Postnatal hair loss

I think my body lulled me into a false sense of security this time.

During each pregnancy, I might have looked over all like Waynetta Slob, but it's the only times in my life during which I've had thick(er) manageable hair. I am cursed with fine, flyaway, wavyish hair. I say wavy-ish, as it was once upon a time a fine head of curls. Very cute as a toddler, not so much as a teenager. In my teens, the spiral perm was very trendy, but unfortunately my curls would have looked much better in an episode of Coronation Street, circa 1970. So I spent years having my hair permed, then of course the straight hair thing came along and I discovered straightening irons and salon-quality hairdryers. The result is that all of those years of abuse has given me a strange demi-wave shape in my hair when left to go into it's natural state. And believe me, in it's natural state, you can do nothing with it bar shove a brown bag over it.

The slight curl in my hair needs to be treated with the contempt it deserves and is straightened every day (or at least every second day) with 230 degree straighteners, and I don't care I do see puffs of smoke when I draw the irons over the length of my hair. However, I suspect that the slight curl is natures way of disguising my very fine hair, so when it's straight, it has to be cut or styled very well. And at the moment, it's not, but hey, I'm straightening it anyway. I still have a surplus hanging on from my last pregnancy, and now that we're approaching 4 months on, I really thought I had a chance of hanging onto it. But I've started shedding like a cat in the summertime.

My 3 year old has a habit of winding his hands around my hair while he sits and watches telly, and I was horrified to see a few days ago that he had a handful of hair in his hand that had detached itself all too easily from my head. And, disgusting though it is, I'm going to mention the clogging of the plughole after a shower. Ruby seems to be permanently covered in rogue strands of my hair, and my clothes also. I dread washing my hair. The strands also seem thinner and more easily broken, so I've started to get the mad fluffy fringe around my head. My hair responds to the slightest bit of moisture in the air by springing into random half curl/half waves, but these odd strands at the front just go completely crazy. I generally don't have time before the morning school run to tame my hair so I generally stuff it all into a ponytail and scrape the random strands back, patting my head hopefully that they will all stay put, but as soon as I arrive home I can see I look like my 6 year old daughter at the end of her school day. It's not a good look for adult.

After giving birth to my son, I almost went bald. Ok, a slight exaggeration, but my hairdresser wouldn't cut it for fear of making me look like I had alopecia. She wouldn't colour it either, so for about 6 months I had to go around wishing it was cold enough (or hot enough) to wear a hat. As he was born in April, I didn't have that opportunity for a long time.

Thank goodness it's winter, and hat wearing opportunities are in abundance!