I often hear from people who can’t help but examine hairs that are falling out when they think they have telogen effluvium (which is commonly referred to as TE). Not only do many people count the hairs, but many look very closely along the length and also at the ends to see if they have bulbs or markings. They often have questions about what they are saying. I heard someone say, “I have noticed that lately, most of the hair that I am falling out is very short. Many have blunt ends. Why could this be happening? Does this mean that the hair that I am growing back can ? ” t be maintained? “I will try to answer these questions in the next article.

Short hair loss can mean that you are still going through different hair growth and regrowth cycles: Many people assume that once their TE ends or ends, they will simply continue normal hair cycles and be able to resume their previously healthy hair program. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Some people go through a few cycles until their hair growth cycles are “normal” again. What this means is that your hair is still falling out while you, too, are growing back. Your body or scalp does not distinguish between long or combed hair. Just keep pouring out. And if you have been through TE, you will often have a lot of short hair growing out.

This does not necessarily mean that your regrowth will never take hold. Sometimes only a few more cycles are needed. However, it is necessary to eliminate the trigger that started the detachment. Ask yourself where you are in the shed. Has it only been a few weeks? A few months? Short hair shedding is more common in chronic telogen effluvium (shedding that lasts for six months or more) because it takes a few months before new growth begins and a few more to grow to a certain length. So by the time you see the short hairs fall out, it will likely have been more than a few months since the beginning of this process. If it’s been more than several months, then it might be time to see if there’s something else going on.

The possibility of ongoing triggers or androgenetic alopecia: Sometimes the shedding just continues and you’ve seen several cycles of short hairs keep falling out. At that point, if you are still certain that you are observing telogen effluvium, you may want to consider the possibility of continuous or multiple triggers. Sometimes what caused the original detachment is over, but something else has triggered a new one. Or, other times, there is an ongoing trigger such as a medical problem or a medicine that doesn’t suit you.

The last thing to consider is that you could be seeing androgen-driven loss. The loss may start out as telogen effluvium and then develop into something else like androgenic alopecia (which is often referred to as AGA). Not surprisingly, androgenetic alopecia is initially thought of as telogen effluvium. And, losing short hair with AGA is common because people with this condition have a hard time maintaining healthy growth. It can help to observe the quality of the fallen hair. Are they miniaturized? (This means they look thin and whiskey-like, like peach fluff.)

The good news is that any of these cases can be addressed by supporting healthy regrowth, minimizing inflammation, and addressing androgens. But to answer the question posed, it may be normal to lose short hairs with telogen effluvium. But if the hairs are miniaturized or if this process takes too long, you may want to see if there is something else going on that can be addressed.