I often hear from people who notice that they are losing hair every time they handle it. In other words, every time they engage in normal maintenance such as shampooing, brushing, combing, or simply pulling their hair back or running their fingers through it, quite a few strands come out as a result.
The truth is, most people don’t pay much attention or take inventory of their hair until something changes with it. People will often notice that they suddenly see a lot of worn strands that they hadn’t noticed before. Usually only then will they begin to wonder how many hairs they would normally lose. For example, if they see a lot of fallen strands on their brush, they might wonder how many there were before. If you run your fingers through your hands and get 4 on that same hand, you’ll wonder what your normal levels were before you saw this change.
After a while, most people realize that they are definitely seeing an increase in what is typical for them and wonder what has changed to make this happen. In the next article, I’ll discuss why you might see increased hair growth when you handle it.
When you lose hair while handling it, it’s usually not the handling that’s the problem: Sometimes I have people ask me if maybe they should change their shampoo, their brush, or the method with which they comb or style their hair. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be gentle on your hair and scalp. But frankly, people who aren’t actively relocating or experiencing hair loss don’t have to worry about how they take care of their hair because it’s not coming out.
A healthy strand that is deeply embedded in your scalp and actively nourished will not be pulled or fall out just because you comb, brush, wash or handle it. Yes, manipulation can cause it to come out at that point, but it is very likely that the thread itself has been put into the shedding phase or is being negatively affected by androgens or some kind of inflammatory reaction. This means that its life cycle was over and it was going to come out at some point anyway. The key to stopping excessive shedding or hair loss often lies not in trying not to manipulate the hair, but in finding out what caused this change in the hair cycle or on the scalp and then addressing it head-on.
Reasons you might be seeing more hair loss than you’re used to: Seeing excess hair coming out during brushing, styling, or washing is often elevated to the level of falling out. There are many possible reasons for this, such as one of the effluvia (telogen or chronic), autoimmune conditions, medical conditions or drug reactions, hormonal changes, or stress. You may also have some shedding with yeast overgrowth or scalp problems or infections. Treatments for this range from topical to medical intervention. But in most cases, keeping your scalp clean and reducing inflammation can help a bit.
Sometimes a person can have aggressive AGA (androgenic alopecia) that may look like shedding or telogen effluvium, but is driven by a reaction or sensitivity to androgens. The scalp is struggling to maintain healthy hair, so hair cycles can shorten or change. Also, with androgen and AGA issues, regrowth is miniaturized, so you are often faced with both hair loss and hair loss and potentially compromised regrowth.
It is normal to lose small amounts of hair when you handle it. Specialists will tell you that it can be normal to lose up to 100 strands a day, depending on how much hair you have to start with and where you are in your hair cycles. But, if you notice that hair is falling out every time you touch or handle it and you feel that this is not normal, then it may make a lot of sense to get it checked out and educated about hair problems. I’m certainly not a doctor or a specialist, but this type of shedding could potentially indicate that you are dealing with a medical or hair problem that could benefit from early intervention.