Sunday, March 25, 2007

HELP!!! I'm losing it!!!

I was warned both by the books and by my mother that there will be major hair falling post partum but I paid no heed to it. I mistakenly thought since my hair keeps falling anyway prior to pregnancy it won't make much of a diff. Besides, during pregnancy my hair was almost shampoo commercial quality and when I combed my hair not a single one ends up on the floor or the comb. I guess I was lulled into believing that the situation will remain permanent especially when even 2 months after delivery my hair was still in prime condition.


But now, 3 and a half month after baby it has started happening. Its horrendous!!! When I comb my hair, it falls out in clumps, when I wake up in the morning, my whole pillow is full of hair!!! And the floor.... I have to sweep twice a day just so that I can remain sane and not get on my hands and knees to pick up every hair I see. And lets not even mention the shower drain. That's a major chore to clear every single time I take a bath.

Despite all the books I have read that discusses this phenomenon and all the old wives tale I hear from all the makciks, the first day it happened to me, I had visions of myself balding and in need of chemotheraphy (Ok I know its the chemo that causes hair fall but I can't help but associate hair falling with chemo and cancer) Nauzubillah min zalik.

Apparently its called postpartum telogen effluvium and it happens to most women about 3 months after delivery. It seems that its normal to shed about 100 hair a day and during pregnancy since you don't shed much hair due to hormones, at some point those hair will have to be shed anyway to make room for new hair. But must it all fall at the same time??? Uurrgghh !!!

It totally doesn't help either that my boy is at a stage where he is super curious and super active and every so often I find him holding fistfuls of my hair and I frantically try to clear it before he plunges his fingers into his mouth.

I have been told that the situation should clear up within 3 to six months. It is almost guaranteed that by the time my lil' hero is a year I will stop shedding hair like a shaggy dog but that's way to long to suffer, if you ask me. Till then, if I greet you at the door with a shower cap please don't be alarmed. You have been warned!