Hair loss psychosomatics

What psychosomatics says

In psychosomatics, the scalp and hair are linked to touch and closeness. Remember how as a child someone stroked your head, braided your hair, held you close. Hair responds when that closeness is taken away.

It may be the death of a grandmother or mother, a divorce, friends who suddenly turned away from you. Sometimes it’s a child who grew up and moved away. Sometimes separations come one after another, and before you’ve lived through the first one, the second arrives.

After childbirth, hair loss is mainly about hormones, and it passes. But if your hair is falling out after a hard parting, psychosomatics helps you see who you never said goodbye to and whose hands you miss.

What it is

Each hair grows for several years, then rests and falls out, and a new one starts growing in its place. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, losing 50–100 hairs a day is normal.

Most often women face temporary excessive shedding. Doctors call it telogen effluvium. It starts a few months after a big shock to the body: childbirth, a high fever, an illness, sudden weight loss, surgery, stopping birth control pills, severe stress. Hair usually regains its fullness within 6–9 months. After childbirth, hair starts falling out about 2 months later, peaks around 4 months, and by the baby’s first birthday most women have their hair back. That’s how the American Academy of Dermatology describes it.

The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) also lists iron deficiency and illness among the causes of hair loss. With age, many women’s hair gradually thins. This is female pattern hair loss, and it can be treated.

If round patches with no hair at all appear, it may be alopecia areata. According to the Russian Ministry of Health clinical guidelines (2024), the lifetime risk is about 1.7%, men and women get it equally often, and up to half of people recover within a year even without treatment. According to the clinical protocol of the Ministry of Health of Kazakhstan (2017), if there’s one patch that appeared less than a year ago, hair grows back on its own in 80% of people, so doctors often suggest simply watching it.

How it shows up

• Noticeably more hair than usual on your brush, on your pillow, in the bathroom
• Your hair has become thinner all over your head
• Your parting has got wider, you can see your scalp
• Round patches with no hair at all
• Shedding started a few months after childbirth, an illness or a hard period

A dermatologist looks for the cause. They examine your scalp and, if needed, order blood tests, for example for iron and thyroid hormones.