What Causes Hair Shedding and How Do You Stop It?
If you suddenly have more hair in the shower drain, or your ponytail just doesn't feel as thick, it's easy to panic. One of the first things people do is start searching, “Why is my hair shedding so much?” or “How do I stop my hair from falling out?”
The answer usually isn't another shampoo or a random hair growth supplement. We first need to figure out why the shedding started.
I always tell my clients that hair is like the dashboard light of the body. When that light comes on, we don't just cover it up. We start looking for what changed.
Why Am I Suddenly Shedding So Much Hair?
One of the most common causes of sudden, all-over hair shedding is telogen effluvium, also called TE. This happens when more follicles than usual shift out of their growing phase and eventually enter the shedding phase.
The confusing part is that the shedding often doesn't happen at the same time as the trigger. It can show up a few months later. So when someone sits in my chair and tells me, “Nothing has changed,” I'm usually more interested in what was happening a few months ago.
Illness, a high fever, surgery, major emotional stress, rapid weight loss, restrictive dieting, postpartum changes, nutritional deficiencies, thyroid or hormonal changes, and certain medications can all be associated with excessive hair shedding.
Sometimes there isn't one obvious cause. There may be several things happening at the same time. That's why creating a timeline is such an important part of a hair loss assessment.
Think of Your Hair Follicle Like a Construction Site
This is how I explain shedding to my clients because it makes the hair cycle much easier to understand.
Imagine every hair follicle as a tiny construction site. When your body is doing well, the workers have the energy, nutrients, and signals they need to keep building hair.
But your body has priorities. Your brain, heart, lungs, and other organs are essential for survival. Hair isn't.
If your body suddenly needs more resources because you're sick, under significant stress, losing weight rapidly, not getting enough nutrition, or dealing with another physical stressor, it can shift resources toward more important jobs. Your little hair construction site may not get everything it normally receives.
The workers slow down. Some follicles eventually stop actively building hair and move toward the resting and shedding phases.
Then, months later, you're standing in the shower wondering what on earth happened.
Your hair may be showing you today what your body went through months ago.
Is It Hair Shedding or Hair Thinning?
This is an important distinction because shedding and thinning aren't necessarily the same thing.
Hair shedding means you're losing more hairs than usual. Hair thinning means you're losing density or individual hairs are becoming progressively finer. With genetic pattern hair loss, for example, follicles can gradually miniaturize and produce thinner, shorter hairs.
You can also have both at the same time.
I've had clients come in because of a sudden increase in shedding, but when I examine their scalp with a dermascope, I can also see miniaturization that suggests an underlying pattern of genetic hair loss. The sudden shedding didn't necessarily cause the genetic hair loss. It simply made something that had been slowly developing much more noticeable.
This is one reason I love using a dermascope for hair loss assessments. Looking at the hair with the naked eye tells me part of the story. Looking closely at the follicles, hair shaft diameters, scalp condition, and overall pattern gives me much more information.
Can Stress Really Cause Hair Shedding?
Yes, but when we talk about stress and hair loss, we aren't only talking about emotional stress.
The body experiences stress from illness, surgery, high fever, rapid weight loss, poor nutrition, major life events, and other significant physical demands. Emotional stress can also contribute, especially when it is prolonged or severe.
Go back to our construction site. If headquarters suddenly needs more resources somewhere else, the hair department isn't first in line.
That's also why telling someone with hair loss to “just relax” isn't particularly useful. I want to understand what the body has been dealing with and what we can realistically support.
Can Hormones, Nutrition, or Medications Cause Hair Shedding?
Hormones can absolutely be part of the picture. Postpartum changes, perimenopause, menopause, thyroid disorders, and conditions such as PCOS can all be associated with changes in hair growth or shedding. That doesn't mean every case of female hair loss is hormonal, which is why looking at the actual pattern matters.
Nutrition matters too. Hair follicles are highly active and need adequate building materials. Protein, iron, zinc, vitamin D, B vitamins, and other nutrients all play roles in normal hair biology. Rapid weight loss, restrictive diets, inadequate protein intake, or certain nutritional deficiencies may contribute to shedding.
Medications also belong in the conversation. Certain medications can trigger hair shedding in some people, which is why I ask about medications that were started, stopped, or changed before the shedding began. Never stop a prescribed medication because you think it may be affecting your hair. That's a conversation to have with your prescribing medical provider.
And please don't automatically reach for a giant bottle of biotin because your hair is shedding. More supplements are not automatically better. We want to know what your body actually needs instead of playing vitamin roulette.
Can Growth Factor Treatments Help With Hair Shedding?
Growth factor treatments are one of the supportive hair loss treatments I offer at Tabitha F Hair for appropriate clients.
Think about our construction crew again. Sometimes those workers need additional support. Growth factors are signaling proteins involved in communication around the follicle and normal hair biology.
I explain a growth factor treatment as sending additional support to the construction site. We're helping support the follicle environment while we also work on figuring out why the construction site slowed down in the first place.
For some clients, I use growth factor treatments as part of a plan to support the follicles and help reduce excessive shedding. But I don't want to simply treat the symptom and ignore the reason it started.
We can support the workers, but we still need to figure out why they were struggling.
So, How Do You Stop Hair Shedding?
The best way to stop excessive hair shedding depends on what is causing it.
For one person, we may need to focus on nutrition and recovery after rapid weight loss. Another may have significant scalp inflammation that needs attention. Someone else may need to speak with a medical provider about thyroid function, hormonal changes, or a medication. Another client may actually have genetic hair loss underneath the shedding and need a longer-term hair loss plan.
Depending on what I find, supportive options may include scalp treatments, growth factor treatments, low-level laser therapy, appropriate topical treatments, or medical hair loss treatments through a healthcare provider.
There is no single hair growth product that everyone needs because there is no single reason everyone loses hair.
That's the part of hair loss care I wish more people understood.
When Should You Have Hair Shedding Checked?
If you're suddenly shedding much more hair than usual, your ponytail feels smaller, your part is getting wider, you're noticing visible areas of thinning, your scalp is itchy or painful, you're developing bald patches, or the shedding continues without improvement, it's worth having someone take a closer look.
You also don't need to wait until you've lost half your hair before asking for help. In fact, I would rather see you when your first thought is, “Something about my hair has changed.”
At Tabitha F Hair in Plymouth, Minnesota, my Hair & Scalp Evaluations use dermascope imaging, your hair and health history, and pattern assessment to look more closely at what's happening. When something needs medical evaluation, I can also help identify when it's time to involve a dermatologist or another healthcare provider.
Hair shedding can feel scary, especially when you don't understand why it's happening. But instead of grabbing another bottle and hoping it works, start by asking a better question.
Not just, “How do I make my hair stop shedding?”
Ask, “Why did my construction site slow down in the first place?”
Once we understand that, we can make a much better plan for getting those workers the support they need.
Talk soon, Tabitha
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