What is Postpartum Hair?

Pregnancy is a magical period of time.

Your body actually grows another human with their own DNA, personality and bright future. For nine months, you have two (or more, with multiples!) hearts beating in harmony within your body. Every action you make can impact this vulnerable creature. Your body changes drastically, which is both beautiful and challenging. Your hair grows thick and shiny. Your skin sometimes looks better than ever, but sometimes teenage-like acne makes an unwelcome return. Labour and delivery are the hardest physical activities you’ve ever dreamed of doing. The pain you endure, whether vaginally or by Caesarean, are unrivaled. Your beautiful, perfect angel arrives in your arms and your heart is suddenly beating outside of your body. This extension of you becomes more important than your own comfort or your own life. 

And you may not have noticed right away, but your hair starts to change again. It falls out, seemingly, in clumps. It’s dull, tangled and matted. Your curls fall limp your previously straight hair grows frizzy and in a texture you’ve never felt before. You find bald patches along your temples. And this happens for months. Time passes, and one day you notice a cowlick on the top of your head that you never had before. Suddenly, you have sideburns. 

And you don’t know what to do.

Sound familiar, fellow mamas? A lot of this happened to me too. In addition, my scalp psoriasis flared up so badly that I couldn’t wear black. I probably had dandruff and dry scalp too, but the psoriasis masked it. This is how I found the Curly Girl Method. I wanted to shave my head and start over, but a lovely mom from one of my online mom groups suggested CGM. If this was suggested to me at any other time of my life, I would have scoffed and laughed it off. But I was desperate. 

So, here’s the nitty gritty on postpartum hair loss and hair changes, and how the CGM can help offset some of that damage and give you renewed confidence with your hair. Even if you end up wearing your hair in a pineapple or messy bun or half done ponytail because, well, mom life, your hair WILL benefit. It WILL get healthier. The tangled and matted mess will be easier to detangle and stay that way for longer. The new growth will be healthy and manageable. And you can minimize wonky scalp issues.

What is postpartum hair, anyways?

During pregnancy, our hormones work in overdrive, changing our body chemistry to redirect nutrients to growing a baby. They ensure that the body holds onto anything and everything that will benefit the growing fetus, including our hair. 

On a normal (non pregnant day), we lose about 100 hairs a day. Curly hair tends to hang onto the fallen hair after it leaves the scalp, because the texture of curls and waves can act as a net for shedding. So, during pregnancy, the scalp holds onto more hair, because it’s holding onto everything. The hairs that would normally shed stay attached. Hair is thick and beautiful and shiny. Pregnancy can be awesome for your hair.

But one to six months after the baby is born (for me it was about two-three months), something changes. The hormones start to even out. And by “even out,” I mean, they plummet, crash and burn. And with that hormonal drop, all of a sudden, the hair on our heads finally get a message that they’ve overstayed their welcome, and they drop. Nine months of hormones dictating those 100 hairs a day to stay put come to an end. And as the hair starts to shed, come the tangles. The matting. The bald patches. It can be an actual living nightmare for a lot of people, including one of my best friends, whose postpartum hair seemed to all drop at the same time, leaving her with hair so matted that she had to chop it off. 

Eventually, the hormones will even out, but it can take up to two years post babe to do so. And in this time, your hair will start to grow back and you may sense that there are sudden chunks of new growth, increased frizz and even texture changes. Straight hair can back curly. Curly hair can back straight. 

Having babies is a beautiful thing. But it can seriously mess up our bodies!

So, how can the Curly Girl Method help me?

The Curly Girl Method isn’t just a way to wash and condition and style our hair to repair heat damage and optimize curls. It can bring moisture back to thirsty and hormonally tormented post pregnancy hair. 

Here are a few tips on how some aspects of the CGM can especially help your post partum hair, even if you don’t have curly hair:

1. Deep condition once a week to add moisture to your dry and wily curls. This will help the curls from tangling together as dry hair tends to stick together in unforgiving ways. 
2. Scrub your scalp well in the cleaning process, whether you cowash or use sulfate free cleansers (low/no poos), to avoid build up on your scalp. Build up of dead skin cells and/or product remnants can suffocate the hair follicles, hindering healthy growth. By scrubbing well while cleaning, you’re helping your scalp breathe and be able to produce healthier hair.
3. Scalp massages to increase blood flow to the scalp. Try it for five minutes in the morning or before bed. Rub your fingers in circles all over your scalp, or get a scalp massager contraption to ease the effort. By stimulating blood flow, more oxygen and nutrients are being distributed to your scalp to once again promote healthy growth. 
4. Use essential oil or a premade hair oil while massaging your scalp. Hair oils have ingredients that clean tribute to healthy scalp. Rosemary, lavender, eucalyptus and peppermint are excellent for hair growth. Combine them with a carrier oil such as jojoba, almond, olive, or coconut to distribute safely to your scalp, then massage before washing your hair. 
5. Protect your curls from tangling overnight by sleeping with a buff , pineapple, or silk or satin pillowcase - or a combination of these.
6. Finger coil / finger curl limp strands of hair.
7. Resist the temptation to chop, but get a trim. You may feel desperate to get rid of a lot of the tangled ends, but you may regret it. Trim an inch and try the CGM first.
8. Dietary supplements such as Omega 3, biotin and prenatal vitamins help keep nutrients in you and promote healthy hair - and nail - growth.
9. Add tea to your hair! Green tea, black tea and peppermint tea all have different compounds that help provide moisture, shine and healthy scalp and hair growth. 
10. Live healthily! Eat wholesome foods, drink lots of water, exercise. And as tough as this is, try to get quality sleep when you can (easier said than done, I know!) but if your overall health is in good shape, your hair will follow suit.

What are your tips for turning postpartum hair around? Let me know in the comments!