You have been asking for more medical dermatology content! We see patients for many skin, hair and nail concerns, but hair loss is up there with the most common things our patients ask us about.

Telogen effluvium in particular is a type of hair ‘loss’ that some of you may have experienced. We put ‘loss’ in quotations, because this isn’t a true hair loss, but more of an increased shedding. The typical pattern is that a few months following a stressful event to your body {childbirth, extreme dieting, surgery, illness, injury, a new medicine, or just plain emotional stress}, more hairs start to shed than your usual balance.

It’s normal to shed hairs every day; this condition is where more hairs move into that shedding cycle and you begin to shed excessively. Once the stressful initiating incident has passed, telogen effluvium usually resolves on its own within six months – though sometimes we do a workup sooner than that to make sure we’re catching vitamin deficiencies or other factors that may be contributing to the shedding.

Interesting, right? The hair cycle is so cool and tells us so much about what is happening inside your body! We see patients for hair loss every day, so don’t hesitate to set up an appointment you have concerns.