Raechele Cochran Gathers, MD Telogen effluvium is a type of excessive hair shedding. Stress, illness and other medical issues can cause telogen effluvium to occur. Recently, the Covid 19 pandemic has been associated with more cases of excessive hair shedding and telogen effluvium.
How Do You Get Telogen Effluvium?
Telogen Effluvium can happen from almost anything that causes a relatively severe physical or emotion stress on the body. During the summer of 2020, many people have been visiting dermatologists due to telogen effluvium caused by Covid 19 infection, or even just from the stress of trying to manage during the pandemic.
Triggers of Telogen Effluvium
- Severe infection or high fever
- Surgery or hospitalization
- Hormonal problem (e.g., thyroid conditions)
- Chronic illnesses
- Early stage female pattern hair loss
- Medication (some blood pressure, thyroid, and blood thinner drugs, among others)
- Significant weight loss
- Drastic dietary change
- Childbirth
How Can I Tell If I Have Telogen Effluvium?
Most of us lose 50 to 100 strands of hair per day. If you have telogen effluvium, however, you’ll probably be shedding hundreds of hairs every day! You’ll notice many more hairs when you wash, detangle or even just run your hands through your hair.
The hair shedding caused by telogen effluvium doesn’t happen right away. In fact, it usually doesn’t start until 3-4 months after the event that caused it. So, if you had a surgery or illness in March, you might not even notice that your hair is shedding until June or July.
What Should I Do?
If you think that you may have telogen effluvium, it’s important that you see a board-certified dermatologist first. There can be lots of causes of hair loss, including anemia, hormonal problems, infections and even autoimmune diseases like lupus. It’s important to know what you’re dealing with.
Thankfully, telogen effluvium typically stops all by itself. Once your body recovers from whatever the stress was that caused it, the excessive hair shedding typically gradually stops on its own. You’ll notice less and less shedding, until, eventually, you’re back to your baseline!
