Hair Loss While Breastfeeding

During pregnancy, a woman's hair often seems thicker and fuller; it may also grow faster and longer. After pregnancy, many women notice that their hair falls out at a faster rate than usual, leaving them with thinning patches. This is especially true for women with longer hair. However, hair loss and breastfeeding are actually not related at all.

Normal Hair Loss

A healthy woman who is not pregnant will experience normal amounts of hair loss; about 100 hairs a day. According to babycenter.com, during a normal growth cycle approximately 85 to 90 percent of your hair is growing while the rest of it is resting. The resting hair falls out gradually, causing normal amounts of hair loss (especially during washing or brushing).

Pregnancy Hormones

During pregnancy, women have a different hormonal balance than they do normally (they have more estrogen during pregnancy). This causes hair to grow thicker and fuller by increasing the percentage of growing hair and reducing the percentage of resting hair.

Childbirth

During childbirth and shortly afterward, a woman's hormone levels begin to return to normal. This causes all the extra hair that was growing to begin resting, and eventually to fall out.

Hair Loss

The hair that has begun to rest after child birth will start falling out, usually about three months after the baby is born. Since the woman had extra hair growth during pregnancy, she now has extra hair loss. It can last for a few months, but usually within one year of baby's birth the woman's hair growth and loss patterns will return to normal.

Breastfeeding

There is no connection between breastfeeding and hair loss. The reason some women think this is because they usually breast-feed their babies during the time that their hair falls out. This is a coincidence; the two things are not related.