It didn’t take long for this now-viral video to explode across the Internet after it was first shared on Instagram by Christina Kreitel, a hairstylist at Intrepid Studio Salon in Orem, Utah. In the video, Krietel’s client is a woman suffering from postpartum hair loss. Keitel pulls her hair gently and clumps of hair fall easily from the woman’s scalp.
"Nothing like that Post Pregnancy Shed," Kreitel writes in the post. "You know the time, 4 months postpartum and you FILL that drain!"
In an interview with Yahoo Style, Kreitel explains that she has developed a reputation at her salon for helping postpartum mothers shed their loose strands as she, too, has been experiencing hair loss after recently giving birth. "I'm going through this myself and like to collect it on the wall of my shower," the hairstylist says.
So, how common is the so-called “post-pregnancy shed”? While the amount can vary between women, hair loss after childbirth effects many new mums, Doctor Joshua Klein told Health.
"Telogen effluvium, which is the technical term, is a known direct result of the hormone fluctuations that occur in the postpartum period," he says. "This video is a dramatic example of the phenomenon. For most women, it is not nearly this dramatic."
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Plenty of other mums shared their experiences with postpartum hair loss in the videos comments.
"Oh man. Soooo relatable. Traumatic!" wrote one.
"Right there with you. At 5.5 months I probably could have made a family of hair dolls," commented another.
"During my pregnancy I had full luscious hair but after baby came my hair started to fall out like crazy. I literally had bald spots but after the 3rd to 4th month my hair came back slowly," another said.
But telogen effluvium doesn’t just occur in women after childbirth but can also arise from other types of “shock” to a person’s system. For many women, it can occur when they stop taking birth control pills, undergo major surgery or following a chronic illness.
While there isn’t much that can be done to prevent telogen effluvium, there is a silver lining: your scalp should return to normal within a few months.
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