Can You Experience Hair Loss After Having COVID-19?
Key takeaways:
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COVID-19 affects people many different ways and can have some long-term effects, including hair loss (telogen effluvium).
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Hair loss is a common response to stress, including physical illness such as COVID-19.
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Hair will regrow after telogen effluvium, and there may be some steps you can take to support hair regrowth.
Many people notice hair loss in the months after recovering from a COVID-19 infection. We now know that more than 20% of people hospitalized with COVID-19 lose hair in the 3 to 6 months after discharge. Other studies that include people with milder symptoms suggest that hair loss after COVID-19 may actually be much more common.
There are many reasons why you may lose your hair, and stress is a common cause. The clinical term for hair loss that’s related to stress is telogen effluvium. It usually happens about 3 months after a stressful event, and it can commonly last for up to 6 months. Telogen effluvium often happens after other stressful life events such as having a baby or a major surgery.
Cases of telogen effluvium have grown a lot since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic — they are up over 400%. And rates of this condition are highest in people of color and other groups disproportionately affected by COVID-19.
While we don’t fully understand why this is the case, it is thought to be related to the stress of having COVID-19. There’s no evidence yet that the COVID-19 virus directly causes this hair loss.
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