Another one of those things that nobody tells you about when you have kids is the post-pregnancy hair loss thing. Just a few months after giving birth your hormones make you start shedding hair like a dog. While at that stage it wasn’t that obvious to me how much hair I really lost (I have always been know for losing and leaving my hair everywhere) it became very clear a few months later when all the lost hair started growing back in. Suddenly there were millions of tiny baby hairs growing in all over my head while the length of the old hair started to look really sad and thin. With my hair’s tendency to frizz at just a hint of moisture you can imagine what that looked like. Like sporting an afro at the roots with a mullet in the back. Kind of like this:

Well, more like this:

See all the one-inch craziness going on around my face and the kinda droopy barely wavy hair in the back (emphasized by my sad face)? Not pretty. Compared to all the curls I had going on for most parts of my life:

And the peak of thick, curly and long hair during pregnancy:

 

Babycenter’s explanation for this phenomena is that “normally, about 85 to 95 percent of the hair on your head is growing and the other 5 to 15 percent is in a resting stage. After the resting period, this hair falls out — often while you’re brushing or shampooing it — and is replaced by new growth. An average woman sheds about 100 hairs a day.During pregnancy, increased levels of estrogen prolong the growing stage. There are fewer hairs in the resting stage and fewer falling out each day, so you have thicker, more luxuriant tresses. After you give birth, your estrogen levels take a tumble and a lot more hair follicles enter the resting stage. Soon you’ll have more hair coming out in the shower or on the brush. This unusual shedding will taper off and your hair will be back to its pre-pregnancy thickness about six to 12 months after you give birth.”

Say what?!! Will be back to it’s pre-pregnancy thickness? How is that possible? It’s gonna take about 5 years for all the mini hairs to catch up with the old long ones.

At this point I realized that there was probably a second good reason for moms to cut their hair shorter. While I bravely endured a baby and toddler pulling on my long hair that I proudly wore down almost every day, this hair loss finally made me do the unthinkable. Do what all moms do – chop them off. Four sad inches fell to the ground when I was getting a $9.90 haircut from my one and only favorite Hairdresser Zoreh at Mastercuts in the Columbia Mall. But it was all worth it.

I immediately felt so much lighter, fresher, and ten years younger. Lincoln says he has a brand new wife now and that’s kind of like I feel. I guess it was time.

As a special perk and to spread the joy of haircuts I actually have another one of those $9.90 haircut coupons to give away to any Columbia MD resident. Please reply to this post with “Chop’em off” and tell us what your hair is like these days. I will randomly draw a winner using random.org.