When I was pregnant with my first child, I looked forward to what I’d heard about pregnancy and hair. I started my prenatal vitamins and kept my fingers crossed for the rich, shiny hair I’d heard some women got during pregnancy. I’ve always had thin hair so I thought this might be one side benefit of pregnancy.

Boy was I ever in for a surprise. About two months into pregnancy, my hair started falling out in clumps. I had to clean out the drain every day. Everywhere I went, I shed hair. It wasn’t long before I had bald spots that I tried to hide with creative styling. It didn’t work. I talked to the doctor who said, as long as the hair was falling out by the root, it was likely hormone related and would go away.

If you look carefully, you can see bald spots.

I thought hair was supposed to fall out after the baby was born! By the time I was in the third trimester, my hair stylist estimated that I’d lost a third of my hair. Some did grow back after I had the baby, but I still did not have as much as I did before pregnancy. I knew I was pregnant again when I started shedding like long-haired cat in springtime. Once again, I was dealing with sparse, stringy hair.

After my daughter was born, I went to see a dermatologist. He told me what happened isn’t uncommon and showed me how far back my hairline had receded. That did not make me happy. Apparently, this happens to lots of women, especially as they reach their late 30s and have had children. Hormones are from hell sometimes. He recommended the use of Rogaine Foam for Men. It helped a little. I don’t use it enough due to the cost but I’m supposed to use it twice a day, every day.

Today, my youngest child is four. I still do not have nearly as much hair as I did before I had children. I have been working with my hair stylist to find products to help regrow my hair. It is starting to grow back a little since I have been using a new shampoo and conditioner called Joico Clinicure which is fairly low-cost.

I’ve noticed that lower-cost hair loss products for women are becoming much more popular. Garnier just introduced a shampoo and conditioner to prevent hair loss. Revlon has a product as well. Of course, there are many, many high-cost products as well but I personally can’t afford to drop $50 on a bottle of shampoo. I think that my hair is growing a bit. I have an “Alfalfa”-style peak growing out of the top of my head, which is actually a good thing.

If you have had a good experience with a product, please share. There are lots of women out there with hair loss problems and I’m sure they could use all the information you can share!

Photo via Flickr.

Christa T. Palmer (241 Posts)

Christa T. Palmer is a mother of 2 small children who lives in Colorado. She worked in the corporate world for more than a decade, but she was laid off the day after returning from maternity leave. Since then, she has worked as a freelance writer.