I accidentally stopped and prevented postpartum hair loss with my twin pregnancy. Seriously. At the time of writing this, as I’m preparing to celebrate my twins’ first birthdays in the not-too-distant future, my ponytail is still thicker than it has ever been, and my claw clips still don’t work and fit like they used to because I have more hair now. I’m still waiting for postpartum hair loss to truly start. And honestly? I don’t think it will. I truly think I beat postpartum hair loss!
The Best Postpartum Hair Loss Remedy: My Accidental Finding
I’m no different to you, I promise. I had so much hair loss with my first baby. I felt a pit in my stomach each time I’d stare at my hairbrush after brushing my hair from about four months postpartum onwards. I felt my mom bun growing thinner and thinner. I developed a notable baby fringe. You name it, I lived it.
So this time around with my twins, I wanted to be more proactive about it – but then twin life and the harsh reality of a twin pregnancy took over. Yes, there were a million and one things already going through my mind with my pregnancy that I just didn’t have time to research what I could be doing to help prevent postpartum hair loss. As it turned out, I was already accidentally doing the right thing: taking high-quality collagen powder. Specifically, this Nature’s Way one. I’m in no way connected with them, so I don’t have any links, but this is what it looks like.
Collagen For Postpartum Hair Loss
I did not start taking collagen for hair loss. I started taking it for two reasons: the first is that it is recommended to consume a crazy amount of collagen to help sustain a healthy twin pregnancy – my goal was 150g daily. With this powder, each serving that I popped into my morning coffee contained 17g of protein, which is equivalent to over half a chicken breast. The second reason I started taking it is that I developed the dreaded PUPPP rash, and I read about taking it on a forum where people shared what they did to cure their PUPPP naturally. So that’s about the time I started taking it – week 25 or thereabouts of my twin pregnancy.
As it turns out, given that taking this collagen supplement is the only thing I’ve done differently this time around compared to my first postpartum period (I’ve kept all my vitamins the same, I’m breastfeeding, and so on), I’m 100% convinced it’s what has done the trick. And I’ve been recommending it to all my twin mom friends (and those I know expecting twins – and singletons) ever since. I’ve also refused to give it up, just in case. I’ll make it to at least two years postpartum until I do, just to be safe haha.
What Does Collagen Do?
Looking at the publications from medical nutrition journals, it looks like one of the keys is that collagen is made up of amino acids, and our bodies use these amino acids to build keratin, which comprises 95% of our hair. Interestingly, collagen also comprises approximately 80% of our skin, as well as being the protein building block for our cartilage, joints and muscles. There are several types of collagen too, with those found most in the body classed as type I, II and III.
Deviating away from hair for a moment, it looks like there’s a lot more research on the other benefits of collagen – such as supporting skin strength and hydration, helping with joint pain and mobility, and supporting nail health. Now that I think about it, I actually got zero stretch marks with my twin pregnancy, too. Honestly, I just assumed that was because of genetics (and it well could be the reason) as I didn’t get stretch marks with my firstborn, either. But given how absolutely huge my belly got with my twin pregnancy – growing out like several giant basketballs, now that I’ve looked into it, I’m wondering if there was more to it and the collagen may have helped. I guess I’ll never know!
Back to postpartum hair loss: so it looks like taking high-quality collagen, ideally in the form of bovine collagen which the one I use is, really could make a difference. And it may even be worthwhile to incorporate it into our partner’s diet: a six-month randomized controlled study showed that taking a collagen supplement decreased hair shedding and promoted hair growth in men too. My husband doesn’t take it, but I’ll be letting him know this study outcome for sure.
Best Sources Of Collagen During Pregnancy
While I chose to use a collagen powder, I think it’s absolutely possible to just get it from your diet if you’re not interested in supplements. Especially as I do cringe at the cost of the powder I use – but obviously not enough to stop using it because I truly believe it’s helping me.
Meat, eggs, dairy, soy and legumes all contain collagen. Bone broth, which many of us know as the health fad recently trending that is made by simmering bones (like in a soup), is particularly renowned for its collagen content. Fish is an excellent source too, with the skin being particularly collagen-rich, if you’re able to eat it in some capacity. Other noteworthy sources include chicken, beef, and pork, especially parts of the animal that are rich in connective tissue like joints and ligaments. If you’re not into animal products, that’s okay! Egg whites and certain dairy products can provide collagen, although in smaller amounts. On that note, foods high in vitamin C like oranges and leafy greens can enhance the body’s ability to produce collagen. I’m not sure I personally increased my intake of these – but if I had known I may have tried to.
Honestly, I think at this stage I’m just eager to recommend the collagen supplement to help with postpartum hair loss because I’m still astonished at my own results and I just don’t know if you’ll experience the same from just eating meat or other sources of dietary collagen alone. And I absolutely want you to feel the same way I do postpartum because the reality is, that after a twin pregnancy, I became so self-conscious of so many parts of my body, that it was refreshing that my hair was not on this list.
Let me know if you have any questions! Happy to share everything I did. I have also recently learned that your thyroid can help with postpartum hair loss (as I had hypothyroidism so mine was underactive).
