New mom and author Giovanna Fletcher doesn’t exactly seem thrilled with her hair these days. On Tuesday, Fletcher, who gave birth to her son Buddy in February, posted a close-up photo of her head on Instagram that shows tufts of hair sticking straight up. If you've ever given birth, you might know this struggle all too well.
“The regrowth... waaaah!” she captioned the pic. “I look like a troll!” Apparently Fletcher isn’t the only new mom who has gone through this: The photo has been liked nearly 15,000 times to date, and fellow moms sympathized in the comments.
“I feel your pain. Two years on and still have this,” one wrote. “I called them ‘my wings’ as they were growing out,” said another. One even said she thought it was just her: “I’ve had this problem since my daughter was born and thought something was really wrong with my hair,” she said. “I feel so relieved I’m not on my own!” The resounding chorus in the comments proves she's absolutely not the only mom to deal with this—Fletcher's upload clearly struck a chord. Check out the post below.
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Maureen Whelihan, M.D., an ob/gyn at the Center for Sexual Health & Education, tells SELF that these hair tufts are just new hair growing in areas where it had fallen out due to pregnancy and childbirth. Michael Cackovic, M.D., an ob/gyn at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, agrees that this is totally normal. "Pregnancy hormonal effects cause both an increase and a decrease in hair growth," he tells SELF.
During pregnancy, there is generally an increase in hair and nail growth due to increases in hormones like estrogen and progesterone, Whelihan explains. But after you give birth, your hormone levels drop. Couple that with the stress of caring for a newborn and the sleeplessness that often accompanies it, and women often see some significant hair loss, Whelihan says.
Your hair can also appear to be thicker or denser when you're pregnant due to slowing of the normal progression of hairs from anagen (the "growing" stage) to telogen (the "resting" stage), Cackovic says, which creates an increase of hair in that growing phase. One to five months after you give birth, however, the percentage of hairs in the resting stage increases. "Hair loss is common at this time, and scalp hair may become thin," Cackovic says.
So when women see these “tufts,” they’re really just seeing their hair grow back in areas where they’ve lost it, Whelihan explains. If you're dealing with this and it bothers you, Whelihan recommends simply using gel or mousse to help keep things in place.
Hair transplant surgeon Ken L. Williams Jr., a fellow of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery, founder of Orange County Hair Restoration, and author of Hair Transplant 360, tells SELF that hair grows at an average of half an inch a month, so this kind of thing will typically resolve itself once those hairs get long enough to blend in with the rest of your mane. According to Cackovic, a woman's hair typically goes back to normal within 15 months after she's had a baby.
So, luckily, this isn’t a forever thing. Unless you’re doing other things that can damage your hair (like over-processing it or pulling it into tight styles), Whelihan says your locks will eventually go back to normal. You just may have to wait a bit.
Related:
- 10 Common Causes Of Hair Loss In Women
- This Woman Started Balding Because Of Her Too-Tight Buns
- This Model Is Embracing Her Alopecia—And Showing Off An Amazing Wig In The Process
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