Hello! Will be dedicating my first blog post to post dengue hair loss. I was down with dengue fever in April this year with severe transaminitis. Severe transaminitis refers to elevated liver enzymes (AST/ALT) >1000. Its probably due to the acute viral hepatitis and/or my crazy usage of paracetamol in attempt to reduce my fever and pain :( My dengue episode lasted for about 2 weeks, where I had 1.5 weeks of high fever ranging from 37.5-39 degrees Celsius. I was also hospitalised for 4 days because of the acute viral hepatitis and low platelet count.
Anyways, fast forward 3 months later in July 2020, I noticed a shocking amount of hair loss during my shower (*read a clump of nasty hair fall). I guess the amount of hair loss looked shocking due to my long hair too. Initially, I thought that the hair loss was due to stress (from work etc) and that it would probably go away after a few weeks. Little did I know that not only did the hair loss not go away, it worsened TT. It got so bad that water wouldn’t flow in my bathroom due to the amount of hair in the sink... Almost on the verge of freaking out, I googled about post dengue hair loss and there were only a few research papers on this topic. There were also little blog posts which talked about post-dengue hair loss. Thus, I would like to share my short journey on post dengue hair loss with everyone!
Let's begin by explaining a little on the stages of our precious hair cycle. There are 3 stages of hair cycle:
- Anagen phase
- Catagen phase
- Telogen phase
Most of our hair resides in the anagen phase where there is active growth. Hair in this stage can grow up to 7 years before it becomes dormant.
Next, the catagen phase is a relatively short phase where it only lasts for about 2-3 weeks.
Finally, telogen phase is also called the resting phase and new hair will grow beneath it. As soon as the hair in the telogen phase drops, new hair from the same follicle would emerge. Hence, it is NORMAL to drop 50-100 strands of hair per day.
yes... I did count the number of hair in the puddle during the hair shedding episode. It was definitely >>>>>100 strands.
So what is post-dengue hair loss?
According to Harvard health, Telogen effluvium is a TEMPORARY hair loss (thank god!) that is triggered by stress, traumatic event or a period of illness.
This is lifted from the Harvard health article: In a person with telogen effluvium, some body change or shock pushes more hairs into the telogen phase. Typically in this condition, about 30% of the hairs stop growing and go into the resting phase before falling out. So if you have telogen effluvium, you may lose an average of 300 hairs a day instead of 100.
That's why we hear about postpartum hair loss where new moms experience massive hair loss after delivery. Acute febrile illness with hair fever has been listed as one of the cause. So yes, there were a few reddit commenters who mentioned that there experienced hair loss after dengue/fever/even COVID-19.
How did I know that I had telogen effluvium and not other hair loss conditions? Well I can only say this now in retrospect since my massive hair loss has since stopped after 2 months of fear... Some guides that allowed me to diagnose:
- No bald patches or sudden loss of clumps of hair --> please see a dermatologist if you experience this as this could be suggestive of an underlying autoimmune problem as mentioned by many bloggers/articles
- positive hair pull test: i.e. gently grabbing my hair till the ends resulted in multiple strands of hair dropping each time.
- history of acute febrile illness.
- No change in hormones/medication etc 5. no family history of early onset hair loss/genetic hair loss.
BUT with all those precious locks dying every day, I couldn't just sit and wait right?!?!?! While there were many articles saying that we are unable to do anything to stop or reverse the process of telogen effluvium, I felt that I just had to do something. I mean, i cannot become botak at my prime right !!! In the past where I enjoyed thick luscious hair, I didn’t care about the type of shampoo, how i dried my hair, how I took care of my scalp etc. But this event triggered something in me: I have to take care of my hair!
To keep the long story short, these are the few things that I've started doing ever since my hair loss saga started:
1. Change of shampoo.
2. Introduction of hair tonic
3. Tying my hair in a looser bun
4. Massaging my scalp more often
Firstly, I decided to find a shampoo that would target hair loss and stimulate hair growth. I bought the OGX black soybean and propolis hair shampoo from Guardian when there was 1 for 1 promotion (the aunty in me is squealing with delight).
- black soybean apparently helps with alleviating hair loss and promotes blood supply to the scalp.
- propolis is found in royal jelly and is said to help to stimulate hair growth.
2. I have never used a hair tonic before but after googling for ways to help with my hair loss, many articles suggested hair tonic.
I bought 'The ordinary" Multi peptide serum for Hair density. There has been raving reviews on YouTube/google reviews so I thought why not give it a try! It is marketed as a serum that helps our hair look thicker, denser, fuller and healthier. It was 60 ml for about $29SGD? I bought from a carousell dealer. That's about $0.50 per ml LOL. It came with a glass dropper and hence I thought it was hygienic and I was also able to control where I wanted the product to go on my head. Perhaps it was the combination of the new shampoo plus this serum, my hair loss reduced drastically within 1 week. (but I mean it could be due to the end of the telogen effluvium cycle too). The scent was slightly floral and was not overbearing.
After application, my scalp felt a little tingling sensation as if my little hair follicles are trying to push those little ones out. After finishing the bottle in less than a month, I decided not to repurchase due to the cost. Aunty me decided to look for alternatives.
The second bottle of hair tonic I tried is (still using yes) called the Yanagiya hair tonic. I couldn’t really find much reviews online although it was recommended under the best hair tonic in dailyvanity.sg. However, if you were to google 柳屋 or in YouTube, you can find more reviews. Guess the product is more popular in China/Taiwan/Japan.
It comes in a 240ml glass bottle. I bought it on Carousell for $5 just to try it but you could find it in either Lazada or Shopee, its around $19-$21. You may take a while to get use to the smell because it kinda smells like men cologne? But after spraying, the smell kind of dissipates so it's not too much of a concern. My scalp had a nice minty and icy feeling after.
I use it twice daily. Morning before I go out and night time after my wash my hair and is dried. However, as the original bottle comes with a nozzle, it is less functional compared to the ordinary dropper. Thus, I transferred the Yanagiya 'potion' to a spray bottle so that I could spray at targeted spots. While I cannot comment how much it has helped my hair to grow, one thing for sure was that my scalp is less itchy and those psoriasis patches on my head have calmed down quite a bit. I also massage the hair tonic in after spraying. Let all the good stuff be absorbed !! Furthermore, a healthy scalp also creates a conducive environment for the new hair to grow.
Will I repurchase this hair tonic again? I think I would, given that it is way more affordable than most hair serums at $0.0875 cents ($21/240ml) per ml at original price. A bottle goes a long way. For those of you who do not like the smell, there is an unscented version and a citrus version. Do check it out :)
Lastly, due to work reasons, I have to bun up my hair for >5 hours a day which causes undue stress to my follicles. I have since started making the bun looser and also letting my hair down as much as possible to let it rest. Alright! That's all for today. So for those of y’all who are currently experiencing sudden hair shedding after dengue (or any other acute viral fever), do not worry too much because there is light at the end of the tunnel. Perhaps it is the time now to take better care of your locks!
