How much hair shedding is normal for a woman?
Answered by the AskDoc Medical Team · Medically reviewed under our Medical Director, MBBS
Losing 50 to 100 hairs a day is normal turnover; alarm arrives with visibly thinning parts, shrinking ponytails or handfuls in the shower.
The workhorse causes in women: iron deficiency, thyroid problems, crash dieting, and the dramatic but self-limited shed that follows childbirth, major illness or severe stress by two to three months.
Ferritin and thyroid blood tests find the treatable causes; hair regrows on a three to six month delay once they are corrected. Pattern thinning at the crown has its own effective treatments, started earlier rather than later.
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Only after a blood test
If a blood test shows low ferritin, iron tablets rebuild your stores over three to six months. Do not self-dose without the test: in men and women past menopause, low iron needs its cause found first, because it can signal hidden bleeding.
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