How Much Hair Is Normal to Lose Per Day?
We like to think that our hair is permanently attached to our head, but this is not entirely true. Each hair goes through its own cycle of growing, waiting, and then falling out. So this explains why you will find hairs in your comb. But how do you know if it’s too much?
Normal amount of hair loss
The typical hair loss is 50 to 100 strands per day , according to the American Academy of Dermatology. We’ll understand if you don’t count them all individually.
Please note that this is an average. If your hair is coarse, frizzy, or tangles easily, it may be that the hair that has fallen out is just hanging off your head, clinging to your friends in those curls or tangles. When you take the time to thoroughly wash or brush, you may find that a lot of hair falls out at once. It’s not because it all fell out on the day of washing, it’s just that you see it falling out for several days at once.
When it can be more and still okay
Aside from your hair care schedule, there are other reasons why more than usual hair loss can be completely normal.
One pregnancy. Usually, less hair falls out during pregnancy than usual, and the hair begins to fall out about two months after the end of the pregnancy. (Hair loss peaks about four months after pregnancy.) You don’t lose all your hair, it just reverts to normal growth patterns thanks to hormonal fluctuations. A similar situation can happen when you stop taking birth control pills.
You may also lose more hair than usual due to stress. According to the AAD, this could include weight loss (greater than 20 pounds), illness, especially if associated with a fever, or recovery from surgery.
When it could be more and signal a problem
Everything we talked about above is considered hair loss. But you are probably here because you are worried about hair loss .
The difference is that in hair loss, each lost hair is quickly replaced by another. Pregnancy and stress can affect the rate at which individual hairs mature and grow, but you will still grow more hair after it falls out.
But there are also medications that can cause hair loss, permanent or temporary. For example, chemotherapy for cancer treatment can interfere with hair growth; hair usually starts to grow back after the treatment ends.
Other medications that may increase your chances of hair loss include retinoids and antidepressants . If you’re losing more hair than you expected and think it may be due to your medication, talk to your doctor about the situation. There are also diseases that can cause hair loss, such as autoimmune alopecia areata .
Hair loss can also be genetic, as in “male pattern baldness” which requires genes, but is also accelerated by high testosterone levels. (Women can get it too, but less often.)
Hairstyles that pull on the hair can damage the hair, causing it to break or fall out, and in the long run, can damage the hair follicles so much that the hair stops growing . If you pull your hair out due to stress or for other reasons (such as plucking your hairline), it can also cause your hair to fall out and not necessarily grow back.