I often hear from folks who notice that they are losing hair every time they manipulate it. In other words, any time they are participating in normal maintenance like shampooing, brushing, combing, or just pulling their hair back or running their fingers through it, quite a bit of strands come out as the result.
The truth is, most people don’t pay all that much attention or take inventory of their hair until something changes with it. Usually, people will notice that suddenly, they’re seeing a lot of spent strands that they’ve not noticed before. It’s typically only then will they begin to ask themselves how many hairs they would typically lose. For example, if they’re seeing a bunch of fallen strands in their brush, they might wonder how many were there before. Of, if they run their fingers through their hands and come away with 4 in that same hand, they’ll wonder what their normal levels were before they saw this change.
After a while, most people realize that they’re definitely seeing is an increase in what is typical for them and they wonder what has changed to make this happen. In the following article, I’ll discuss why you might be seeing an increase of hair coming out when you manipulate it.
When You’re Loosing Hair While Manipulating It, It’s Usually Not The Manipulation That’s The Problem: Sometimes, I have people who ask me if perhaps they should change shampoos, brushes, or the method with which they put up or style their hair. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be gentle to your hair and scalp. But frankly, people who aren’t actively shedding or having hair loss don’t really have to worry about how they care for their hair because their’s isn’t coming out.
A healthy strand which is deeply embedded in your scalp and being actively nourished is not going to pull or fall out just because you comb, brush, wash, or manipulate it. Yes, the manipulation can make it come out at that time, but it’s highly likely that the same strand was either put in the shedding phase or is being negatively affected by androgens or some sort of inflammatory reaction. This means that it’s life cycle was over and it was going to come out at some point anyway. The key to stopping the excess hair loss or shedding often lies not in trying not to manipulate your hair, but in figuring out what caused this change in your hair cycle or scalp and then addressing that head on.
Reasons Why You Might Be Seeing More Hair Fall Than What You’re Used To: Seeing excess hair coming out during brushing, styling or washing often rises to the level of shedding. There are many possible reasons for this such as one of the effluviums (telogen or chronic,) autoimmune conditions, medical conditions, or reactions to medications, hormonal changes, or stress. You can also have some shedding with yeast overgrowth or scalp issues or infections. The treatments for this range from time to topicals to medical intervention. But in most cases, keeping the scalp clean and keeping inflammation down can help some.
Sometimes, a person can have aggressive AGA (androgenic alopecia) that can look like shedding or telogen effluvium but it is driven by a reaction or sensitivity to androgens. The scalp is struggling to support healthy hair so the hair cycles can shorten or change. Additionally with androgen issues and AGA, the regrowth is miniaturized so you’re often dealing with both hair loss and shedding as well as eventual compromised regrowth.
It’s normal to lose small amounts of hair when you manipulate it. Specialists will tell you that it can be normal to loose up to 100 strands per day depending on how much hair you start with and where you are in your hair cycles. But, if you’re noticing shed hairs every time you touch or manipulate it and you have the feeling that this isn’t normal, then it can make a lot of sense to have it checked out and educate yourself about hair issues. I’m certainly not a doctor or specialist, but this type of shedding could be potentially indicate that you’re dealing with a hair or medical issue that could benefit from early intervention.