TELOGEN Effluvium

What is Telogen Effluvium?

Telogen Effluvium is a hair loss that has been caused by a severe and unexpected event of stress and the hair roots are forced prematurely into the resting phase. It could be acute and chronic. If the stress is severe more than 70% of the hair is being lost within months after the shocking event occurs. Hair appears thin initially and gradually gets lost.

In order to understand Telogen Effluvium one should know the hair growth process and stages:

Hair growth: The hair follicle has a long growth phase for 2 to 6 years (usually 3 years).

Transitional phase (3 weeks) when the hair degenerates

Resting phase (3 months) when the hair does nothing

Telogen phase: the hair growth process is restarted and the cycle repeats

In the telogen phase, something happens and hair starts falling. There is a large variety of reasons this could happen but some of them could be high fevers, surgery, excess vitamin A, emotional stress, severe injuries, certain prescription medication.

When does the recovery start?

After the stress and shock from the event is been released the process of recovery starts and hair might regrowth within six months.

Symptoms

The symptoms are hair loss during washing and combing, hair thinning, shine loss, dryness, lusterlessness.

Treatment

The hair recovers by itself after the shocking event passed. There’s no particular treatment given. It is recommendable though to handle gently the hair. The diet involves a lot of protein, fruit, and vegetables.