Dr. Bauman explains why COVID can be related to hair loss and what you can do to help your hair recover.
(Video Transcript)
Hey, everybody! It's Dr. Alan Bauman from Bauman medical hair transplant and hair loss treatment center coming to you today on behalf of Strut. And one of the most common things that we've seen in the practice is COVID related hair loss. And personally, I've treated probably over a thousand COVID related hair loss patients in the past couple of years since this pandemic started.
Why does COVID affect your hair? How long will it affect your hair? Is it something that’s short lived, long term, does your hair rebound? Does it stay the same? Does it get better? Why is this happening and what can we do about it? Stay tuned. We're gonna talk about it.
So everybody knows from the beginning of the pandemic, COVID hospitalized lots of people. The cytokine storm attacked the whole body. The expression of inflammatory factors throughout the body, shut down organ systems as well as hair follicles. And people often after, really any kind of illness or flu or high fever, can experience a shedding phase, usually about six weeks after that kind of an insult.
We've seen that many, many times before. We knew it from the Spanish flu back in the early nineteen hundreds, and we've seen it again here with COVID. Usually, about four to six weeks later, you can get a shedding phase called telogen effluvium.
Now, how long does it last?
Usually, for most patients, it’s about six to twelve weeks before the shedding starts to slow down and hopefully the regrowth occurs. But what we've noticed in the practice is that some patients especially if they're prone to either hereditary hair loss or they've had a reactivation of autoimmune hair loss. Unfortunately, their hair just doesn't respond or return back to normal after the COVID insult has gone away.
And in fact, many of our patients who are, let's say, long COVID patients. They maybe have multiple symptoms that continue in waves over the course of months in and out and in and out. You can also have waves of shedding that seem to go on for months and months and months and never really gets better.
So, what can we do about all of this? Well, we want to make sure that we get the follicles to be as resilient as possible.
So god forbid if you do have an infection or trauma, you will prevent the hair loss. And there are many ways to do that. Nutritional supplementation. There's laser light therapy. There's medications and so forth. Regenerative treatments like PRP.
If you are suffering from COVID-related hair loss, obviously, hopefully, you're making a nice recovery in your health status in general. But if your hair is not recovering the way that you like, get an evaluation, certainly start with either a Strut hair physician or another and get an evaluation.
We do measurements here in the practice to determine exactly how the rest the hair is responding over time. And we can institute a variety of different therapies or treatments depending on how severe the hair loss is and how much the hair is regrowing or not after the COVID insult.
If you've got long COVID, you're gonna have to treat the situation. So what are the things that we can do for COVID-related hair loss? Let's review. Nutritional supplementation, obviously, to provide nutrients and fuel to the most highly metabolic cell population in your body – that’s your hair follicles. We could use laser light therapy, a non-chemical, non-invasive way to decrease inflammation, in the scalp, and provide more energy for the hair follicles.
We can do a regenerative treatment like PRP, platelet-rich plasma, even a TED or transepidermal delivery treatment to stimulate the follicles with growth factors and peptides and so forth. We could also make sure that you are on treatments for example for your hereditary hair loss problem, so maybe finasteride or minoxidil could be instituted, depending on your particular situation.
If you have COVID hair loss you’re not alone out there, it’s a common situation that’s occurred in everyone from celebrities to the average everyday Joe.
Here’s to your health, if you have any questions about COVID-related hair loss please contact your Strut physician, if you have any questions for me send me some information about your situation, and I’ll see if I can help you.
Check out my other videos and information and click the links below to get some help. Thanks!
Dr. Alan Bauman: Can Testosterone Cause Hair Loss? (Video)
Dr. Alan Bauman: Can Ozempic (Semaglutide) Cause Hair Loss? (Video)
Dr. Alan Bauman: Review of Strut Hair Booster with Latanoprost (Video)
Here at Strut Health, we offer a wide range of the latest and most innovative hair loss treatment options, ranging from tried and true topical Minoxidil and oral Finasteride, to compounded combination topical and oral treatments.
Learn more about what we have to offer and if it might help you with your hair loss concerns today.
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