An unfortunate, but normal, part of postpartum recovery is the extreme hair loss. One minute you’re feeling glorious with your thick, luxuriously long hair, and the next you’re pulling out wads of strands by the handful from your scalp.
The torment doesn’t end with the hair falling out either. The bald spots you’re left with and the spikey, awkward, bang-like pieces when all those new hairs are regrowing are rather unsightly too.

Why does your hair fall out?
During pregnancy, the hormones (estrogen) in your body cause your hair to become so thick and full. Not because the strands are getting thicker, but because the hairs are growing for a longer period of time and not falling out. So you could go months without losing any hair, whereas before pregnancy, you would naturally lose around 80-100 hairs a day.
During pregnancy you don’t lose any. While your body is busy growing your baby, it’s also keeping all your hair intact. This is why your hair feels thicker and fuller than usual.
I know you wish your hair could stay that gorgeous forever, but it’s just not the case. A few months after childbirth and once the hormones return to a normal level, you will start to lose all that hair that you kept.
The hair loss starts around 3-5 months postpartum and the bulk of it lasts about 3-4 months. I thought I was one of the lucky ones when my hair didn’t immediately start to fall out after childbirth. However, I soon realized that it doesn’t happen right away and it occurs a couple months later.
It will grow back
The good news is that although it seems like you’re losing ALL your hair, you’re really just losing all the hair that normally would have fallen out during the 9 months of pregnancy, but stayed in. It’s just playing catch up!
During postpartum, you can lose an average of 400 hairs a day which is about 4x the amount of usual, everyday hair loss! So don’t worry, you will not be left with less hair than you started with! However, it does all fall out at once leaving you with some unsightly patches of baldness.
Not only are the bald patches annoying, but it grows back awkwardly too! Once those hairs around your forehead and hairline start growing in, you have these short little baby hairs/bangs. They seem to be covered up pretty well when my hair is down, but in a pony, they are very apparent.

Although this hair loss is totally normal and you’re not going bald forever, it’s a little depressing. Good thing there are some solutions that can help!
Covering up the baldness
Now that it’s the summer, I am wearing my hair up a lot for working out and hot beach days. This is when I really started to notice the bald spots that are left from handfuls of hair loss. It seems to be the worst right around my hair line (so the perfect spot to be seen when my hair is in a pony).

These are photos from both sides at 7 months postpartum. Looks rough right? I found a quick solution to cover up those small bald spots after so much of my hair has fallen out.
The solution: Touch Up Powder!
If you notice the same balding spots on your hairline as I do, this is a fantastic way to cover it up. Clairol Root Touch Up blends right in to your natural hair color to disguise those bald spots. Check out my before and after:
Before After
It’s really so simple to use and just takes a minute to apply. I used the dark brown because my roots are very dark. You can also just use eye shadow that is the same color as your roots and it will produce similar results. You just brush the powder over your hair and scalp in that location and it covers it up perfectly!
I’m so grateful that I found Clairol’s Root Touch Up Powder because it makes me feel more confident when wearing my hair up. I never noticed any patches of thinning hair before pregnancy, but am hoping within a few months, my hair returns to normal!
Before After
*I was not paid by this brand, nor did I receive any promotional products. Just genuinely happy with the results and wanted to share my experience with other mamas who are going through the same thing!
More hair growth tips
It’s totally natural to lose your hair after you’ve given birth and you’re not going to be able to prevent it from falling out at all. However, here are a couple more ideas to get your hair growing back as quickly and healthy as possible.
Postnatal Vitamins or Biotin
If you’re still breastfeeding, you should have continued to take prenatal or postnatal vitamins after childbirth to provide adequate nutrition for your baby. However, these vitamins also contain important vitamins and minerals for you to replenish some of those nutrients that you lost during pregnancy and childbirth.
Did you know it can take from 6 months to 1 year for a woman’s body to completely return to the state she was at before pregnancy? All those vitamins and minerals that were in your body were lost while providing for the growing fetus inside you.
Therefore, whether or not you are breastfeeding or formula feeding, you should be taking a postnatal vitamin to restore all those vitamins that you lost. These postnatal multivitamins contain vital nutrients that will aid in hair regrowth, such as biotin, zinc, iron, and vitamins a, b, c, d, & e.
This is a great read about the Postnatal Depletion that women experience after childbirth and why moms can seem so run down and emotionally and physically drained.
Use a gentle, wide-tooth comb
You want to avoid tugging and yanking knotty hair because it can rip more hair right out of your head that may not have otherwise fallen out. Use a wide tooth comb when combing wet or knotted hair, instead of bristles or fine toothed combs.
Castor oil
Castor oil has been known to help hair regrow. It is rich in Vitamin E and Omega-6 which are vital nutrients for hair health. You can rub the oil into your roots to help in the process. Read more about using castor oil for hair regrowth.
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Postpartum hairless can be scary and frustrating, but trust me, it does slow down! By the time your baby is around 6-7 months, you should notice a drastic decrease in the amount of hair that you lose everyday.
Marissa is a Pediatric Occupational Therapist turned stay-at-home mom who loves sharing her tips, tricks, and ideas for navigating motherhood. Her days are filled starting tickle wars and dance parties with three energetic toddlers and wondering how long she can leave the house a mess until her husband notices. When she doesn’t have her hands full of children, she enjoys a glass (or 3) of wine, reality tv, and country music. In addition to blogging about all things motherhood, she sells printables on Etsy and has another website, teachinglittles.com, for kid’s activity ideas.