Beauty Was Never Meant to Stay the Same, My Pregnancy to Postpartum Hair Plan

31 Aug

I’ve spent my whole career telling other people what their hair needs. This year, my own body had something different to teach me.

A few weeks into IVF, once the hormone injections started, my hair began shedding more than it should. Not handfuls. But enough that my stomach dropped a little every time. I kept waiting for the “pregnancy hair” everyone promises — that thick, glossy hair oestrogen is meant to hand you like a reward. It never came. The shedding just kept going, right through early pregnancy and honestly, it’s still going now.

I’m due in October. I’m still losing hair as I write this.

So this isn’t the postpartum hair-loss post you’ve probably already read a version of. This is the one nobody really warns you about — where the hard part turns up first, or never really leaves, instead of waiting politely until after the baby’s here.

For a generation of women, the conversation around beauty is shifting. It’s no longer just about what’s happening on the surface — it’s about understanding the changes happening underneath it, too. Hormones. Life stages. Hair changes. New seasons of the body. The conversation is becoming bigger than looking younger. It’s about feeling informed, supported and at home in the body you’re in.

I believe every change and season is part of a life fully lived. So this isn’t the postpartum hair loss post you’ve probably already read a version of. This is the one nobody really warns you about — where the hard part turns up first, or never really leaves, instead of waiting politely until after the baby’s here.

Why this happens

Hormone stimulation during IVF can shock your hair into an early shedding phase, before pregnancy even begins. For some people it settles once pregnancy hormones steady out. For others, like me, it just doesn’t fully let up. Every hormonal shift is a hair shift — there’s no single script, no matter what the forums promise you at 2am.

I wanted to share this because I’ve been in your shoes, as a client, feeling like something was wrong with me for not having the ‘glow’ story everyone else seemed to have. It’s not wrong. It’s just not talked about enough. Your body isn’t failing you — it’s evolving, on its own timeline and that’s the whole point. Hair that changes isn’t hair that’s broken. It’s hair keeping pace with a body doing something enormous.

My Hair Plan — built for however your story goes

I built this the way I’d build it for any client sitting in my chair, just adjusted for a reality where hair loss doesn’t wait for a tidy timeline. So wherever you’re at — be gentle with yourself first, beautiful. The hair stuff is just the practical bit underneath.

Right now — pregnant, still shedding

Gentle, low-tox shampoo and conditioner (Oway or Mr Smith) — scalp sensitivity is real and product-loading only adds to it
Scalp massage a few times a week — not a miracle fix, but genuinely one of the only things that feels like doing something kind for yourself
Food-first, not supplement-first — protein, iron, zinc — steadier and less stressful than chasing the next hair vitamin
No tight styles, minimal heat — strands already under strain don’t need more asked of them
Loose, low-manipulation styles day to day — braids, soft buns, anything that doesn’t pull at the root while it’s already under pressure
Silk or satin pillowcase — less friction overnight means less breakage you didn’t even see happening
A wide-tooth comb becomes your best friend — detangle from the ends up, never rip through from the root down
Early postpartum, 0–3 months
Whatever hair you have left, treat it gently — wide-tooth comb, low heat
Keep the scalp care habit going, so it’s one less new routine to find energy for later
Don’t chase volume with heat or product — this stage isn’t about how it looks, it’s about not adding more stress to strands already shedding
If you start noticing thinning around your hairline first, that’s pretty common—it often shows up there first and is also the first to bounce back

The shed continues or restarts, 3–6 months

This is where oestrogen drops back to baseline and even people with the “good” pregnancy story start shedding — so if you’re already worn down from months of this, know there may be one more wave in it and that doesn’t mean anything’s wrong
Low-tox, scalp-focused products through this stretch
Hold off on new chemical services until things settle
A gentle scalp exfoliant once a fortnight can be helpful—buildup tends to sit heavier on a stressed scalp
Resist the urge to ‘fix’ it with a big change right now—this is a holding phase, not a redesign phase

Regrowth, 6–12 months

The baby hairs along your hairline — annoying, flyaway and honestly the best sign you’ll see all year
Low-manipulation styling that works with the regrowth, not against it
Nourishing masks are back in rotation now that the shedding has settled—this is a rebuilding stage, not a protecting one
This is when I’ll get you back in the chair for a shape that makes the in-between stage feel a little less in-between

If your hair loss doesn’t match the story you were promised — during IVF, during pregnancy, whenever — you are not doing this wrong. Bodies don’t read the script and yours isn’t letting you down by writing its own. I built a salon around the idea that hair is tangled up with everything else going on in you and this is me actually living that, not just saying it.

If you’re in the middle of your own messy version of this, I see you, and I’ve got you. And to those going through their own fertility journey — I see you too.

Lisa xx