Is Your Hair Trying to Tell You Something?
Summer is here, and for many of us, so is the annual ritual of pulling more hair than usual out of a hairbrush and quietly hoping it's nothing.
Sometimes it is nothing. But sometimes, your hair is the first place your body waves a flag.
As a trichologist, the most common thing I hear in clinic is some version of: "I thought I was imagining it." A bit more on the pillow. A ponytail that feels thinner. A parting that looks slightly wider than it did six months ago. Small changes, easy to dismiss until they aren't.
July is actually one of the busiest months in trichology clinics, and there's a reason for that. Hair operates on a delay. The hair you're losing now is often responding to something that happened two to four months ago — a period of stress, illness, rapid weight loss, a change in medication, a difficult winter. The body diverts its resources during times of pressure, and hair, being non-essential to survival, is often the first thing to feel it.
So what should you actually be looking out for?
Normal hair loss sits at around 50 to 100 strands per day. That sounds like a lot until you consider how many hairs are on the average head, somewhere between 100,000 and 150,000. A little daily shedding is entirely natural and nothing to worry about.
What's worth paying attention to is a change from your normal. If your shower drain is significantly busier than it was, if your hair feels noticeably lighter in your hands, if you're seeing more scalp than you used to, those are signals worth taking seriously.
The earlier, the better.
This is the thing that matters most, and it's the message I find myself repeating in clinic more than any other: early intervention makes a real difference. Many of the most common causes of hair loss, nutritional deficiencies, hormonal shifts, scalp conditions, stress-related shedding, are highly responsive to the right support when caught early. Leaving it, hoping it settles, waiting another few months to see, that's time that can make a meaningful difference to outcomes.
A trichology consultation isn't a dramatic step. It's a conversation. We look at your scalp, talk through your health history, discuss what's changed, and work out together what's actually going on. Often there's a straightforward explanation and a clear path forward. Sometimes the most valuable thing is simply being told: this is what's happening, and here's why.
A word on July specifically.
If you've had a stressful spring, and many people have, you may be starting to see the effects of that now. If you went through illness, a change in diet, significant life disruption, or started a new medication earlier in the year, your hair may be telling you about it right now, in July.
It's not a coincidence. It's biology. And it's worth listening to.
If something has felt off with your hair recently and you've been putting off doing anything about it, consider this your nudge. A trichology appointment is a straightforward, non-invasive way to get proper answers and to stop wondering.
Nicola Wood is a trichologist and Director of The Wonderful Wig Company, with clinics in Newcastle, Sunderland, and Carlisle. To book a trichology consultation, Click here
