Who doesn’t love luscious, healthy locks of hair? We all do, right? We go to extreme lengths to maintain our hair in good shape. No wonder then it breaks our heart when we see our hair fall. But what is it about hair fall that makes us THIS sad? Many believe that it has an emotional side to it. Our perception of how we look is often based on the way our hair looks. That is why we have the phrase ‘a bad hair day’, that aptly captures how an entire day can go wrong if the hair isn’t right on that day.
There are many reasons why we might lose hair. Often, it is a disease or a health condition. At times the hair loss is temporary, like pregnancy-hormones related hair loss. However, if hair loss happens due to unexplained reasons, then the uncertainty freaks us out. Because we can’t find the reason, it means, in all probability, we’ll not find a solution. And one such situation that has given rise to a lot of stress and frustration among us is the current COVID-19 pandemic. For months now, the world has been dealing with this outbreak without a specific drug to treat it. However, while we await the breakthrough vaccine patiently, we are also baffled by the new symptoms or after-effects of the disease.
Recently, an American celebrity who had contracted COVID-19, shared her ordeal with her fans on her social media profile. No, it wasn’t about COVID-19 itself, since she had recovered. It was about its little-known side effect (until then) – hair loss. In her post, the celebrity shared a video where she showed how her hair came out in big clumps after she lightly ran the brush through her wet hair. This certainly shocked the actress’ fans and others as well even as the actress urged everyone to take COVID-19 seriously and wear a mask.
What is surprising is most government medical agencies do not even list hair loss as a COVID-19 symptom, let alone mention it as a potential side effect. However, before you start dismissing the actress’ case as a one-off situation, let us tell you that a COVID-19 survivors’ page on another social media platform lists dozens of posts by survivors documenting a similar hair loss experience after recovery1.
COVID-19 Hair Loss In ‘Long Haulers’
The founder of the COVID-19 survivors’ group on social media conducted a survey with nearly 1700 responding to it. The survey revealed that as many as one-third of the respondents reported hair loss as an aftereffect of surviving COVID-19. Some dermatologists, who have also seen a rise in such patients, are of the view that most of them may belong to a category of post-covid survivors known as ‘long haulers’.
Now, who are long haulers, you might ask? A prominent clinic website gives us an overview of how coronavirus survivors are categorized based on the severity of the symptoms of illness. Earlier, they were categorized into two. Approximately 80% of the survivors who experienced mild symptoms, required only two weeks for the symptoms to resolve completely. They constituted group one. The other group consisted of people who had a severe response to the disease and required anywhere between 3 to 6 weeks for symptoms to resolve.
However, with time, a third category of survivors came to the fore. These were the ones who did not belong to the previous two categories but continued reporting lingering symptoms of the illness for a month, two, or even three months. This group of people are known as long haulers2.
COVID-19 Related Stress To Blame?
In general, illnesses, no matter how severe, short or long, cause a considerable amount of stress. This is probably why our hair becomes the first casualty of an illness. Hair loss is also seen as the first sign that something is not really right with your health. This wisdom could also apply to hair loss related to COVID-19.
While there may not be any direct evidence to connect coronavirus illness with hairloss, doctors do believe that the associated emotional and physical stress could be the culprit. Such illness-related hair loss is often reversible and is known as telogen effluvium in medical terms3. This condition generally follows a few months after a stressful event. It could be anything like a high fever, emotional distress, an accident or injury, etc. Such stressors move the hair to the telogen phase, or resting phase, which is often followed by hair loss in the hair growth cycle.
When you experience unusual hair loss, doctors often try to figure out the cause through a process of elimination of the usual suspects, which are usually nutritional deficiencies or thyroid issues. Both these conditions can cause considerable hair loss and their role can be determined through a simple blood test. When this is ruled out, only then doctors arrive at stress-related issues as the reason for hair loss. Through counseling and discussions, doctors look into the recent events in a patient’s life including hospitalization due to COVID-19 as a stressful event.
How To Cope With Hair Loss
While telogen effluvium is inevitable in case of any illness or major stress, including COVID-19, the silver lining is that it is a temporary phase. People who lose hair during this time might find it difficult to cope with it resulting in depression. And in their desperation, they might often resort to quick remedies and tall claims by product companies.
Many experts warn against falling prey to such false claims. Instead, it is advisable to follow a healthy lifestyle, consume nutritious food, and generally try to keep stress at bay as much as possible. While doing so, also remember that whatever hair you lost will eventually grow back, but at its own pace. So, keep realistic expectations and be patient. Don’t let the stress of hair loss get to you all over again. This might inadvertently result in more hair loss. So relax and just go with the flow. You will soon gain back your crowning glory!
