Hair loss comes in various forms. Some are permanent, while others are temporary. Some are severe, while others are mild. What determines the type of hair loss is its cause. The various causes of hair loss include genetics, lifestyle, health conditions, hormonal imbalances, medications, and trauma.
Today we will look at a particular kind of hair loss called telogen effluvium hair loss, a temporary form of hair loss caused by stress. You may be affected by this kind of hair loss if you’ve recently undergone a traumatizing experience such as the death of a loved one or childbirth that causes hormonal imbalance. To understand more about telogen effluvium type of hair loss, continue reading this post.
What is Telogen Effluvium?
The human body is designed in a peculiar way where it reacts when it undergoes both physical, emotional, and psychological distress. Those reactions are shading of hair, thinning hair, or hair loss. Telogen effluvium hair loss is a form of hair loss that is stress-related. This means that it usually occurs when the body undergoes physical, emotional, or physiological distress. If you are diagnosed with this type of hair loss, you should know that it will disappear once the stressors are resolved. This means that telogen effluvium is not a permanent type of hair loss.
Telogen effluvium is a temporal hair loss that takes several months to resolve itself without any telogen effluvium treatment. Hair rolls start growing normally once stress subsides. It usually takes about 3 to 6 months to resolve itself.
Signs and Symptoms of Telogen Effluvium Hair Loss
Hair loss is among the obvious symptoms of telogen effluvium that you will not miss. We usually lose about 50 to 100 hair strands per day in normal conditions. However, when a person is affected by stress-related hair loss, shedding hair will increase tremendously. After a traumatic event, it will take about three or four months for you to start losing hair. If you are affected by telogen effluvium hair loss, you will notice some significant hair loss. The number of strands that you will lose daily will increase three folds. This means that if you were losing 100 hair strands per day, it would increase to 300.
Other symptoms of effluvium hair loss include scalp tenderness and itchiness. It is not easy to notice signs of TE hair loss, but when it develops, you will experience trichodynia, which refers to the altered sensation in the scalp. Other symptoms may be psychological rather than physical, which includes low self-esteem.
Some of the things that you need to know when experiencing this type of hair loss include:
- It becomes fragile when hair gets wet; therefore, you need to be gentle when washing and drying your hair.
- Styling your hair with hairstyles such as braids or tight ponytails will pull out your hair, causing more hair strands to fall out.
- Hair follicles get irritated when you scratch your scalp, which forces more hair strands to fall out.
When you realize that you are suffering from telogen effluvium form of hair loss, you need to seek medical attention. Consult your dermatologist or hair specialist to get quick and effective telogen effluvium treatment. This will protect your hair from irreversible damage.
Conclusion
If you discover that you are losing a significant amount of hair every day, you need to consult your doctor to make a proper diagnosis. Remember, there are several kinds of hair loss, and finding its cause will ensure that you get effective and proper treatment. Failure to get proper diagnosis and treatment may result in permanent scalp damage that may be irreversible.
