The COVID-19 Side Effect No One Is Talking About: Tellogen Effluvium
When I first suspected that I was losing my hair, I felt like maybe I was also losing my grip on reality. This was the summer of 2020. Although the previous three months had been difficult for virtually everyone, I had managed to escape relatively unscathed.
If you’ve never gone from normal hair to bald spots in a matter of weeks, you might be tempted to dismiss this as vanity. But people value their hair because the society they live in tells them it’s important. Women in particular have been told for centuries that their hair is their glory. A full head of hair is still a crude, unscientific shorthand for youth, for healthy living, for vitality. Losing it can send people into a profound depression, or make them ashamed to leave the house.
Among the millions of Americans who have been infected by the coronavirus, hair loss has been a common consequence, both for patients whose symptoms resolve in a couple of weeks and for those who develop long COVID. Researchers do not yet know exactly how prevalent hair loss is among COVID-19 patients, but one study found that among those hospitalized, 22 percent were still dealing with hair loss months later.
Now my hair was falling out for no appreciable reason. Or at least I thought it was—how much hair in the shower drain is enough to be sure that you’re not imagining things?”
– Amanda Mull, staff writer, The Atlantic
Researchers do not yet know exactly how prevalent hair loss is among COVID-19 patients, but one study found that among those hospitalized, 22 percent were still dealing with hair loss months later.
THE ATLANTIC, NOVEMBER 12, 2021
Finding Hair Loss Solutions in a Sea of “Hollow Promises”
Navigating the hair-loss battle is difficult for anyone–add in COVID-19 related symptoms and the fight is downright overwhelming. While the well of hair-loss products offering a solution will never run dry, the best answer to your hair-loss conundrum is always the same: ask as many questions as you need to understand what is happening to you.
According Esther Freeman, dermatologist and epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School and the principal investigator for the COVID-19 Dermatology Registry which collects reports of COVID-19’s effects on skin, nails, and hair, many cases of TE (tellogen effluvium) have been caused by COVID-19 infection itself.
THE ATLANTIC, NOVEMBER 12, 2021
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