Losing Your Hair After COVID-19? There Is Good News University of Utah Health

Table Of Content

• What are other more common or typical symptoms of COVID-19?
• How Stress Can Affect Hair Loss And What To Do About It
• Unusual Covid Symptoms — and What to Do About Them
• Authorship
• Recovery From Alopecia After COVID-19
• Do not sell my personal information Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
• Are you losing your hair? A dermatologist breaks down some FAQs.

The supplementation of iron or zinc can be a treatment option for treating the deficiency of these minerals [9]. Although hair loss is not life-threatening, it can considerably affect the patient’s quality of life; hence, physicians need to provide complete care for such patients [4]. Furthermore, physicians need to reduce anxiety by explaining to patients their conditions, sharing medical information, and eliminating their psychophysical stress by managing various systemic complications. Unfortunately, there are only a few reports, such as our case, wherein the hair loss was recovered to the original state [10].

What are other more common or typical symptoms of COVID-19?

Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 22 using T-test and Chi-square. A new paper published in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology sums up what is known about this potentially distressing condition. Among the 806 subjects diagnosed with COVID-19, 490 (60.8%) were females, and 491 (60.9%) were single.

Hair Loss After Covid: What to Know - The New York Times

Hair Loss After Covid: What to Know.

Posted: Fri, 30 Sep 2022 07:00:00 GMT [source]

How Stress Can Affect Hair Loss And What To Do About It

Of the participants, 196 (46.12%) noticed hair loss one to three months after having COVID-19, followed by 119 (28%) who noticed it one week or less after contracting COVID-19. A total of 140 (32.94%) participants suffered hair loss for more than six months after being infected with COVID-19, while in 111 (26.12%) participants, hair loss lasted one to three months. In response to questions about hair loss complaints pre-pandemic and a family history of alopecia, 426 (52.9%) and 539 (66.9%) participants reported not having previous hair loss or a family history of alopecia, respectively. The majority (86%) of the participants who experienced alopecia had not consulted a dermatologist for this problem (Table ​(Table33). It is characterized by non-scarring, diffuse hair loss from the scalp. It occurs as a reaction to various insults that can be physical, mental, or chemical, resulting in a premature follicular transition from the anagen (active growth phase) to the telogen (resting phase).

Unusual Covid Symptoms — and What to Do About Them

One of these is telogen effluvium which is related to post COVID-19 comorbidities. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of telogen effluvium among COVID-19 patients. This observational cross-sectional study included 198 patients who were admitted for COVID-19.

People experiencing female pattern baldness may also notice a general thinning of hair on the top of your head, but hair loss typically won’t occur on the front of your scalp, per Harvard Health. Hair loss is not common in the acute phase of COVID-19, but a sequela of COVID-19 is observed in approximately 20% of the patients [2]. Most cases are TE, secondary to the physical or psychological distress of COVID-19 [6]. Androgenetic alopecia is considered a risk factor for severe COVID-19 (named the “Gabrin sign”) [8]; however, this is not a sequela. The stress of COVID treatment, or pandemic life, can also be a factor in hair loss. Wolf said it’s not surprising that people experience hair loss after having a high fever or being placed on a ventilator during a hospital stay since all are mentally and physically stressful situations.

Alopecia areata can be exacerbated by other health conditions, including COVID-19, but this is not the type of hair loss most people are experiencing after the virus. Traction alopecia is the result of environmental factors, such as wearing your hair in tight hairstyles, Agbai says. Telogen effluvium refers to the excessive shedding of hair follicles, and it occurs when hair follicles prematurely skip to the end of the hair growth cycle, she adds. The alopecia had spread diffusely, and there were no prominent alopecia spots; thus, we suspected the condition to be telogen effluvium (TE).

According to the Cleveland Clinic, 50 million people assigned male at birth and 30 million people assigned female at birth in the U.S. experience this type of hair loss, which is largely genetic, although hormones also play a role. Baldness is often hereditary, and is activated by a shift in your hormones. If you’re experiencing elevated levels of the hormone dihydrotestosterone (DHT), your body will respond by shrinking your hair follicles and reducing the length of the hair growth cycle, according to Cleveland Clinic. Since November 2021, almost two years have passed since the beginning of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Studies have revealed that more than one-third of patients with COVID-19 develop a range of persistent symptoms after the acute phase of the infection [1-2].

They are being studied for their potential use in COVID-19 treatment. One large study from Korea retrospectively examined AA in COVID-19, finding no correlation between the two. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that empowers people to choose how they live as they age. Michelle Crouch is a contributing writer who has covered health and personal finance for some of the nation’s top consumer publications. Her work has appeared in  Reader’s Digest,  Real Simple,  Prevention,  The Washington Post and  The New York Times.

Are you losing your hair? A dermatologist breaks down some FAQs.

The phenomenon is especially common among long COVID patients who continue experiencing symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog and shortness of breath weeks or months after recovering from the initial infection. But long COVID patients are often surprised by the hair loss symptom. This is likely because their bodies are undergoing a significant amount of stress and are still not quite back to normal. Perng reassures patients who experience chronic telogen effluvium that they will not lose all of their hair, because the proportion of telogen hairs never exceeds 50 percent.

The patients who suffer from TE are anxious and usually worry about their hair. Therefore, TE has a dramatic impact on their psychological health and mind [2]. TE results from an abnormal hair cycle in which the growing phase decreases, and follicles enter the telogen phase prematurely.

Dr. John Wolf, chair and professor of dermatology at Baylor College of Medicine, discussed how this can happen and how to manage it. Another unique feature of the effluvium seen post-COVID-19 is the significant overlay of psychoemotional stress. This is unlike any other infection, which leads to telogen effluvium because the ambient stress caused the pandemic itself and contributed to a large extent by the restriction measures taken to prevent the spread of the disease. Telogen effluvium would be one of the important aspects of long COVID, which will impact the quality of life of the affected person. However, the definite mechanisms of hair shedding following COVID-19 infection are not well known and further studies to elucidate the exact mechanisms are required [7]. Although hair loss is considered a benign condition, it can be devastating to a patient’s self-esteem, self-image, and overall quality of life.

Chinta holds a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the Indian Institute of Science and is passionate about science education, writing, animals, wildlife, and conservation. For her doctoral research, she explored the origins and diversification of blindsnakes in India, as a part of which she did extensive fieldwork in the jungles of southern India. She has received the Canadian Governor General’s bronze medal and Bangalore University gold medal for academic excellence and published her research in high-impact journals. Similar to the results from other studies, the researchers reported that the Omicron variant caused loss of smell less frequently than the different variants.