Dr. Jen Ashton Opens Up About Her Personal Covid Hair Loss Journey L Gma

I actually have three causes for my hair, breakage and thinning hair and some hair loss. One of them is covid which we're going to be talking about extensively, and i know that's affecting a lot of people. Estimates are like over 20 percent of people, probably who have had covet my story: uh with thinning hair and some hair loss and hair breakage um in relation to my covid19 started, i think in january dr jen has some personal news that she has asked us to Share with all of you, she has tested positive for covet 19. january 11th. I tested positive for covet 19. This was after having been fully vaccinated and boosted now that it's just over three months roughly later is really when i started to notice a major change. The two things that i noticed were loss of volume really really like almost nothing for me to you know hold on to it when i put my hair up in a ponytail and then breakage okay. So let's talk about what we know in the world of dermatology and medicine, about covid19 related hair loss, there's a difference with the way covet 19 seems to be impacting the hair follicle difference from other acute illnesses. There are three phases of hair growth or that every hair follicle on your head is in either one of these phases. It'S called anagen, catagen or telogen. Basically, anagen is the growth phase. Telogen is the falling out phase. Catagen is kind of the resting phase when people get covid19 related hair loss they're getting dysfunction in that anagen phase. The telogen loss, which is what we see in other things like pregnant after pregnancy, is about 25 of the hair loss seen in people who have had covet 19. now. Why is this important? According to the life cycle of a hair follicle? This is relevant because it affects when what the timeline is by which someone could start to notice hair loss following covet 19. hair loss after covid can begin as early as 18 to 47 days after infection. That'S compared to telogen effluvium, which typically takes three to six months. We don't know yet who is more at risk? It does appear that if you've had more severe covid19 you're more likely to experience this, but you can experience this with mild covet 19 illness as well. Unfortunately, at this point, there's nothing unknown that we can do to specifically prevent covid19 related hair loss. However, when you talk about treatments for thinning hair, breaking hair or hair loss, there are many many things we can do. The first thing is behavior, so i've called it resting your hair. What does that mean? It means if you're, someone who is washing your hair or styling your hair every single day, stop that lay off the hot styling tools: curling, irons, flat, irons, hair dryers, pulling of hair. The other thing that has both pros and cons are the use of weaves or hair extensions. There are tracks of clip in hair extensions, all other types of weaves and hair extensions that can be used by women with all different types of hair. I have covered hair loss and this is my new best friend it's a new flippin ponytail. They can also call cause a phenomenon known as traction alopecia, just because they're, heavy and they're placed you know close to your scalp, which is the strongest part of your hair. They can pull on your hair and actually forcibly detach your hair, so dermatologists are very kind of cautionary before they recommend that any woman use hair extensions, other options, hats head scarves, i'm a big fan of those, and i just think it's super easy. No one cares. How dirty your hair is? No one cares. What your hair looks like the other thing is products. If you look at the ingredients in any hair product, you will see alcohol in almost every single one. So what does that mean? That means you want to try to minimize the use of anything with alcohol in it. It will dry out your hair even more. We don't yet know whether that hair loss that people have experienced with covit 19 will come back, whether it will correct itself. It is looking promising and encouraging. We still don't know what percentage breakdown will regain or regrow their hair after clovid19, but the bottom line is it takes time how much time anywhere from three to six months up to a year?