Postpartum Shedding On 4c Hair: How To Deal With It

Postpartum shedding on natural hair is common and normal. About 90% of all women will experience it, natural or not. It is caused by the hormonal changes taking place in your body. Rest assured though, by the time your baby is about a year old your 4c hair should be back to its pre-pregnancy state.

If you are preggers or just had your baby, postpartum shedding may be coming your way soon, Sis. This blog post is just for you.

Arm yourself and you won’t panic when the time comes. If you are currently experiencing it, I got you too Sis.

Keep reading to see what you should avoid and what you should do more of instead to preserve your natural hair and give it the best possible chance of regrowth. 

I am currently going through postpartum shedding and I have experienced it twice before so I have a pretty good understanding and experiential knowledge of what is going on and what to expect.

Hey, I’m no physician but I will share what I have learned over the years and what has worked best for me.

 

Your Natural hair during pregnancy

During pregnancy your hair is thicker and fuller. Your hairline a ten out of ten! 1It is a thin-haired girl’s dream!

That’s because during pregnancy your hormones are doing their thing to grow your baby resulting in amazing benefits for your natural hair as well! Your hair grows faster and sheds less making your tresses look glorious! 

Of course, if you already have naturally thick, full hair this might not be desirable for you. During pregnancy you will have even thicker, fuller hair that may be a pain for you to handle.

But for me, someone with naturally thin, low density hair this was a welcomed change. My hair looked amazing, full, thick…until after pregnancy and postpartum shedding hit!

What is postpartum shedding?

It is one of the after-effects of pregnancy, it is a natural process that is very common. It is a temporary alopecia called Telogen Effluvium caused by the changing hormones in your body during and after pregnancy. 

Although most dermatology textbooks confirm this, the jury is still out among some scholars on whether postpartum shedding is really a thing. In my experience, it is totally a thing!

Without getting too nerdy let me explain the hair growth cycle real quick! Normally i.e. when you are not pregnant, your hair strand goes through a growth cycle consisting of four stages: 

• growing phase. Hair grows for about 2 to 4 years

• transitional phase. Hair growth slows down

• resting phase. Hair stops growing for about 2 to 4 months

• falling out phase. Hair falls out!

But during pregnancy there’s a new balance of hormones that change the growth cycle.

The “growing phase” continues throughout your pregnancy without getting to the resting phase during that period.

Once you give birth, the hormones adjust and go back to normal. This then cues in the next phase which is the resting phase, then shortly after (about 2-4 months) your hair enters the falling out phase.

And because so much hair has entered the resting phase all at once, you will experience a LOT of shedding.

Whereas during the normal cycle you would lose about 100 strands a day, during postpartum shedding you lose about 300 strands a day. Yikes!

When will my hair go back to normal after postpartum shedding?

Your hair will go back to pre-pregnancy state after about a year from your baby’s birth. This has been my experience from my past two pregnancies. 

 And if you are going through postpartum shedding yourself, rest assured that your hair will grow back. So, while we accept the things we cannot change, can we try and prevent them from getting worse?

Just like the previous times, this time too I have started to incorporate practices that help the situation out a bit.

5 things to avoid during postpartum shedding:

Here we go, the 5 things you should avoid during postpartum shedding:

1. Hairstyles that pull your hair up or back

Your hair is already shedding/going to shed, no need to accelerate the process by tugging, pulling or putting any kind of tension on it, especially your hairline. Avoid the high buns and cornrows. 

2. Fidgeting with your hair

Do you often unconsciously find your hands in your hair? You touch, swirl and pull your hair, totally unaware?

It’s known as hand-in-hair-syndrome. Constantly having your hands in your hair will see you pulling out or breaking hair that would be naturally shed at a later stage.

So, try to be mind-full and keep your hands out of your hair.

3. Placing your satin scarf directly on your edges

You may like to tie your satin scarf snuggly in order to make sure it doesn’t slip off while you sleep, and so you should. Tie it snuggly but don’t place it directly on your edges.

Tying it on your hairline causes friction that may lead to breakage and will expedite a receding hairline. To care for my edges I pretty much follow what I did the last time.

4. Applying heat to your natural hair

Applying heat to your 4c hair means drying out all the moisture from it.

Lack of moisture weakens hair by making it brittle which then makes it susceptible to breakage. Breaking hair and shedding hair is a disaster combination!

5. Rough handling

Avoid being rough with your hair. Whenever you manipulate your hair (detangling, washing, moisturising, styling…) be gentle and patient. It will save you many a hair strand! #everystrandmatters

Hair regrowth tips after postpartum shedding

Just because postpartum shedding is inevitable (in a lot of cases) doesn’t mean you should throw caution to the wind.

Yes, you will lose a lot of hair but continue with practices that will help your body produce stronger and healthier hair with the new growth, and practices that promote solid hair retention.

So here are my hair regrowth tips:

1. Continue with your prenatal vitamins

Take your vitamins daily to make sure you get a boost of all the right nutrients for yourself and your baby (if you are breastfeeding). This will be beneficial to your hair as well!

2. Moisturise your hair

Make sure you moisturise and seal in the moisture regularly. Doing this will ensure your hair isn’t dry, brittle and breaking.

Also, be gentle as you do this.

3. Use satin/silk scarf/pillow case

We don’t want all that moisture you’ve added to be absorbed from your hair while you sleep, nope!

Wearing a satin scarf or sleeping on a satin pillow case helps with retaining moisture unlike material such as cotton that absorb moisture.

This will protect your new hair growth and help with length retention.

I repeat. Hair without moisture is dry hair and dry hair is brittle hair. Brittle hair breaks easily. Yup!

4. Detangle gently

Gently detangling helps to avoid the yanking out of hair that would be shed anyway but at a later stage.

It also helps with length retention, especially of the regrowth.

I finger detangle my fine 4c hair, my technique is rather time consuming but it saves my hair strands. Using a product with a lot of slip and creating manageable sections sure does help!

5. Eat healthily

Eating a balanced, healthy diet will help with healthy hair regrowth. It sets you up for quality hair!

6. Scalp massage and exercise

Gently massaging your scalp encourages blood circulation to your scalp, this helps with the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to your hair follicles – perfect for healthy hair growth cycle.

Exercising circulates your blood too and has a great effect on your overall health.

7. Low manipulation hairstyles

These are styles that discourage you from touching your hair too much.

And that’s what you need – less touching. Let the postpartum shedding process run its course without much interference from your hands. 

What styles then? This depends on the length of your hair but I would advise none that add tension to your roots.

My natural hair is in twists most of the time, and I make sure the roots are free from any tension.

At installation, granted, hair goes through a lot/high manipulation but it is a necessity that ensures low manipulation for the next few weeks. 

If you have short hair or TWA, you can just rock your fro! No tension from braiding needed, at least for now.

You may also be tempted to cut your natural hair but that may not be necessary if you can wait it out just a bit; postpartum shedding should be done and your hair back to its pre-pregnancy state at about the time your baby is a year old!

8. Sleep

Make sure you get enough sleep.

I cannot describe how truly wonderful sleep is. It is during sleep that our bodies grow and repair. In fact, melatonin – the sleep cycle regulating hormone increases natural hair growth.

So, while postpartum shedding is inevitable in many cases, sleeping enough will help to produce new healthy hair. Better get those zzzz’s in!!

9. Exercise patience

By the time your little one turns a year old, your hair will be back to its pre-pregnancy state.

Hang in there with the awkward thinning hair with patches, it won’t last too long. It may seem like it.

But in the grand scheme of things, it’s really not that long.

If you are going through postpartum shedding, it’s totally normal.

I know it can be stressful. You are not alone.

And you know what?  It will be over before you know it.

And yes, it totally sucks. But hear this, oestrogen, one of the hormones responsible for all this, also ensured your uterus and placenta could create new blood vessels and transfer nutrients to your baby in utero.

We are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made!!!

Try to avoid the things I’ve suggested you avoid and try to incorporate those I’ve suggest and see how it goes. All the best Mama!

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