Hair Shedding: How Much Is Normal?

Frustrated when you keep finding random strands of hair everywhere? 

In your clothes, on your bed, and most especially in the shower after wash day.

The average person sheds between50-100 hairs per day and most people have at least 100,000 follicles of hair.  But when the shedding becomes significant, it is possible that there could be an underlying problem.

The growth of hair may seem like a straightforward process, but the cycle of hair growth is actually made up of four different phases. These hair growth stages have been studied in detail to better understand how we grow hair and what might be done to avoid and prevent the premature loss of hair.

The first three stages of the hair growth cycle are anagen, catagen, and telogen. These stages cover the maturation of hair and the activity of hair follicles that produce each individual hair. The growth phase, or anagen phase, lasts an average of 3-5 years. The catagen stage is a shorter transitional stage that usually lasts around 10 days, while the telogen stage is a resting period lasting around 3 months. During exogen, or the final stage, “old” hair sheds and usually new hair is getting ready to take its place. Each stage works on its own timeline, which are affected by age, nutrition, and overall health.

If you notice that your hair is beginning to thin out at the top of your head, then we recommend that you make an appointment with a dermatologist. There may be an underlying medical reason for the thinning. Some women experience female pattern baldness/hair loss, which may need topical treatments only prescribed by a dermatologist. 

Some additional reasons why people might be experiencing hair loss are:

• Stress/Illness: In an Allure article titled, “You're Not Imagining It: The Pandemic Is Triggering Stress-Induced Hair Loss”, beauty editorJolene Edgar  lists this as one of the major reasons why hair can start to fall out and invited several women to speak on their experiences relating to stress and hair loss. A number of them experienced hair loss that can be attributed to the overwhelming stress due to the pandemic and the sudden change of lifestyle that it brought. And others even lost some hair as a result of catching the COVID-19 virus and the amount of stress that it put on their body. 

• Change in diet: A drastic change in diet could contribute to hair loss as well. For example, when our diet is deficient in nutrients or when someone suddenly loses a lot of weight, they’ll usually experience more shedding than is considered normal.

• Hormonal changes: Hormonal changes can throw our hair and scalp off balance. For example, women with thyroid imbalances, new mothers, or women going through menopause may experience hair loss due to a drop in estrogen levels. The androgen hormones like testosterone or DHEA are also major hormones that dictate a lot of our hair growth.

In the beginning it might be hard to distinguish between hair shedding and hair loss but the important thing to note is that when hair sheds, it grows back. So, if you are losing more hair and not seeing growth, then you might need to consult your dermatologist so you can find the root of the problem. 

Do you have any hair shedding concerns? Let us know in the comments.

About Uhai

Uhai is a line of versatile hair care products infused with high quality African ingredients such as superfood baobab, coconut oil and shea butter and designed to revive the hair and scalp.  The products are award winning (the Oil Blend won the Allure Best in Beauty Award) and have received recognition from Beauty Editors from leading publications including Allure, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, the LA Times, Harper’s Bazaar etc. Uhai Hair is available globally in the United States, Liberia, Kenya, Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire.

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