you need more details about it you can read up here. :)

So that comes to the end of this write-up. I'll have to say, different methods and remedies work for different mummies since our bodies react to different products differently. I also cannot be 100% sure which of the above remedies are/ not helping in reducing my postpartum hair loss but Im VERY SURE something is working.

Frankly speaking as I did mention, the most obvious change would be right after the 3rd session of the scalp treatment. I myself was surprised when the obvious effect took place so quickly but Im only emphazising b'cuz it really worked for me. Even after the first two sessions I went for didn't make me feel any different at all but I still continued going for the treatments because I knew there's not gonna be any remedies that would be effective immediately - everything needs time to work lah. You'd just have to be patient and manage your expectations. If and unless its taking too long then oopsie, you know you've just flushed some money down the drain.

Feel free to leave comments in the comments box below if you have any questions regarding this topic and I'll try my best to answer if its not already stated in my blog above. Thanks for reading! : D

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