I often hear from people who are sure that their worst fear will come true. And when it comes to telogen effluvium, this is understandable. Because your reality has turned into big clumps of hair in the shower drain and on your brush. Seeing all this hair loss day after day can become quite alarming. You may start to wonder if, at this rate, you are going to go bald. And then you start to wonder if you should go wig shopping, just in case.
I heard someone say, “I’ve had severe telogen effluvium for the past two and a half months. I’m losing tons and tons of hair. I counted the hairs once and there were over 500. At this rate, I feel like I’ll see through the hair.” soon. I started looking at wig and hairpiece websites, but my husband says I’m being ridiculous. He admits my hair looks thinner than it used to be, but says I’m nowhere near needing a wig. I understand what he’s saying , but my hair can’t fall out like that day after day without almost going bald.Is it silly of me to think that I’ll need a wig with my aggressive telogen effluvium?
It’s certainly not dumb. Unless you’ve been through this yourself (and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone), you have no idea how annoying it can be. Yes, it may seem to the people in our lives that we’re adopting a pessimistic attitude and assuming the worst case scenario, but it’s hard not to when you’re losing so much hair every day. Often, we hope for the best. We try positive thinking in the hope that we’ll wake up the next morning to find it’s over. But despite this, nothing seems to change. Below I will try to put this into perspective from my own experience and try to offer you some reassurance.
Understand that classic telogen effluvium should only take about three months: I know it probably looks like you are losing an unnatural amount of hair. But chances are you have more than you think at first. In three months, there is no doubt that your hair will take a beating and look thinner and without volume. But most people won’t need a wig after three months. Yes, you may have to learn some styling techniques to get the most out of what you have. And you probably won’t be completely satisfied with your hair until it starts to grow back steadily. But my hair fell out at an alarming rate (and it lasted well over three months) and although I bought a topper just in case, I never ended up using it.
Know that hair starts to grow back as soon as it falls out: People often have the misconception that in order for their hair to grow back and heal, all shedding needs to stop. This is not the case. As soon as a hair falls out, the follicle replaces it. It takes a couple of months for it to be long enough to be easily seen, but this process continues the entire time you are moving. In order for you to go bald, you would have to not regrow hair and this does not happen with telogen effluvium. Now, if you have any androgen components to your hair loss, then you’ll need to be on the lookout for miniaturization to ensure that your new growth is not compromised and that it provides as much coverage as it should. But know that your hair can grow back and shed at the same time.
So, to answer the question posed, it is my opinion and experience that if you have true telogen effluvium (or even the chronic type that resolves relatively quickly), you probably won’t need a wig, although you may feel that way. Of course, some hair loss conditions are thought to be this type of hair loss at first and then turn out to be something else. But if you have a known trigger and you’re pretty sure you’re dealing with telogen effluvium, then it makes sense to wait and try to make the most of what you have while supporting healthy growth and knowing that the shedding should eventually stop. before a wig is necessary.
