Obviously I'm not the only one with a crew cut at 7 months post-partum:
a friend emailed me to say,
JUST YESTERDAY I was looking in the mirror saying, "What in the WORLD is going on - what are all of those spiky hairs?!?!" I thought maybe I'd pulled a scrunchie too tight (in the front???) and ripped it out and broke off a bunch of hair...but have no memory of any such thing!
But Abbie is 9 months old! I have never noticed this before with any of my other kiddos...I will have to pay attention in the future, that's for sure!
As for now, I feel a bit ridiculous. I mean, it's BIZARRE. Like a really bad bangs-cut-job!!!
Well, thanks for shedding some light on that. If anyone has an explanation for the phenomenon, please do tell!
Here's my understanding. Maybe I'm just making it up as I go, but I'm pretty sure I've read all this somewhere. That's as precise as it gets from a mom of 8 or 9.
Normally, your ovaries produce the normal and necessary amounts of progesterone for your body.
Normally you would be losing 75-100 strands/day and the follicles would remain dormant for a while before a new strand grows. At any given time, most people have about 10% of their hair follicles in a dormant state.
During pregnancy, very little is normal in your body.
During pregnancy, the placenta takes over the production of progesterone and the levels skyrocket since this is primarily a "pregnancy" hormone. You are happy. Progesterone has that effect.
Your ovaries, sensing that they are no longer needed, go dormant.
For some reason, extra high levels of progesterone prevent normal hair loss. Your hair does *not* fall out at the rate of 75-100 strands/day, and your follicles do *not* go dormant. It all grows. Quickly. And keeps growing. Your hair is running at 100% instead of 90% and growing faster than ever.
You're gorgeous.
Then you have the baby. The placenta is gone. Nobody is making progesterone because your ovaries are still sulking over having been snubbed for 9 months.
You have plenty of progesterone left over, so you can coast for a bit - 3 months, maybe more, maybe less. But finally, you run low.
You get moody. You get weepy. Your hair falls out. By the way, this would be a good time to find a tube of progesterone cream at the local health food store. It's not cheap, but your husband will thank you. He might even use it on you when you're sleeping.
I mentioned that your hair is falling out. But it's not at the rate of 75-100 strands/day. Your body abruptly realizes that it forgot to shed for the last year, and it goes to work on catching up. You lose