How many hairs do you find in the shower?

[SeanT1]

As the poll says, how many hairs do you notice fall out while taking a shower?

Feel free to post with more information also.

Personally;
-Almost 1 year since 3400 graft FUE hair transplant,
-Been on Finasteride for 2 years,
-Typically find 30-40 hairs after shampooing my hair.

Hopefully collecting this information will help ease others worries with what hair loss is considered normal.

Edited August 30, 2022 by SeanToman

[jr1986]

At the age of 22 I noticed a lot of hair in the sink which caused a fair bit of panic, probably 50+. Read that it can be a leading indicator of short cycling hair and with a dad who was bald by 35 it was alarming. 

Over the years I noticed it again and again. Only by the age of 33 did I notice actual thinning of my hair. 

Do keep an eye out for poor quality, thin hairs being shed as I believe that can be and indicator of hair miniaturisation.

 

[LaserCaps]

29 minutes ago, jr1986 said:

At the age of 22 I noticed a lot of hair in the sink which caused a fair bit of panic, probably 50+. Read that it can be a leading indicator of short cycling hair and with a dad who was bald by 35 it was alarming. 

Over the years I noticed it again and again. Only by the age of 33 did I notice actual thinning of my hair. 

Do keep an eye out for poor quality, thin hairs being shed as I believe that can be and indicator of hair miniaturisation.

 

There are two types of loss.  The type you see and the type you don't.  What you do see in the sink, shower, brush, pillowcase is normal.  The follicle gets tired of producing hair and goes into a dormant period.  3-4 months later the hair returns.  This will happen randomly to all the hair in your head and not all at the same time.  100 hairs a day is considered normal.  Hair loss is different, you don't see it.

Under a bright light start looking at the hair in your temporal areas.  Notice each strand.  Pay particular attention to the caliber.  Some thick and robust while others very thin and wispy.  Eventually the hair dissipates and disappears.  We refer to this process as miniaturization. Once gone, it never returns.

Propecia, Rogaine, RPP and Laser are the modalities we typically refer to when dealing with this debilitating condition.  The mechanism of action of each is totally different and are synergistic when combined.  Get on them and stay on them as soon as you realize there is hair loss. (Which does bring up a question.  If there is family history of hair loss, but you are not experiencing any loss, should you just get on them as preventive medicine?) 

[jr1986]

As I understood it, mpb can cause shorter growth cycles, meaning more hair in the resting phase and more shedding. With each cycle hair begins to thin.

Where I'm thinning I don't really see thin and thick hairs together, more the hairs in the area are just a bit sick, lack the shine and colour of the rest of my hair, they are curlier, and harder to style. 

People fall into different camps when it comes to treatments. I've seen people on finasteride just in case where as some leave it too late. 

[SeanT1]

Just now, jr1986 said:

As I understood it, mpb can cause shorter growth cycles, meaning more hair in the resting phase and more shedding. With each cycle hair begins to thin.

Where I'm thinning I don't really see thin and thick hairs together, more the hairs in the area are just a bit sick, lack the shine and colour of the rest of my hair, they are curlier, and harder to style. 

People fall into different camps when it comes to treatments. I've seen people on finasteride just in case where as some leave it too late. 

That's interesting.. would you consider shampooing every second day too much?

[Rahal Hair Transplant]

Sean,

It’s actually quite normal to lose between 50 to 100 hairs a day so if you happen to see a good number of hairs in the shower, I wouldn’t be too concerned. All hair including healthy hair goes through was calling natural growth cycle. There are four phases to the cycle and one of them is the shedding phase.   Rest assured, The follicle underneath the surface of the scalp is healthy and will produce new hair even after the old hair has fallen out.  

I know 50 to 100 hair sounds like a lot but the human head has a large number of hairs, approximately 100,000.  So with that to say, depending on what you’re trying to gauge, a more accurate poll might ask something like, “approximately how many hairs do you lose per day - (ex: in the shower, on your pillow, etc.)”. The ranges should extend upward to at least 100+. Anybody who selects the latter ones may be experiencing androgenetic alopecia.  The current poll you have going on won’t necessarily show if anybody is losing hair due to genetic hair loss or not.

I hope this helps.

Rahal Hair Transplant

[jr1986]

3 minutes ago, SeanToman said:

That's interesting.. would you consider shampooing every second day too much?

I only use shampoo once a week at most. For some reason I find head and shoulders irritates the area I'm thinning in. I don't know why. 

Sometimes I wonder if I have some other scalp condition but I've never been to anyone to look. Doubt my gp would be interested given the backlog of patients they have

 

 

[thetdog666]

My hair amount varies depending how long ago I washed it. If i haven't washed for 2 -3 days then it is a lot higher than when I am washing it everyday

Edited August 30, 2022 by thetdog666

[GoliGoliGoli]

TBH, I've never really seen hairs in the shower like at the bottom of the tub or anything. Don't they all get washed down the drain for you guys?

I try to judge my rate of loss by drying my hair off with my hands immediately after I turn the water off while I'm still in the shower and seeing how many hairs are on my hands. Typically I have between 5-10 hairs on each hand after I do this. 

[NARMAK]

I noticed for myself, that some days when i wash my hair even with just water, it seema like barley any hair come loose and fall. Maybe less than 10, but the  there's the days where i might shampoo and you notice easily 20+ hairs. 

Personally i don't go too much on my hair shedding as a gauge of hair loss per se, as i'm on Dutasteride for over a year now and i don't think i'm dealing with dandruff, inflammation and itchy scalp as much as i used to, which has probably helped alongside having a colder water temperature which seems to have started helping. 

There's other things like Vitamin D and more water that i'm drinking, but it's just going to show, you need to keep on top of you overall health. 

Overall, i remember somebody saying 50-100 hairs a day is a normal range, but somebody did say, well if you're a Norwood 6/7, is that supposed to still be normal? And i thought about it, at first i thought maybe not but i do think actually it still seems within an acceptable range. 

[GoliGoliGoli]

2 minutes ago, NARMAK said:

I noticed for myself, that some days when i wash my hair even with just water, it seema like barley any hair come loose and fall. Maybe less than 10, but the  there's the days where i might shampoo and you notice easily 20+ hairs. 

I'm still confused, where do you guys notice these 20+ hairs? On the bottom of the tub? 

[NARMAK]

49 minutes ago, GoliGoliGoli said:

I'm still confused, where do you guys notice these 20+ hairs? On the bottom of the tub? 

Usually when i wash my hair and put my hands through my hair, it's the hair that sticks but there's a hair catcher you can buy if you really want to be definitive about it.