Stress and Hair Loss: Telogen Effluvium, Timing and Regrowth

Scroll through any feed this month and you will meet the same villain: cortisol. Short videos blame the hormone for puffy faces, stubborn weight, poor sleep and, above all, hair collecting in the shower drain. As of September 2026, searches for stress and hair loss have climbed alongside that content, helped by two very real experiences: millions of people who shed hair after a feverish infection in recent years, and a newer group who noticed thinning after rapid weight loss on injectable weight-loss medicines.

The frustrating part is the timing. Hair rarely falls out during the hard week. It falls out months later, when life has improved and the connection feels absurd. A woman clearing her brush in October is often looking at the residue of a June that she barely remembers.

Dermatologists have a name for this delayed wave, telogen effluvium, and a surprisingly reassuring story about it. Here is what the evidence supports, where it is thin, and what regrowth actually looks like on a calendar.

How are stress and hair loss connected? The hair cycle, explained

Every hair on your scalp runs its own clock. The growth phase, called anagen, lasts roughly 2–7 years and decides how long a hair can get. A brief transition, catagen, lasts a couple of weeks. Then the follicle rests in telogen for about three months before the old hair is released and a new one starts underneath. On a healthy scalp, around 85–90 percent of follicles are growing at any moment and only about 10 percent are resting. That staggered schedule is why you lose a modest 50–100 hairs a day, a figure both MedlinePlus and the NHS quote, without ever seeing a gap.

Telogen effluvium is what happens when the schedule collapses. A significant shock, physical or emotional, sends a signal that flips many growing follicles into rest at the same time. Instead of 10 percent resting, 30 percent or more may be parked. Three months later they all release together, and the daily count jumps to 300 or more. Picture a factory where every shift clocks out at the same minute: nothing is broken, but the floor looks empty.

The key reassurance sits in that mechanism. The follicle is not scarred or destroyed. It has simply synchronised with its neighbours and skipped ahead to a shed it would have done eventually. Once the trigger passes, follicles drift back to their independent timetables, which is why this form of loss is, by definition, temporary.

Not every stress-linked hair problem is telogen effluvium. Mayo Clinic lists two others: alopecia areata, an autoimmune condition where the immune system attacks follicles and produces round bald patches, and trichotillomania, an urge to pull one’s own hair. Both behave differently, and we will separate them clearly further down.

Why does the shedding start 2–3 months after the stressful event?

The lag is built into the biology. A follicle that receives the stop signal does not drop its hair immediately. It finishes the short catagen transition, then sits in telogen for its usual 2–3 months while a new hair quietly forms beneath. Only when that new hair is ready does the old one, now a “club hair” with a small white bulb at the root, let go. So the calendar reads: trigger in month zero, invisible resting phase in months one and two, heavy shedding beginning around month three.

This delay explains why so many people blame the wrong thing. By the time the drain fills, the fever has been forgotten, the surgery has healed, the baby is sleeping through the night. The new shampoo, the recent haircut or the change of season gets the blame instead. Clinicians who assess diffuse shedding routinely ask about the 1–4 months before it started, not the week it was noticed.

A useful exercise is to write a short timeline before any appointment. Note any illness with a high temperature, operations or anaesthetics, childbirth, crash dieting or rapid weight change, new or stopped medicines, major bereavement or upheaval. Many people find the culprit sitting 10–14 weeks before the first alarming handful of hair.

One exception runs on a faster clock. Anagen effluvium is hair loss that occurs when a toxic insult, most often chemotherapy, damages hairs during the growth phase itself. Shedding then begins within days to a few weeks and is usually dramatic. That is a distinct process with a distinct cause, and it should not be confused with the slow-burn pattern that follows ordinary stress. If your hair loss began within a fortnight of a new medicine, say so plainly to the prescriber rather than assuming it is telogen effluvium.

What changed recently

Three developments explain why an old dermatology topic is suddenly everywhere.

The first is the pandemic’s long tail. Since 2020, hair loss has become one of the most reported after-effects of a feverish infection, and the CDC lists hair loss among the symptoms people describe after COVID-19 on its long COVID guidance. The pattern matched classic telogen effluvium: a sharp shed beginning roughly three months after illness, settling over the following half year. For many people this was the first time they had ever connected a bodily shock with their hair, and the vocabulary stuck.

The second is a laboratory finding that gave the cortisol narrative scientific legs. In 2021, researchers published work in the journal Nature showing that in mice, corticosterone, the rodent equivalent of cortisol, kept hair follicle stem cells in an extended resting state by suppressing a signalling molecule called GAS6. When stress hormone levels were lowered, follicles re-entered growth sooner. It was elegant science, widely covered, and it is the origin of much of today’s “lower your cortisol, regrow your hair” content. It was also a mouse study, a point the online retellings usually drop.

The third is weight loss. Injectable medicines that produce rapid, substantial weight reduction have become common since 2022, and their clinical trials recorded hair loss more often in treated participants than in those receiving placebo. The most likely explanation is not a drug toxin but the long-recognised link between fast weight loss, reduced food intake and telogen effluvium. Any concern about a prescribed medicine belongs with the prescribing clinician, never with a decision to stop it alone.

Meanwhile, the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements continues to state that there is no evidence biotin improves hair in people who are not deficient. Supplement marketing has not caught up.

Cortisol and hair loss: what the hormone actually does

Cortisol is the main stress hormone released by the adrenal glands, two small organs sitting on top of the kidneys. It rises with illness, injury, fasting, poor sleep and psychological threat, and in normal amounts it is essential. The question is whether its surges are the direct cause of stress-related shedding or one strand in a larger rope.

The animal evidence is the strongest and the most specific. The 2021 mouse work showed that sustained stress hormone exposure lengthened the resting phase of follicles and that follicle stem cells, the cells that build each new hair, stayed dormant until the hormone fell. Human follicles share much of this machinery, but no comparable experiment has been done in people, and mouse hair cycles differ in important ways from ours.

Human data are observational. Conditions that flood the body with cortisol, such as Cushing’s syndrome, often feature scalp thinning. Studies measuring cortisol stored in hair shafts, a marker of average levels over months, have found associations between higher long-term cortisol and reduced hair density. Associations cannot show direction: distress may raise cortisol, cause poor sleep and appetite changes, and the hair loss itself may feed the distress.

Stress also reaches the follicle by routes that bypass cortisol altogether. Nerve signals release substance P, a chemical messenger that can activate immune cells around the follicle. Illness brings fever and reduced protein intake. Grief disrupts sleep and eating. All of these are plausible contributors, which is why dermatologists speak of telogen effluvium as a response to a systemic shock rather than to one hormone.

A practical consequence follows. Routine cortisol testing is not part of a standard hair loss work-up unless a doctor suspects an endocrine disorder, and products sold to “lower cortisol” have no trial evidence for regrowth. Whether any test is warranted is a decision for the treating clinician.

What the evidence actually says, graded by strength

It helps to sort the claims by the quality of evidence behind them, because the gap between the well-established and the merely plausible is wide.

Firmly established, supported by decades of consistent clinical observation and scalp pathology: telogen effluvium follows high fever, major surgery, significant blood loss, childbirth and rapid weight loss, with a 2–3 month lag and spontaneous recovery in most people. Postpartum shedding is the best documented example because the trigger date is known to the day. This is the kind of knowledge that does not need a randomised trial any more than a sunburn needs one.

Moderately supported, from observational studies and physiological reasoning: severe psychological stress alone, such as bereavement or a sudden job loss, can trigger the same process. The link is accepted by mainstream sources including Mayo Clinic and the NHS, though it is harder to prove because the trigger has no blood test and daily stress is universal while telogen effluvium is not.

Preliminary, from animal and laboratory work: cortisol directly holds follicle stem cells in rest. Promising, mechanistically sensible, and not yet demonstrated in humans.

Weak or absent: evidence that any supplement, including biotin, collagen or so-called adaptogens, speeds regrowth in people who are not nutritionally deficient; evidence that stress-reduction programmes regrow hair measurably; evidence that cortisol-lowering products do anything for shedding.

Treatment research is thin across the board. Because telogen effluvium resolves on its own, few trials have been run, and management rests largely on expert consensus: identify and address the trigger, correct any deficiency found on blood tests, and allow time. That is not a dismissive answer. It reflects a condition whose natural history is, for most people, a slow return to normal.

What kinds of stress trigger stress hair loss?

The word “stress” misleads people into thinking of deadlines and traffic. In the dermatology sense it means any event large enough to disturb the body’s resource budget, and physical triggers are more common than emotional ones.

• Infections with high fever, including influenza and COVID-19, which the CDC lists among causes of post-illness hair loss.
• Surgery, general anaesthesia and serious injury, especially with hospital stays or blood loss.
• Childbirth, where the hormonal shift after delivery releases hairs that pregnancy had kept growing; shedding typically peaks 2–4 months postpartum.
• Crash diets, prolonged very low calorie intake and rapid weight loss of any cause, including bariatric surgery and injectable weight-loss medicines.
• Iron deficiency, with or without anaemia, and thyroid disorders in either direction.
• Starting or stopping certain medicines. MedlinePlus notes that some blood thinners, blood pressure medicines, retinoids and antidepressants can be associated with shedding, as can stopping hormonal contraception. A medicine change should always be discussed with the prescriber, never made unilaterally.
• Major emotional shocks: a death, divorce, assault, financial collapse or a sustained period of severe anxiety or depression.

Ordinary background pressure does not usually do it. If everyday stress were enough, most adults would be shedding constantly. What tips the balance is magnitude and suddenness: a body that has to divert energy to fighting infection, healing tissue or surviving a deficit will temporarily deprioritise hair, which is biologically expendable.

Several triggers often stack. A difficult birth followed by sleepless months, iron loss and emotional strain is a textbook combination. A stressful job loss accompanied by skipped meals and insomnia is another. Clinicians look for the whole picture rather than a single cause, and blood tests exist precisely to catch the correctable contributors hiding behind the obvious one.

Telogen effluvium vs other types of hair loss

Diffuse shedding frightens people because they assume it is the start of baldness. In most cases it is a different condition altogether. The table summarises how telogen effluvium compares with the patterns clinicians most often need to rule out.

Type	Pattern	Onset	Scalp	Usual course
Telogen effluvium	Diffuse thinning over the whole scalp; ponytail feels thinner	Sudden heavy shedding 2–3 months after a trigger	Normal, no scaling or redness	Self-limiting; shedding settles in 3–6 months, density recovers over 6–12 months
Androgenetic alopecia (pattern hair loss)	Gradual thinning at the crown and temples in men; widening part in women	Slow, over years	Normal	Progressive without treatment; hereditary and hormone-driven
Alopecia areata	Smooth round or oval bald patches; can affect eyebrows, beard	Over days to weeks	Smooth, sometimes short “exclamation mark” hairs at the edge	Unpredictable; patches may regrow or spread; autoimmune
Trichotillomania	Irregular patches with broken hairs of different lengths	Linked to pulling behaviour	Normal, may show broken stubble	Resolves when pulling stops; behavioural support helps
Traction alopecia	Thinning at the hairline and where styles pull	Gradual	May be tender or show small bumps	Reversible early; can scar if the pull continues

Two points deserve emphasis. First, telogen effluvium and pattern hair loss can coexist, and a shedding episode sometimes reveals an underlying hereditary thinning that was already there. People who regrow fully after the shed but still find their part wider than before may be looking at that overlap. Second, any pattern involving a smooth bald patch, scaling, pain or scarring belongs in a different diagnostic category and warrants an in-person examination.

How do I know if my hair loss is from stress?

Telogen effluvium has a recognisable signature, and knowing it can spare weeks of anxiety while you arrange an appointment.

The loss is diffuse. Hair thins evenly across the scalp rather than in a defined spot, so the part line looks a little wider and a ponytail feels noticeably slimmer, but there is no bald island. Shed hairs are full length, not broken, and many carry a tiny white or translucent bulb at the root. That bulb is the club end of a resting hair, not the follicle itself; the follicle stays safely in the skin, ready to produce the next hair.

The scalp looks and feels normal. No redness, flaking, soreness, pustules or burning. Itching can accompany some shedding but is not a core feature, and prominent itch or pain points elsewhere.

The timing fits. Most people can identify a plausible event roughly three months before the shedding began, and many notice, a few months into the shed, a fringe of short new hairs standing up at the hairline and temples. Those regrowing “baby hairs” are among the most reassuring signs a clinician can find.

In clinic, a doctor may perform a gentle hair pull test, lightly tugging a small section to see how many hairs release; in active telogen effluvium the count is higher than normal. Many use a dermatoscope, a handheld magnifier with a light, to inspect follicle openings and hair shaft thickness. Blood tests commonly include a full blood count, ferritin (the body’s stored iron), thyroid function and sometimes vitamin D or zinc, chosen according to history.

None of this is a self-diagnosis checklist. It is a description of what professionals look for, so that you can recognise when your picture fits and, just as usefully, when it does not.

Chronic telogen effluvium: when shedding lasts longer than 6 months

Most episodes burn out within half a year. A minority grind on, and when heavy shedding persists beyond six months clinicians describe it as chronic telogen effluvium. It is most often seen in women between roughly 30 and 60, frequently with no single trigger that anyone can name, and it tends to wax and wane: a few quiet weeks, then another alarming stretch of hair in the brush.

The experience is wearing. Daily shedding of two or three times the normal amount, continuing for a year or more, feels like an inevitable slide to baldness. The evidence is more comforting than the sensation. Chronic telogen effluvium characteristically produces a long-term reduction in ponytail thickness without visible bare scalp, because the proportion of follicles resting at any moment rises but never approaches the levels seen in scarring or pattern loss. Many people shed heavily yet keep a normal-looking head of hair for years.

What is happening is less clear than in the acute form. One theory holds that the normal growth phase has shortened slightly in these individuals, so follicles cycle more often and more hairs reach the shedding point each day. Another is that repeated small triggers, from iron fluctuations to recurrent minor illnesses, keep resetting the clock. Much of what is written about the chronic form rests on case series and expert opinion rather than controlled studies, and honest clinicians say so.

The practical priorities are the same: thorough blood tests to find anything correctable, careful examination to rule out coexisting pattern hair loss, and periodic review. A clinician may discuss treatment options for density if an overlapping condition is found; what, if anything, is appropriate is a judgement for that clinician, informed by the full examination rather than by the shedding count alone.

Does hair grow back after stress hair loss, and when?

Yes, for the large majority of people, and the calendar is more predictable than it feels in the moment.

Shedding usually continues for 3–6 months after the trigger has resolved. It then tapers rather than stopping overnight, and the first encouraging sign is often a lower daily count rather than any visible change. New hairs are already growing during this time; they were initiated the moment the old ones entered rest, which is why fine short regrowth at the hairline appears while shedding is still under way.

Scalp hair lengthens at about 1 centimetre a month, a little under half an inch. Six months after the shed stops, the new generation is roughly 6 centimetres long, enough to restore the appearance of density in short and medium styles. Longer hair needs patience: regaining a shoulder-length ponytail that looks as full as before can take 18–24 months, simply because of arithmetic. Postpartum shedding follows this template closely, with most parents back to baseline between 6 and 12 months after delivery.

Setbacks happen when a new trigger lands before recovery finishes: a second infection, another period of restricted eating, a further emotional blow. Each one restarts the clock for the follicles it affects, which is why some people experience overlapping waves rather than one clean episode.

Hair care during recovery is about avoiding harm rather than accelerating growth. Washing does not increase true loss; it dislodges hairs that had already detached. Tight ponytails, braids and extensions add mechanical pull to a scalp already shedding, and heavy heat styling weakens shafts so they break. A shorter cut does not change the number of growing follicles, but it can make the regrowth phase look fuller while you wait for length.

Does reducing stress actually help regrowth?

The honest answer is that nobody has run a trial in which people with telogen effluvium were randomised to meditation or not and had their hairs counted. Claims that a particular breathing technique or routine “reverses” stress shedding are extrapolations, however appealing.

What does stand up is the logic of the trigger. Shedding resolves when the body no longer perceives a crisis, and if the crisis is ongoing, whether that means persistent severe anxiety, untreated depression, chronic sleep deprivation or an eating pattern that leaves the body in deficit, then addressing it is the one lever genuinely in reach. Treatment for anxiety or depression is worth pursuing because the person deserves it; any benefit to the hair is a welcome secondary effect rather than the goal.

Some habits make biological sense even without hair-specific evidence. Regular sleep supports hormone rhythms, including the daily rise and fall of cortisol. Eating enough protein and total energy removes one of the most common physical triggers. Physical activity is among the better-studied ways to blunt the stress response. None of these is a treatment; together they remove reasons for the follicles to keep hesitating.

One pattern deserves a specific warning because it is so common: the hair loss becomes the stress. People begin counting hairs each morning, photographing their parting daily, and searching symptoms late at night. That loop erodes sleep, raises anxiety and can prolong the very problem it is monitoring. A reasonable compromise is a photograph of the part and hairline once a month in the same light, then putting the phone away. Change over months is visible; change over days is noise.

If distress about hair is affecting mood, sleep or daily functioning, that is itself a valid reason to see a doctor, independent of the scalp findings.

Iron, biotin, vitamin D: does nutrition matter for stress shedding?

Nutrition matters in a specific way: deficiency can trigger or prolong telogen effluvium, and correcting a proven deficiency helps. Beyond that, extra nutrients do not add extra hair.

Iron is the most clinically relevant. Low ferritin, the protein that stores iron, is common in people who menstruate heavily, follow restrictive diets or have recently given birth, and it is a recognised contributor to diffuse shedding even before anaemia develops. Testing comes first, because excess iron is harmful and supplementation without a measured deficiency is not advised. Whether and how to correct a low result is for the clinician who ordered the test.

Protein and total energy matter because hair is built from protein and sits low on the body’s priority list. Rapid weight loss, by any method, is one of the best documented triggers, and adequate intake during intentional weight reduction is a reasonable topic to raise with the prescriber or a dietitian.

Biotin, a B vitamin heavily marketed for hair, is a case study in evidence versus advertising. The NIH Office of Dietary Supplements states that there is no evidence biotin supplements improve hair in healthy people, and true deficiency is rare in anyone eating a varied diet. There is also a safety wrinkle: high biotin intake can interfere with common laboratory tests, including some thyroid and cardiac blood tests, which can lead to wrong results. Anyone taking it should mention it before blood is drawn.

Vitamin D and zinc show associations with hair loss in observational studies, but low levels are common in the general population too, and cause and effect are unproven. Checking levels when there is clinical reason is sensible; swallowing high-dose supplements in hope is not. A balanced diet, tested and corrected deficiencies, and patience remain the evidence-based combination.

Common myths about stress and hair loss, corrected

Viral content thrives on a kernel of truth stretched past breaking. These are the claims that reach clinics most often, and what the evidence actually supports.

“Handfuls of hair mean I’m going bald.” Diffuse shedding with a normal scalp is the hallmark of a temporary process. Baldness from pattern hair loss creeps in over years in specific zones; it does not announce itself with a sudden drain-clogging wave.

“My cortisol is high, so I need a cortisol-lowering supplement.” The cortisol story comes from mouse research. No product sold to lower cortisol has been shown to regrow human hair, and routine cortisol testing is not part of a hair loss work-up unless an endocrine disorder is suspected.

“Wash less to save hair.” Hairs that fall in the shower had already separated from the follicle. Skipping washes just lets them accumulate so the next wash looks worse.

“Stress turned my hair gray overnight.” Hair that has already grown cannot change colour. The legend likely describes alopecia areata, which can shed pigmented hairs preferentially and leave the gray ones behind, creating the illusion of sudden whitening.

“Cutting hair makes it grow back thicker.” Growth happens at the root, which scissors never touch. Blunt ends can look fuller, and that is the whole effect.

“Biotin fixes stress shedding.” Only if you were deficient, which is uncommon. The NIH position is clear on this.

“Men don’t get telogen effluvium.” They do, after the same triggers. It is simply noticed less because many men already keep short hair or attribute thinning to pattern loss.

“It happened months after the stress, so stress can’t be the cause.” The 2–3 month delay is the single most characteristic feature of the condition, not evidence against it.

When to see a doctor about stress-related hair loss

Telogen effluvium is usually a diagnosis of reassurance, but the reassurance should come from someone who has looked at your scalp and your blood results, not from an article. Book an appointment with your family doctor or a dermatologist, sooner rather than later, if any of the following apply.

• One or more smooth, well-defined bald patches, or loss of eyebrow, eyelash or beard hair.
• Redness, scaling, crusting, pustules, pain or burning on the scalp, or areas that look shiny and scarred.
• Heavy shedding that has continued for more than six months, or a second wave with no obvious trigger.
• Thinning concentrated at the temples, crown or part line that has crept in gradually over years.
• Hair loss alongside unexplained fatigue, weight change, palpitations, feeling unusually cold or hot, heavy periods, or new skin and nail changes, which can point to iron, thyroid or other medical causes.
• Hair loss that began within weeks of starting or changing a medicine.
• Shedding in a child, or in anyone with a known autoimmune condition.
• Significant distress, low mood or anxiety about your hair, whatever the examination shows.

Expect a clinician to ask about the preceding few months, examine the scalp, possibly perform a pull test and arrange blood tests chosen to fit your history. Bring a list of medicines and supplements, including biotin, which can distort laboratory results.

Two rules are non-negotiable. Never stop, reduce or switch a prescribed medicine because you suspect it is affecting your hair; raise it with the prescriber, who can weigh the alternatives safely. And treat any treatment decision, whether that is correcting a deficiency, addressing an overlapping pattern hair loss or simply waiting with scheduled review, as belonging to the clinician who has examined you. Telogen effluvium rewards patience, but patience is easier when a professional has confirmed that waiting is the right plan.

Frequently asked questions

How long after a stressful event does hair start falling out?

Usually 2–3 months. Follicles that were pushed into their resting phase hold on to the old hair for roughly that long before releasing it, which is why the shedding often arrives after life has calmed down. Looking back 10–14 weeks before the first heavy shed usually reveals the trigger, whether that was an illness, surgery, childbirth, rapid weight loss or a major emotional blow.

Does hair grow back after stress hair loss?

In most cases, yes. Telogen effluvium does not damage the follicle; it only shifts its timing. Shedding tends to settle 3–6 months after the trigger passes, short regrowth appears at the hairline within a few months, and visible density usually returns within 6–12 months. Long hair takes longer to reach its previous length because scalp hair grows about 1 centimetre a month.

Is there a proven link between cortisol and hair loss?

Partly. A 2021 study in mice showed that stress hormone kept hair follicle stem cells in an extended resting state, and conditions with very high cortisol in people are associated with thinning. A direct causal role in ordinary human stress shedding has not been demonstrated, routine cortisol testing is not part of a hair loss assessment, and cortisol-lowering products have no evidence for regrowth.

How much hair loss per day is normal?

Around 50–100 hairs a day is normal, according to MedlinePlus and the NHS, and more may appear on wash days because detached hairs accumulate between washes. Counts well above that, especially if the part line widens or a ponytail feels noticeably thinner, suggest excessive shedding worth discussing with a doctor, particularly if it continues for more than a few weeks.

Can anxiety alone cause telogen effluvium?

Severe or prolonged psychological stress can trigger it, and mainstream sources including Mayo Clinic and the NHS accept the link, though it is harder to prove than physical triggers because there is no blood test for grief or anxiety. Everyday worry is unlikely to be enough on its own. Anxiety often arrives with poor sleep and reduced eating, and that combination is more plausible as a cause than the emotion in isolation.

Is stress hair loss permanent?

No. Telogen effluvium is temporary by definition because the follicles remain intact and resume their normal cycles once the trigger has passed. A lasting change in appearance usually means something else is also present, most often hereditary pattern hair loss unmasked by the shed, or a different diagnosis such as alopecia areata or a scarring condition, which is why persistent or patchy loss should be examined.

Should I take biotin for stress hair loss?

Not unless a doctor has found a deficiency, which is uncommon in people eating a varied diet. The NIH Office of Dietary Supplements states there is no evidence that biotin improves hair in healthy people. High intake can also interfere with laboratory tests, including some thyroid and cardiac tests, so anyone taking it should tell the clinician before blood is drawn.

Does washing or brushing my hair make the shedding worse?

No. Hairs that come away during washing or brushing had already detached at the root and would have fallen regardless. Skipping washes simply allows them to accumulate so the next wash looks dramatic. Gentle handling is sensible, and avoiding very tight styles and heavy heat prevents breakage, but normal hygiene does not increase true telogen effluvium loss.

Can stress cause hair loss in men as well as women?

Yes. Men experience telogen effluvium after the same triggers, including fever, surgery and rapid weight loss. It is reported less often because short hair makes diffuse thinning less obvious and because men frequently attribute any loss to hereditary pattern baldness. The two can coexist, and a doctor can distinguish a temporary diffuse shed from progressive thinning at the temples and crown.

How is telogen effluvium diagnosed?

Mainly by history and examination. A clinician asks about the preceding few months, inspects the scalp for patches, scaling or scarring, may perform a gentle pull test to gauge how many hairs release, and often uses a dermatoscope, a lit magnifier, to assess follicles. Blood tests commonly include a full blood count, ferritin and thyroid function to find correctable contributors. A biopsy is rarely needed.

References

• MedlinePlus: Hair loss
• NHS: Hair loss
• Cleveland Clinic: Telogen effluvium

This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult a qualified doctor about your individual situation.