Hair Growth, Pregnancy and Nursing

[Cascade]

I recently (2 or so months ago) stopped nursing my son and I've spent the last month dealing with a tremendous amount of new hair growth. I've got 1-2" tufts at my temples (all across), my ears, and my neckline. I remember reading somewhere that hair growth often slows during pregnancy, but I didn't think that nursing would also discourage new growth.

What do you think? Anyone notice a lot of new growth after the birth of a child or the end of breastfeeding?

[shella13]

I've never heard that hair growth slows down during pregnancy, but it does shed about half as much as normal. That why many women seem to lose a lot of hair after childbirth -- they aren't really, it's just that all of the hair that would've normally shed is now coming out.

I was really pleased with my hair during all 3 of my pregnancies! So thick & shiny. Not sure about the effects of nursing though since I didn't nurse. Since you have stopped nursing I can imagine that there will be some sort of change due to hormones.

[dlewis]

I would get my hair cut every two weeks when pregnant with both children. My hair grew at such a fast rate during these times. I also nursed both the kids and my hair grew very fast.
After I stopped nursing I had tons of shedding.

[Cascade]

I suppose I should be happy, no shedding here. It stayed normal through all my pregnancies. The only change was an increased oilyness.

Where is this all comming from then? How odd!

[kalysto]

I have been nursing my girl for 13 months now, and just lately have started noticing new growth too. I thought it was due to all the stuff I put up there as I was under the impression feeding increases shedding and such ? I literally have 3 fringes, some is at chin length, some at eyebrow and more wispies starting up. There is some curly cowlick bits sticking out from my temple area also.

Is it all new growth or breakage or a mix ?

[CurlyCare]

Originally Posted by Cascade

I recently (2 or so months ago) stopped nursing my son and I've spent the last month dealing with a tremendous amount of new hair growth. I've got 1-2" tufts at my temples (all across), my ears, and my neckline. I remember reading somewhere that hair growth often slows during pregnancy, but I didn't think that nursing would also discourage new growth.

What do you think? Anyone notice a lot of new growth after the birth of a child or the end of breastfeeding?

Well, if the tufts are 1-2" and we assume an average growth rate of .5" per month, then the new growth started at least 2 months ago, maybe 4. So it might not be connected to the weaning at all. How old is your baby? I ask because it's possible that those fringes are just your new growth post baby. For example, let's say your started that post-partum shed when your baby was 4 months old, and it lasted 3 months, then a bunch of new growth came out when it was over. So you'd have a bunch of new hair that came up when your baby was 7 months old, and would be 2 inches long when he was 11 months old. Now, if it happened that you weaned at 9 months old, you might think the weaning was involved in those wispies (being the more recent event), but really it's still about the post-partum shed that started when he was only 4 months old. If that makes sense.

I haven't heard of weaning being related to hair loss or growth, but it could be. It's also possible that if weaning was abrupt (mom going back to work, or a medical issue with mom or baby, or whatever) your body may have interpreted the end of nursing (or its cause) as a trauma and *that* started a shed. In some sense, any time lactation is stopped quickly, the body has to be convinced that there is suddenly no baby to nurse to stop the breast from doing that job. Now, I don't know if you are in that situation, or if weaning was gradual in your case, and I don't mean to make this a "when and how to wean" thread, but that's one theory that comes to my mind.