You already know postpartum hair fall is normal. You have probably read that somewhere, maybe even in our previous blogs. But knowing it is normal does not make it easier to watch your hair come out in handfuls every time you shower. What you actually want to know is what you can do about it.
The honest answer is that you cannot stop postpartum hair shedding entirely. The hormonal trigger is already in motion, and no product or tip is going to override that biology. But there is a real difference between going through postpartum hair fall with no support and going through it while actively taking care of your scalp and body. The shedding period can be shorter. The regrowth can come in stronger. The overall recovery can feel less like something happening to you and more like something you are moving through. These ten tips are the ones that are actually backed by something, whether that is research, clinical practice, or the consistent experience of women who have been through it. No filler, no "drink more water" advice dressed up as a hair tip. Just what genuinely helps.
1. Get Your Ferritin Checked, This One Matters More Than Most People Realise
Before any product, any routine, any tip, this is the one to start with. Iron deficiency is the single most common and most overlooked reason postpartum hair shedding lasts longer than it should. Childbirth involves blood loss. Pregnancy draws on your iron stores throughout. Breastfeeding continues those demands. The result is that many postpartum women are running low on ferritin, the stored form of iron, without knowing it, because standard blood tests check haemoglobin rather than ferritin, and you can have normal haemoglobin with critically low ferritin.
Ferritin is what the hair follicle actually needs. When ferritin drops, follicles struggle to move from the resting phase back into the growth phase. Hair that would normally start regrowing gets stuck in the shedding phase for longer than it should. The target ferritin level for optimal hair growth is generally considered to be above 70 micrograms per litre. Many postpartum women sit well below that, sometimes below 20 without any other symptoms of anaemia. Ask your GP specifically for a ferritin test, not just a full blood count. If it comes back low, iron supplementation alongside dietary changes (red meat, legumes, leafy greens, eggs) addresses one of the most fixable contributors to prolonged postpartum hair loss. This single step makes more difference than most of the other tips on this list combined if iron is the underlying issue.
2. Get Your Thyroid Checked Too
While you are getting blood tests done, add thyroid function to the list. Postpartum thyroiditis affects around five to ten percent of women after delivery and is frequently missed because its symptoms hair loss, fatigue, mood changes, feeling cold overlap so completely with normal postpartum recovery that most women, and sometimes their doctors, attribute it to simply being a new mother.
An underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism) directly affects the hair growth cycle. It pushes more follicles into the resting phase and slows the rate at which they cycle back into active growth. If your postpartum hair shedding is more severe than expected, or is not showing signs of slowing by month six or seven, thyroid function is worth checking alongside ferritin. The test is simple TSH, T3, and T4. If thyroid dysfunction is identified, treatment typically involves medication that is safe during breastfeeding and which often produces noticeable improvement in hair loss alongside the other symptoms.
3. Take Nutrition Seriously: Not as an Afterthought
Hair is not a priority organ. When your body is under nutritional stress, which it almost certainly is in the postpartum period, it directs available nutrients toward critical functions first. Hair follicles get what is left over. This is not a reason to panic. It is a reason to pay attention to what you are eating, which is genuinely hard when you are exhausted, and the default is grabbing whatever is fastest.
The nutrients most directly linked to hair follicle health are protein (hair is made of keratin, which is protein if you are not eating enough, follicle function suffers), zinc (deficiency is strongly associated with hair fall found in red meat, pumpkin seeds, chickpeas), iron (as covered above), vitamin D (low vitamin D is associated with telogen effluvium get some sun where you can and consider supplementing through winter), and B vitamins including B12 and biotin. A good postnatal multivitamin covers most of these bases alongside a diet that includes protein at most meals. This is not glamorous advice. But the basics done consistently make a real difference to how quickly the follicles recover.
4. Scalp Massage: Do Not Skip This!
This one is backed by actual research, not just anecdote. A study published in the journal ePlasty found that standardised scalp massage performed daily over 24 weeks resulted in significantly increased hair thickness. The mechanism is straightforward: massage increases blood circulation to the scalp, which improves the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the follicles. Better-nourished follicles cycle back into the growth phase more effectively.
For postpartum hair loss treatment purposes, three to five minutes of circular scalp massage two to three times a week is a realistic and genuinely useful addition to your routine. Use the pads of your fingertips, not your nails, in slow, deliberate circular motions across the whole scalp, starting at the nape and working forward. Combine it with a hair oil, and you are improving absorption of the active ingredients at the same time as improving circulation. Two things happening simultaneously, five minutes of your time. The massage is also one of the few things in postpartum life that is just for you a few minutes of stillness that has a direct effect on the cortisol levels that can extend postpartum shedding. This part is not trivial.
5. Use a Hair Oil That Actually Supports Scalp Health
Not all hair oils are doing the same job. A lot of what is marketed for postpartum hair loss is essentially a moisturising oil with some nice packaging, fine for conditioning the lengths of your hair, but not doing much for the follicles where recovery actually happens.
What to look for in a postpartum hair loss treatment oil:
Rosemary oil one of the most well-researched natural ingredients for hair growth, shown in studies to produce comparable results to minoxidil for hair density improvement. It supports scalp circulation and reduces DHT activity, which matters for follicle recovery.
Peppermint oil Acts as a vasodilator, widening blood vessels in the scalp and increasing blood flow to the follicles. The research on peppermint specifically for hair growth is promising, and the effect is noticeable from the first application.
Gotu kola has been used in Ayurvedic medicine for thousands of years and is now understood to stimulate collagen production around the follicle and support new capillary formation in the scalp. Also helps reduce cortisol, which matters during a period of high stress.
Pumpkin seed oil is rich in phytosterols that help protect follicles from hormonal disruption. Relevant during the postpartum hormonal recalibration period.
Tamanu and moringa are anti-inflammatory and scalp-nourishing, keeping the scalp environment clean and balanced so follicles can function properly as they cycle back into growth.
Klarivie Growth Reload Hair Oil combines all six of these in one lightweight, Australian-made formula: no silicones, no synthetic fragrance, nothing harsh. Apply it to a sectioned scalp, massage it in for three to five minutes, leave it on for at least thirty minutes, and wash it out. Two to three times a week, consistently, over the recovery period. This is not a quick fix. Nothing about postpartum hair recovery is. But supporting the scalp environment with the right ingredients during recovery genuinely influences how well and how quickly the regrowth comes in.
6. Be Gentle With Your Hair: More Than You Think You Need To Be
This sounds obvious, and yet it is one of the most consistently underestimated things during postpartum recovery. Your hair is in a vulnerable state. The shafts are more fragile, the follicles are under stress, and any additional mechanical damage you add on top of the natural shedding makes the overall picture worse. Tight hairstyles high ponytails, tight buns, braids pulled close to the scalp put traction stress on follicles that are already struggling. Over time, traction alopecia can compound postpartum shedding in a way that is harder to recover from because the follicle itself gets damaged.
Heat styling increases breakage along the hair shaft, which is already more prone to snapping when the hair is nutritionally depleted. Air drying is better during recovery. Brushing wet hair causes significantly more breakage than brushing dry hair. A wide-tooth comb worked through conditioned wet hair from the ends upward, rather than pulling a brush from the roots down, reduces that damage substantially. None of this stops the postpartum shedding. But it stops you adding avoidable damage on top of it.
7. Rethink Your Shampoo: Specifically the Sulphates
Heavy sulphate shampoos are not causing your postpartum hair fall. But they can contribute to scalp dryness and irritation that creates an unhelpful environment for recovering follicles, and they can make fragile postpartum hair more prone to breakage during washing. Switching to a mild, low-sulphate or sulphate-free shampoo during the postpartum recovery period is a simple change that reduces the stress placed on the scalp and hair during washing. It is not a treatment. It is just reducing one source of unnecessary irritation.
Also worth reconsidering is washing frequency. Washing every day strips the scalp of its natural oils and can contribute to the kind of dryness that makes the scalp environment less hospitable for regrowth. Every two to three days is enough for most hair types, and dry shampoo at the roots between washes reduces the need to wash more often without the trade-offs.
8. Manage Stress Even Imperfectly
This tip would be easy to dismiss as generic wellness advice, but it’s not. Cortisol, the primary stress hormone, directly affects the hair growth cycle. Elevated cortisol shifts more follicles into the resting and shedding phase. It does not cause the initial postpartum shedding event, which is hormonal, but it demonstrably extends it and makes the recovery period longer. The first months of parenthood are one of the most reliably high-cortisol periods in adult life. Sleep deprivation alone significantly elevates cortisol. Add feeding challenges, relationship changes, identity shifts, financial concerns, and the general overwhelm of a new baby, and you have a sustained cortisol load that your hair follicles are feeling.
There is no perfect answer here. You cannot just stop being stressed because your hair would prefer it. But small, consistent inputs help: five minutes of stillness during the scalp massage, getting outside for a walk daily, asking for help when you need it, sleeping when the baby sleeps even when everything else feels more urgent. The cortisol reduction from even modest stress management practices is real. It is worth taking seriously even if the execution is imperfect.
9. Do Not Overload Your Routine With Products
When hair fall feels alarming, the instinct is to do more, add more products, try more treatments, look for the thing that will fix it. This is understandable and also counterproductive. Too many products at once means buildup on the scalp that blocks follicles. It means the scalp never gets a chance to recalibrate. And it means you cannot tell what is actually working and what is not, so if something is helping, you will never know which thing to keep.
During postpartum recovery, simpler is better. A gentle shampoo. A good conditioner applied to the lengths. A botanical hair oil applied to the scalp a few times a week. That is a complete routine. Everything else can wait until after recovery. The scalp needs to breathe and recalibrate during this period. The fewer unnecessary layers you are putting on it, the easier it is for the follicles to do what they are trying to do.
10. Give It Time: And Track Progress Honestly
This is the hardest tip because it requires patience in a period when patience is already in very short supply. Postpartum hair recovery is measured in months. The shedding period typically lasts three to six months. The regrowth period after that takes another several months to reach a length where it blends in and the hair genuinely looks recovered. The full arc from peak shedding to feeling like your hair is back to normal is often nine to twelve months, sometimes longer. No product, no supplement, no tip on this list will compress that timeline dramatically. What the right support does is reduce the severity, improve the quality of regrowth, and prevent avoidable prolongation of the shedding phase.
Tracking progress in a way that is honest and not anxiety-inducing helps. Rather than counting hairs in the shower every day, which amplifies anxiety without giving you useful information, check in once a week. Is there less on the pillow than last week? Are baby hairs appearing around the hairline? Does the ponytail feel any different? Small, gradual improvements over weeks are the signal to look for. They will not be dramatic. But they will be real. And on the days when it feels like it is not improving, which will happen, come back to the biology. Your follicles are not gone. The hair is coming back. You are somewhere in a timeline that has an end, even when that end does not feel close. That is worth holding onto.
A Quick Summary: What Actually Moves the Needle
If you want the short version: Get your ferritin and thyroid checked first; these are the most commonly missed contributors to prolonged shedding. Sort out nutrition, especially protein and iron. Do scalp massage regularly it costs nothing and has real evidence behind it. Use a clean botanical oil that targets scalp health rather than just coating the hair. Be gentle with how you handle your hair. Simplify your routine. And give it time. None of this is complicated. None of it requires a significant investment of money or time. What it requires is consistency: doing the right things repeatedly, over the months it takes for postpartum recovery to run its course. That is how to control postpartum hair fall. Not by fighting it, but by giving your body and your scalp what they need to come through it as well as possible.
Klarivie Growth Reload Hair Oil is Australian-made, free from silicones and synthetic fragrance, and formulated to support scalp health and hair regrowth during postpartum recovery. Available at klarivie.com.au
