Have you noticed an increase in hair fall in the Fall? For me, the increase in hair loss begins in mid-October and continues until the beginning of December. I joke that I’m so tuned in with nature that my hair cannot help but mirror what the leaves of trees do around this time of the year, they fall. It turns out that the observation is not just a result of my active imagination; research confirms that healthy women lose more hair in the autumn months than any other time of the year.
In a study published in the journal Dermatology in 2009, scientists from Sweden tracked more than 800 healthy women over six years and reported that they lost most hair in the Fall. The study explains that the seasonality of hair loss is linked to the human hair growth cycle. The Swedish researchers say that human hair grows for a period of two to six years. At any given time, 90 percent of our hair is growing and the remaining 10 percent is, in what is called a telogen (resting) phase. The telogen phase lasts for 2 to 6 months before hair starts falling out and growing again. It turns out that the women in the study had the highest proportion of their resting or telogen hair in July. The telogen state ended 100 days later and started falling out in October. After all the telogen hairs fell out, the increased hair fall stopped in the beginning of winter, and a new phase called the Anagen (growing) phase started and the whole process was repeated again.
This is going to be a short post. If you notice increased hair loss in the Fall, please don’t stress. In the autumn months, the light is softer, colors more vivid, and your hair loss, more pronounced. Your hair cycle has a rhythm, just like everything else in the universe.
The Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore said,
“The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures. It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.”
For now, continue to eat foods that nourish your body, be gentle with your hair and surrender to the seasonality of the natural hair growth cycle. New growth is just around the corner.
Sources:
Journal Dermatology; Seasonality of Hair Shedding in Healthy Women Complaining of Hair Loss
Goodreads; Rabindranath Tagore Quotes
