After pregnancy, women suffer from problems like hairloss, acne breakouts and eye dark circles. Aman Dua tells us how to deal with these complications
Pregnancy is a blissful period for both skin and hair. Usually, women have radiant skin and luscious hair during pregnancy, if their nutritional status is well kept. After delivery, the hormonal withdrawal results in skin changes like pigmentation, acne breakouts, under eye dark circles, sagginess of skin, stretch marks and hairloss. These, added to post delivery mood swings can be very depressing as self esteem regarding body image is already lowered.
Hairloss after delivery can happen due to many reasons. The main causative factor is hormonal withdrawal. Female hormones present during pregnancy are promoters of hair growth. After delivery, the withdrawal of these hormones takes around 4-6 months to be appreciated. This withdrawal correlates with the time of teething of the child leading to the popular belief that teething leads to hair loss in mother. Other causative factors which contribute are excessive blood loss during delivery leading to iron deficiency, low calcium and vitamin D levels, poor nutrition, stress and lack of sleep.
If one wants to avoid hairloss during postpartum period, one has to be careful of nutrition level during pregnancy. High protein and iron rich diet during pregnancy takes care of hair loss later. Also one should avoid crash dieting after delivery. Rapid weight loss leads to more hair loss. Watch intake of water and proteins like egg whites, soya, milk, sprouts, paneer, curd, almonds, walnut, figs and dal. Haldi or turmeric has hair growth properties and if taken as the last thing at night in hot milk works wonders for hair growth.
Avoid chemical treatments like hair rebonding and streaking as hair is already in a shedding phase and would break more. One should take care of the product use. Excessive oil massages are also not good as they lead to breakage of already weak hair. Overnight oiling should be avoided, rather application of warm oil like olive oil, coconut oil or almond oil, 15-20 minutes before head bath can act as good moisturisers for hair. Excessive use of hot water for head bath should be avoided. Use mild shampoos and conditioners.
Stress, along with lack of sleep can cause of hair loss in post delivery period. One should try to get as much rest as possible and time sleep pattern as per baby. Also watch serum hemoglobin and ferritin levels along with vitamin D3. Skin also shows a lot of changes like acne breakouts due to hormonal changes and diet patterns. One must drink lots of water along with salads and fruits. Avoid fat rich and sugary diet. It will also promote skin lightening. The so called pregnancy mask or melasma on face can also improve with good diet. Avoid heavy sun exposure like sitting in sun in winters and use good quality sunscreen while moving out. Acne can improve with anti-acne face wash and use of oil free moisturisers. Use of cold water for face wash is recommended as hot water dries out skin leading to skin chapping. Avoid facials in acne. One can go for home made masks. Regular grooming of skin along with proper sleep restores one’s self confidence.
The author is the director of AK Clinics