Baby Hair Loss: Why Do Newborns Lose Hair? Facts, Causes, Treatments, and More!

So how do you understand that your baby’s hair is falling out? Do babies lose their hair due to hidden medical issues? Look out for these signs:

1. Finding hair in places where your baby rested (like the stroller or the crib)
2. Hair in the towel or bath after you have shampooed their hair
3. Loose strands of hair in your hand when you are stroking your child’s head

These are common symptoms of hair loss in newborns. Read on to know the causes of hair loss in newborns!

• Telogen Effluvium

We are born with all the hair follicles that we’ll ever have in our life. At birth, some of these follicles are still in their resting phase, known as the telogen phase. Follicles enter the next phase called the anagen phase where hair grows out of them. Hair fall is triggered by certain factors that aggravate the telogen phase.

Hormones are yet another cause of baby hair loss. While being pregnant they gave you a supermodel head of hair all the while providing the same for your baby. Once your little one takes birth, they no longer receive these hormones and hence experience hair loss (even your hair falls off once you have delivered the baby).

Stress is another reason behind telogen effluvium because labor and delivery can even lead to PTSD in some people, including your baby.

• Friction

Your baby may lose hair when their scalp rubs against hard surfaces like playpens, strollers, and crib mattresses. Experts even recommend making babies lie on their backs to prevent SIDS. So what do you do to prevent this?

This type of baby hair loss is called friction alopecia or neonatal occipital alopecia. However, there is nothing to worry about because by the end of 6 months, in the 7th month when your baby starts rolling over, the thin hairless patches on their head seats get filled up.

Here’s another explanation from a 2011 study about friction alopecia and when does a baby’s hair fall out. It is theorized that baby hair loss is an event starting even before birth. It also confirmed that it occurs in babies

1. Whose mothers are younger than 34 years
2. Who are delivered full term
3. Who are delivered vaginally

• Cradle cap

Newborns have harmless, scaly, crusty, and sometimes soil patches on their heads that look like hardened dandruff called cradle caps. Doctors are still unsure of what causes them but hormonal changes or yeast are the main suspects (because they produce more oil on the scalp).

It doesn’t lead to hair loss but when you try to remove them, you could unknowingly take out some of the strands. Mild cases of cradle cap resolve on their own in a few weeks but some may last for months.

• Ringworm

Ringworms are a form of fungal infection that leads to infant hair loss along with a scaly, red, ring-like rash on the scalp. It usually doesn’t affect children under the age of two years but it’s highly contagious. One case of ringworm in the house and your newborn could have it via shared things like hair brushes and hats.

• Alopecia areata

This is a non-contagious skin condition that gives bald spots on your baby’s head. Alopecia areata is caused by a defective immune system, which means, the immune system attacks and destroys healthy hair cells. A 2002 research noted that it is quite rare in children below 6 months of age but there have been cases reported.