Hair loss for Covid: how long it lasts and how to cure it

By Cristiano Antonino On Mar 30, 2023

Hair loss from Covid-19: the epidemiological curve from Covid is finally taking a dip, making us think it may be at its end

But the secondary effects are continuing to peep out, reminding us that Covid has actually left the aftermath and continues to leave them.

One of the multiple secondary effects of the virus that is impacting both on health, but especially on the psychological aspect of the people who contract it is an important and copious loss of hair.

Hair loss: the effects of the virus on the scalp

To date, studies have been conducted on the relationship between Covid and hair loss that show how the virus has a direct action on the hair follicle.

This trend has been confirmed worldwide by highlighting that almost 30% of patients who fall ill with Covid show hair loss, the so-called acute telogen effluvium, within 3 months of the infection.

It is a very intense and protracted fall that can last even beyond 4 months.

This fall is intense enough to lose even more than 500 hairs a day, continued for months we are talking about very important figures.

Post-infectious hair loss is a direct consequence of the disease that is very common to most viruses: what makes the difference in the Covid infection is the intensity and duration of the loss.

The causes

The manifestation linked to the telogen effluvium caused by Covid is the direct consequence of the physical stress that the virus naturally brings with it.

The effect of this event, however, is not only the cause of momentary hair loss, but has paved the way for something else: many people, who have experienced this intense post-Covid hair loss, have had the opportunity to encounter problems that are not yet manifest in their hair or scalp.

People suffering from other types of latent conditions, such as androgenetic alopecia (i.e. thinning of the hair in certain areas), have seen their hair change suddenly.

Telogen effluvium from Covid simply accelerated the discovery of those predetermined situations that would have come to light anyway.

What are the remedies for covid hair loss

We are still a work in progress regarding the cure for post Covid hair loss.

At the moment attempts are being made, there is not yet a specific therapy, but we know for sure that there is recovery of regrowth.

The therapy indicated to date by professionals is based on years of studies of the main pathologies related to hair loss and consists of:

taking supplements, including those based on antioxidants;
bio-trico-stimulation, a formulation for the scalp based on hyaluronic acid;
use of ad hoc lotions (sometimes anti-inflammatory) with a series of elements that have the function of helping the follicle to reduce the programmed time for hair loss and speed up the new phase of hair growth.

In the most serious cases, the specialist doctor may prescribe systemic cortisone anti-inflammatories: this is the protocol used in the case of severe alopecia.

Used in cases where it is not possible to stop the fall or reduce it over time.

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