Have You Considered Wearing Hair Extensions During Motherhood?

Motherhood brings with it the phenomena of rapid hair growth and thickening, followed (upsettingly, for most of us) by hair loss during continued motherhood. But what things contribute to this?

Hormones: Enter Stage Left

It all comes down to hormones.

Anyone who has ever been pregnant (or known someone pregnant) knows that the onslaught of shifting hormones bring with them a tidal wave of bodily changes. Most people know about the quintessential changes to breast size, the fatigue and mood swings, but what other changes can you expect as you prepare for motherhood?

Your hormones will have a noticeable impact on things like your skin, nails, and hair—and not necessarily for the best.

Coupled with the extra prenatal vitamins many women are encouraged to take, hormones make your hair grow faster when you're pregnant, and fall out less in the luckier of cases. The same hormones that help you grow a human being inside of you bring the addition of changing (hopefully for the best) your hair, skin, and nails.

Some women have changes to their hair texture that aren’t as fortunate. These extra hormones might be so intense that they make hair incredibly dry or oily. You might even notice that the extra hormones change the colour of your hair.

Some women experience fluctuations during pregnancy that create dry, brittle hair half of the time, followed by limp, oily hair the other half.

The changes you experience during pregnancy are not necessarily permanent.

But the story doesn’t end there.

The Show is Over and the Hormones are Leaving

If you are lucky enough to avoid severe hair changes while pregnant, they might still get you in your postpartum period during which is the time many women report significant hair loss. We aren't just talking natural shedding either. This is the kind of hair loss that comes out in clumps!

Even if you avoid this, once you stop breastfeeding you might lose some of your hair. Sure, what you end up losing might very well be the extra thickening that you enjoyed during those nine months of pregnancy, but any significant change in hormones is going to bring with it flow-on effects to other parts of your body.

If you were lucky enough to enjoy an improvement to your hair while pregnant, the severe decline in sickness and quality that follows childbirth can be shocking to say the least.

As the hair loss phase manifests, it can be a sore point for mothers.

The Encore

If you are dealing with the tumult of hair loss, in the middle of trying to raise a new child, you might consider wearing hair extensions during this phase, at the very least, until your hair is restored to its former pre-pregnancy glory.

There are different kinds of hair extensions, some more suitable than others.

• If you are on a tight budget and just want something you can wear when you leave the house, fast and simple clip-in extensions might work best.

• If, instead, you need something to add lost volume and you don’t know for how long, a permanent solution could be preferable.

The best way to know which will work best for you, is to audition them, give them a dress rehearsal out on the town (even if out on the town now means trips to the paediatrician or the grocery store) and see what puts on the best show.

Clip-In

For the least temporary and most flexible solution, pick clip-in extensions. As the name suggests, these just clip right onto your hair. You can get a single extension that goes around your head, or you can use multiple pieces to add highlights to your natural hair colour. The flexibility afforded by the multiple pieces or a single, large piece means you can change your look regularly too. Just as easily as you clip it in place, you can remove it. This is also one of the cheapest solutions because you can do it yourself. You don't need hours at a professional salon—something most mothers can't spare the time for!

Tape-In

Tape-in extensions are a semi-permanent source of longer, fuller hair during motherhood. These extensions are pre-taped and literally suck on either side of your hair. They last for an average of one to three months. Very easy to maintain and simple to put in, most new mothers prefer them because they make it easy to throw your hair up in a ponytail or a bun while messing about with your new child.

Permanent

If you want to wear hair extensions permanently throughout motherhood, you can invest one day at a salon and have the extensions affixed to your head with a polymer or glue so that it is seamlessly integrated with your existing hair. Pick extensions that match and blend with your existing hair, emphasize volume, or add length.

So, before making your decision, consider whether you want to try something temporary first, before permanently changing. Review your goals, what you want to achieve with the extensions, how long you want them in place, and how much effort you can put into maintaining them.