Will getting a haircut keep my hair from falling out?

I recently received an email from a woman saying that she had very long hair. Over the past few months, her hair had fallen out much more than was normal for her. I had read on some forums that sometimes the weight of long hair can pull out the hair shaft and lead to loss. So, I wanted to know if cutting your hair much shorter could stop it from falling out. I have a definitive opinion on this based on my own experience and research. I will share it in the next article.

The difference between traction alopecia and hair loss: There are cases where wearing your hair in very tight braids or ponytails can cause the hair to break or fall out. This is called traction alopecia and it is well documented. Usually, if you examine the hair, you will see that some of it has come off. You will see short, jagged strands that indicate breaks.

Or sometimes the weight is so much that instead of breaking, the hair actually pulls out. If you were to take one of these spent hairs and examine the tip, you would probably see that at the end (on the bulb that comes from your follicle) the dark colored sheath is still in place. If this is hard to imagine, grab a strand of your hair, hold it tight, and pull. Then examine the ending. Since the strand was forcibly pulled out, the sheath that is supposed to protect it will still be intact.

If your hair is coming out and falling out due to traction alopecia, then in theory you should see this very sheath when examining the strands that have come out (without pulling them) by stopping the practice of too much weight.

Hair loss usually falls out instead of being pulled: If your hair falls out due to conditions like telogen effluvium (TE) or AGA (androgenic alopecia), you will often see a bulb that looks somewhat different. Since the strand comes out because something is bringing the hair into the shedding phase of its life cycle, instead of seeing the sheath, you will generally see a white bulb. It has to do with the alteration of the growth and rest phase in the hair cycles.

It is true that there are people who swear that their fall improved once they got their hair cut. I had a few days’ respite from losing my hair in the days after my hair was cut. But I suspect this has more to do with the fact that the beautician handled the locks a lot during the cut. So the strands that were going to come out in the next few days ended up on the living room floor instead of yours. So after this, you will see less hair and you can assume that it is the cut that helped your fall. Unfortunately, as time goes on, many people see that the same volume of shedding eventually comes back, which was always the case for me.

Now, if your loss is due to the weight of your hair, then yes, cutting yourself could help in this situation. But, I find this to be the exception rather than the rule. And if this is the case, you can sometimes see a difference in what you are seeing at the end of the thread. However, in general, this type of loss does not usually result in the high levels of loss that we see with spill.

Trimming your hair can certainly help improve your appearance. A good cut can make you feel better and can give the illusion of more volume. Therefore, it can definitely be worth going for a cut. But making drastic style changes is not likely to stop some of the common causes of shedding like TE and AGA.