Many of the emails I receive from people struggling with telogen effluvium ask questions about the best way to deal with wet hair loss. When we get out of the shower or finish washing and conditioning our hair, that is when we would style it or style it if it was healthy and not falling out. But, when you have ET, combing through wet hair can mean you lose tons of it.
But, if you don’t comb it, it can dry out in a very unflattering way. Which means it can be unmanageable, volatile, or lacking in decent style. I recently heard someone say, “My hair is quite long and I’ve had telogen effluvium for about four months. After washing my hair very carefully, I’m not sure what to do. Because every time I comb or brush my wet hair, I notice that it falls out a lot more. This makes me not want to handle or touch my hair. But if I just let it dry, I get unruly strands going everywhere. Do I touch it? When I wait for it to dry, it’s too unmanageable.” ble”. I will try to address these concerns in the following article.
I came up with a regimen that worked pretty well for me when I had CTE (chronic telogen effluvium) and I’ll share it with you now. When your hair is falling out, it’s very important that you don’t pull or handle it too much. As you probably already know, just touching your hair will make it more likely to fall out. And, from a psychological point of view, it is important to avoid this as much as possible.
In my case, I would gently dry my hair as best I could. I would avoid combing or brushing my hair until it is completely dry (and would only do so when necessary). I would add spray conditioner to make it easier to manage. (Take care this is a light conditioner so your hair doesn’t look greasy.) Then I would very gently run my hands along the length of my hair shaft to get it set up nicely. Then I would put that same hair in a towel and put it on top of my head to dry. The act of collecting the hair in the towel would add volume. And getting him together first would help prevent him from going wild and flying. I would let my hair towel dry as long as possible. On a good day, I might just let my hair dry completely before removing it. If that wasn’t possible, I would towel dry my hair and then remove it once it was dry.
Now, once I got my hair out of the towel, it wouldn’t look so bad and any hairs that would have fallen out would catch up in the towel, saving me the hassle of removing worn hair from my clothes. Of course, there would be some flyaway hair, so I would smooth it out with my hands, fingers, or if necessary, a wide-tooth comb. This type of comb is very important because it does not pull as much. When my hair fell out a lot, I had to avoid curling irons or rollers because they only made more hair fall out. But this towel method allowed me some volume and style. And if I wanted wavy hair, I would gently twist the hair I’ve gathered up (sort of like a ponytail) and gently twist it before putting it on the towel. This would create some loose waves.
The important thing is not to pull wet hair. This isn’t a good idea when your scalp and hair are healthy and not falling out, but it’s a horrible idea when it is or when you have ET. Watching your hair fall out is bad enough, but accidentally pulling more of it can be almost unbearable. That’s why it’s important to treat your hair very gently, but handle it in a way that it looks good once it’s dry, so it doesn’t take a lot of work to get a nice look or hairstyle.
