There are many things that people don’t tell you about what’s going to happen after the baby is born.

One of these was when I found myself finding clumps of hair falling out in the shower when my baby was 4 months old. I was loving my hair during pregnancy. It was lustrous, long and shiny – I felt like I came out of a magazine ad (only the hair mind you). However what I then found it after the baby it became lifeless, dull and really really dry.

I was thinking, is this why all women with babies cut their hair…. no (but that is another story)…

Parents.com explains this well:

“In the normal cycle of hair growth, some hair is lost every day. But during pregnancy the increased levels of estrogen in your body freezes hair in the growing (or ‘resting’) phase of the cycle. Hair that would normally fall out stays put, resulting in thicker hair. After you give birth and your estrogen levels decline, however, all that hair that was resting starts to fall out.”

This usually happens in the 3rd or 4th month or it is also known to happen once women give up breastfeeding.

My lovely hairdresser Carly Clifton from New Street Salon has been making many women like myself feel good that this is just a normal process of motherhood. Very insightful lady.

Carly and I were discussing tips for women to manage their hair – along with drinking amazing coffee, reading juicy mags and yes entertaining my daughter with as many toys as possible so my daughter stays away from those scissors!

Here are Carly’s tips:

MAINTAIN, MAINTAIN, MAINTAIN. Don’t leave it to mother nature to do the work as she is not your friend at this moment in time.

1) Ensure you get regular trims

2) Brush your hair the right way (get the notts out from the bottom up not top down) to avoid gaining split hairs to boot!

3) Colour is fine but don’t layer colour over colour. Leave it to a professional rather than doing it at home during this period.

4) Buy a good leave in conditioner to repair your hair – http://hairwarehouse.com.au has some good options.

5) Experiment with accessories and new hair styles to cover up any unsightly areas – and you never know you might like them!

And the good news is, your hair will come back generally over 6- 12 months. Be patient.