Why is my hair falling out?!
Nobody warns you that hair loss might be part of this. You brace for the incision, possibly the wheelchair, the walker, the not-bending. What catches you completely off guard and is especially jarring to see? The hair loss. Sitting on a shower bench and watching as what seems like a million strands of hair clogging the drain. Between tears, I thought, "What the hell is happening?!"
It's not in the recovery pamphlets. It's not even what the surgeon covers at the two-week follow-up. But telogen effluvium, hair shedding brought on by physical stress, illness, surgery, or prolonged bed rest, is common enough that it has its own name, and common enough that it's worth knowing about instead of discovering by surprise in the shower!
Surprise, surprise!
Mine happened around the 2 month mark, some friends I came to know in recovery had theirs around the 12 week mark.
The closest thing I can compare it to is post-partum hair loss, except worse. But, try not to let that scare you. (Always looking for the bright side, ha!)
The timing is part of what makes it so frustrating and disorienting- as if we needed more to add to our list, right? It doesn't show up right after surgery, when you're already braced for things to feel harder. It tends to show up later, once the incision's healed and people have stopped asking how you're doing, and by then you even sort of forget to connect the two things at all.
So what do you do? Welp. Hate to tell you, there's no tidy amount of reassurance to hand over here.
For some people it's a handful of extra strands and it's gone in a month. For others it's enough to notice in photos, enough to change how a ponytail or ballcap sits, and it hangs around longer than anyone wants it to.
There are some things I found after madly googling that helped hide the spots, especially around the hairline where mine happened. I tried a few and honestly they all did the job, but the one I'd hand you first is Color Wow Root Cover Up- it's a little pressed powder you brush on along the part and the hairline, and it stays put until you shampoo it out. The other one I kept reaching for was Toppik Hair Building Fibers, the sprinkle-on kind, which covers more ground faster.
Whether it eases up, and how fast, isn't something that can be promised or told…that's a real question for your doctor, especially if it doesn't let up or if it's paired with other symptoms.
What's true either way is that it's one more thing this stretch of experience takes without asking…in addition to the mobility…and the sleep…and the six other things nobody puts on the pre-op checklist!
Before spine surgery: your room-by-room checklist
Two pages, free. What to move before you can't bend.