Nearly a quarter of COVID-19 patients suffer from hair loss within six months of infection, with women at greater risk, according to a new study published in the medical journal, The Lancet.
Hair loss has been reported in people who have recovered from COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes hair loss as a potential long-term effect of COVID-19 that’s currently under investigation.
The hair loss that’s seen following COVID-19 is consistent with a condition called telogen effluvium (TE). People with TE report hair loss that comes on suddenly. Hair typically falls out in large clumps, often while brushing or showering.
Most people who develop TE have noticeable hair loss 2 to 3 months after a triggering event. This typically affects less than half of the scalp and lasts for 6 to 9 months. After this period, most people find that the lost hair regrows.
How does this relate to COVID-19?
One of the potential triggers for TE is an acute illness with fever. People who’ve become ill with COVID-19 often experience fever as one of their symptoms.
Stress is another potential trigger for TE. Certainly, experiencing an illness like COVID-19 can cause both physical and emotional stress. In fact, TE has also been observed in some people due to the stresses of quarantining.
What’s the mechanism of TE?
Hair has different growth phases. TE happens when a stressor causes a large amount of hair to stop growing and enter into the resting (telogen) phase.
In the telogen phase, hairs rest for 2 to 3 months before being shed from your scalp to allow for new hair growth. This is why hair loss due to TE happens so long after a triggering event, such as an illness or highly stressful period.
Hair Loss
We all naturally shed hair on a daily basis. In fact, it’s common for a person to shed 50 to 100 hairs per day.
However, sometimes the hair that’s shed isn’t replaced with new hair, eventually leading to hair thinning and bald patches. This is called hair loss.
We often think of hair loss as affecting only the scalp. However, it can occur on other parts of the body too.
The medical term for hair loss is alopecia.
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