Hair loss that’s just started: the 6-month mark

For a few weeks now, there’s been hair everywhere. In the shower drain, on the pillow, on your jumper. You haven’t changed anything in your routine, and yet more is falling out than before. The question comes quickly: will it stop, or is this the start of something that lasts?

Shedding that starts suddenly, all over the scalp, is usually temporary: it generally gets better on its own, without treatment². Dermatologists call it telogen effluvium. But pattern hair loss can start at the same time, and the first few months are exactly what helps tell them apart.

Look three months back

It all comes down to the hair cycle. Each hair grows for years, rests, then falls out to make way for a new one. Normally, about 15% of hairs are resting. During telogen effluvium, that share rises to 30% or more². A shock to the body pushes lots of hairs into the resting phase at once. They stay put for a few weeks, then fall out together.

Hence the delay that confuses everyone. Shedding starts two to three months after the triggering event, according to the French Society of Dermatology¹. By the day you notice hair in your brush, the cause is well behind you.

The most common triggers, according to the British Association of Dermatologists²:

• childbirth;
• severe illness or trauma, especially with a high fever;
• surgery;
• a very stressful life event;
• marked weight loss or extreme dieting;
• a severe skin problem on the scalp;
• starting a new medicine, or stopping a hormone treatment such as the contraceptive pill.

Get a calendar and count back three months. Something often stands out. Not always: for one person in three, no cause is found².

The six-month mark

Temporary shedding has an end. The shedding phase usually lasts 3 to 6 months, then new hair starts to grow. Getting your old volume back takes several more months², because a hair starting from scratch takes time to show. The American Academy of Dermatology puts the return to normal fullness at 6 to 9 months in most cases⁴.

Once shedding has gone on for more than six months, dermatologists call it chronic telogen effluvium². That’s not a verdict. It means the shedding is no longer behaving like a one-off episode, and it’s worth finding out why. DermNet describes shedding that carries on in phases, sometimes for years, without leading to complete baldness³.

A 1996 American study described 355 people with this kind of long-running shedding, almost all women, mostly aged 30 to 60. It started suddenly, with or without a known trigger, then came and went over a long period⁵.

Temporary or lasting: how to tell

The other possibility is hereditary hair loss, or androgenetic alopecia. It works differently. In telogen effluvium, the hair falls out, then a new one grows back². In androgenetic alopecia, follicles produce thinner and thinner hairs, described as “miniaturised”. The same 1996 study measured this under the microscope, on small scalp samples⁵.

On the head, they also look different. Telogen effluvium affects the whole scalp: you lose volume everywhere, without patches². In men, pattern hair loss starts at the temples and the crown. In women, it mainly thins the middle of the scalp and spares the front hairline¹; it’s one of the most common causes of hair loss in women.

The two can also overlap. The AAD points out that you can have temporary shedding and lasting hair loss at the same time⁴. DermNet adds that telogen effluvium can unmask a genetic tendency that had gone unnoticed, and that recovery is sometimes incomplete³.

What people who’ve been through it say

On an English-language hair loss forum, several members described shedding after losing weight quickly⁶.

Testimonials published on the HairLossTalk forum⁶.

The timeline matches the dermatologists’ one: a diet, a few quiet months, then the shedding. The last account also shows both possible outcomes in a single story: shedding that stops, and volume that doesn’t fully return.

What to watch in the first months

There’s no point counting your hairs: losing 50 to 100 a day is normal¹, and one day’s figure tells you nothing. Four things matter more.

• The pace from one month to the next: temporary shedding eventually slows down.
• Where it happens: all over the scalp, or mainly at the part, the temples, the crown.
• Short hairs: a fringe of short, fine hairs along the hairline is often the first sign of regrowth³.
• Your scalp: telogen effluvium sometimes comes with tenderness or unusual sensations², but not with bald patches.

No need to try to speed up regrowth either: according to British dermatologists, taking medication doesn’t make it happen faster². On the other hand, an ongoing cause such as low iron can bring the shedding back if it isn’t treated².

When to see a doctor

The doctor will look at your scalp, ask what happened in the months before, and may gently pull a lock of hair to see how many come out. Avoid washing your hair in the two days before: if it was washed within 48 hours, this test can look normal when it isn’t². To see what gets checked first, read the causes doctors look for when hair falls out suddenly. If it turns out to be pattern hair loss, your doctor can suggest a treatment.

Take photos from the start

When shedding has only just started, you have an advantage you won’t get back: your scalp still looks almost the way it did before. Photos taken now will answer, six months from now, the question you’re asking today.

With Calvap, you take the same photo every week, guided by a ghost of last week’s photo, on the areas that matter here: your part, crown, temples, and hairline, where regrowth shows first. You log in the journal when the shedding started and what happened in the months before. At the six-month mark, you compare week 1 with week 26: you see whether the shedding has calmed down, whether the short hairs are there, whether your part has changed. And if you do see a doctor, they get a dated timeline instead of a memory.