I get this question, or variations on it, quite a bit. People often ask me about abrupt and dramatic hair loss that is most often noticeable when you wash your hair, comb it, or run your fingers thought it. This can be quite obvious, especially when you come away with a bunch of hairs in your hands. People often ask me why this happens seemingly out of the blue in people who otherwise seem to be healthy. I will go over a few of the most common reasons for this occurrence in the following article.
Is The Hair Breaking Or Coming Out At The Root?: This is an important distinction. If your hair is dry, brittle, or breaking, the cause of your issues are going to be much different than if the hair is falling out at the root. Hair that is breaking can sometimes be happen due to harsh chemical procedures (coloring, relaxing, pulling, etc.) It can also be due to vitamin deficiencies or malnutrition. Reactions to products are also possibilities. You’ll often see dry and unhealthy looking hair. These things are less likely if the hair is coming out at the root.
Take a look at a few of the spent hairs and see if there is either a white or a black tip at the end (which is the root ball.) If this is the case, you’re dealing with fall out rather than breakage. Usually with breakage or splitting, the hair will be much shorter in length also.
Telogen Effluvium And Dramatic Shedding: Without a doubt, shedding that gets to such a high level that you see it coming out in your hands could potentially be telogen effluvium (or TE.) This occurs when, for whatever reason, your body decides that in order to conserve it’s reserves, it will reset your hair follicles so that it does not have to support growing hair. This can happen if your body perceives that you are ill, under stress, or need to preserve your body’s reserves. Common scenarios where this will happen are during hormonal changes like pregnancy or changing contraceptive methods, illness or severe stress, or adding something new into your body and / or taking something away (like daily medications.)
This also happens seasonally for some people. It is the same scenario where many hair follicles reset at once. Normally, you will have ten percent or less of your follicles in the shedding phase. But with telogen effluvium or TE, this equation changes so that many more than the typical ten percent come into play. Now, although it may well feel like it, not every hair on your head has changed cycles. And often, your body will right itself eventually and usually, within some weeks or months, those same hairs are going to return to the growing cycle and you will have a more normal experience. Eventually, the hair in the hands issue should get better, at least if you are dealing with TE. Sometimes though, this condition turns into the chronic variety and things can last a bit longer or be harder to address.
Autoimmune Disorders, Allergic Reactions, Problems With The Scalp: While TE is the most common cause of seeing hair come out in your hands, there are other causes that can also be culprits. These are autoimmune conditions like lupus, Hashimoto’s thyroid disease, and alopecia areata. Also, sometimes, the scalp is having difficulty supporting and sustaining healthy hair and follicles. This could be due to severe allergic reactions to products or dermatological issues of the scalp. You can often inspect your scalp to see if there are any noticeable or troublesome changes. But, for the most part, these issues need to be evaluated by a doctor (usually a dermatologist) while seasonal shedding will usually just run it’s course on it’s own.
Aggressive Genetic Hair Loss: When this sort of hair loss happened to me, I would often read that AGA (genetic hair loss or androgenic alopecia) often does not present with shedding or hair loss so aggressive that you would see hair in your hands. My research, experience, and interaction with others who were in the same boat has indicated, at least to me, that this is not always the case. There are cases of AGA or genetic hair loss that can come on all of a sudden and can be quite aggressive with a lot of hair falling out in a very short amount of time. Everyone’s experience is different. So, if the shedding does not resolve itself on it’s own within a few weeks or so, this is another potential cause that you may want to consider.