Natural Remedies for Postpartum Hair Loss

Congratulations! You’ve had a baby. The hardships of pregnancy are over—now onto the difficulties of postpartum. After welcoming your baby into the world, you may experience postpartum hair loss. This may come as a bummer, especially if you experienced the luscious locks that pregnancy sometimes brings. After birth, losing hair (in sometimes large globs) is expected with all the hormonal changes. In this article, we’re diving into postpartum hair loss, why it happens, and natural steps you can take to reduce it.

What causes hair loss after baby?

During pregnancy, your body experiences soaring progesterone and estrogen levels, which allows for thicker, more lustrous hair growth. After birth, hormone levels drop or level out, causing your follicles to go into a resting stage, and after a few months (typically around 3-4 months post-birth), your hair can start falling out in large amounts.

Post-baby, your follicles go into a resting phase, and after a few
months (typically around four months post-birth), your hair can start falling out in large amounts.

Not all women will experience this, and some may experience it after one pregnancy but not another. This condition is formally referred to as postpartum alopecia, and up to 90 percent of women will experience some form of it.

Having a baby is stressful, mentally and physically. It makes sense that we could experience hair loss—as sometimes we often see a form of alopecia happen after illness, traumatic events, or chronic stress.

How much postpartum shedding is normal?

Even if you haven’t had a baby, losing 80 hairs a day is normal! New moms shed about 400 hairs a day. By around six months postpartum (although it is different for everyone), shedding should go back to pre-pregnancy amounts.

How can I stop my hair from falling out after pregnancy?

If you experience postpartum hair loss, it may be completely impossible to avoid hair loss altogether, but there are ways that you can support stress levels and hair health to reduce shedding. Start by giving it some time, and by acknowledging all that your body is going through and how powerful you are! You just birthed a baby!

Natural Remedies for Postpartum Hair Loss

1.Continue to take your prenatal vitamin

I know what you’re thinking—doesn’t prenatal mean before birth? Well, yeah. But the truth is, we need the same vitamins and minerals for nourishment after birth as well. So don’t stop taking your prenatal post-pregnancy. We have a whole guide on the best prenatal supplements and vitamins that you can check out here. Some essential nutrients we talk about are folate, zinc, vitamin C, vitamin D, and omega-3’s.

2. Incorporate nettles into your daily routine

Incorporating a nourishing herb like nettles into your daily routine post pregnancy will help with hair loss. Nettles is an incredible herb for pregnancy and post-pregnancy. It helps to build blood, support adrenals and energy levels, and hair growth. This wild weed floods your body with potent vitamins and minerals, including chlorophyll, iron, magnesium, vitamins B, K, and more. Make a cold, overnight infusion of nettles with about a palm-size of nettles leaf and a quart of water. Drink and enjoy throughout the day. You can even make a nettle’s hair rinse to support growth and scalp health!

3. Support your thyroid

It’s also important to support thyroid function. Pregnancy can change levels of ferritin (a blood cell protein that helps your body store iron), and it can throw your thyroid out of balance. Thyroid problems are super common for up to a year post-baby, so if you experience thyroid-related symptoms, consider getting a thyroid panel done.

We did an entire podcast episode about natural remedies for thyroid support. We talked about the important of supporting your liver, adrenals, and gut to in turn, support your thyroid. We broke down tangible ways to support your liver with selenium rich foods and easy detox tips. We dove into our top tips for supporting adrenals like how to actually get a restful sleep. And we of course went into the best foods to support gut health. Listen to the episode here.

4. Support Blood Sugar Levels

Supporting balanced blood sugar levels is essential for nourishing a happy and healthy scalp. It’s also especially essential for those who are suffering with adrenal fatigue—which most stressed moms are, unknowingly. You can support healthy blood sugar levels by making sure to eat small, balanced meals, consistently throughout the day. A balanced meal looks like having healthy fats and plenty of protein to keep blood sugar from spiking .

5. Hydrate

This one may seem obvious, but sometimes when we become a mom and our world’s are turned upside down, we can forget to drink water. Make hydrating hard to forget with our delicious strawberry kiwi Hydration Superfood Energy powder. It contains powerful electrolytes, B vitamins, and minerals for ultimate nourishment, gentle detoxification, and energy, which I know you could use a little bit of right now.

6. Supplement with Collagen

You may have heard that collagen can improve hair growth and thickness, and you’d be right, if you were talking about ours. Our Beauty Collagen Complex contains clinically-proven collagen for thicker hair making it an incredible support for post-pregnancy hair loss. It also contains folate, biotic, iron, zinc, and potent sources of Vitamin 6 for complete nourishment. Did I mention that it’s vanilla honey flavored? Yup, we wanted to make it easy to enhance beauty from the inside-out.

I hope this article helps you understand postpartum hair loss and gives you some natural remedies for reducing shedding. Tell me about your experience below!