Sometimes I hear people noticing that a lot of broken hairs come out. Often they also see very dry or loose hair with the presence of split ends. I heard a woman say: “I have noticed a lot of fallen hair on my clothes. But, when I examine the hairs very closely, there is no root at the end. So, I think the hairs are breaking. I have a friend who had an episode of hair loss last year and says maybe I have telogen effluvium. I did some research online and I’m not sure if this is correct. This type of hair loss causes breakage in addition to hair loss “. I will try to address this concern in the next article.
Hair that falls out due to telogen effluvium is shed from the root. Usually it does not break. (Although it may have some tears). I would like to clarify what happens to a hair when it is affected by this type of hair loss. Essentially, something causes it to change in its growth cycle. This could be stress or some medical problem or illness. But true shedding of this type changes the hair from the growing phase to the shedding phase. And, as a result, that very hair falls out. What this means is that the root is no longer nourished in the growth phase, so the next part of its life cycle is the fall. This is why you can normally look at this type of hair and see a root, a white bulb, or a dark sheath around any of these.
What the woman in the previous scenario was describing was something different. She did not see any evidence of a root. She was seeing broken hairs, which meant that the roots were probably still intact and her affected hairs were probably still in the growth phase, which is not indicative of telogen effluvium. However, there are other possibilities. You will often see this type of breakage with some kind of harmful grooming practice like hot irons or very harsh chemical processes like hair straightening, perming, coloring, or keratin treatments. Anything that can make your hair dry or brittle can cause this type of breakage or fall.
Now this is where it can get a little confusing. Sometimes when you have telogen effluvium, your hair can become dry and loose as it is no longer actively nourished. And when this happens, some of those hairs can break off. So it’s definitely possible to see some worn hair that has roots and some that don’t. In this case, you would have a combination of two different processes. However, if you have this type of hair loss, you will see a lot of rooted hair and are usually talking about a lot of hair coming out. Generally speaking, if there is a lot of hair, most of what you are seeing has a bulb or a root, and you can identify a medical problem or trigger, then telogen effluvium is certainly possible. But, if you don’t have a trigger and you see less breakage, think about whether you’ve been involved in something that could dry out or damage your hair. Because to answer the question posed, although TE hair can sometimes shed, it is generally seen more in hair that has been damaged by a high temperature or chemical process.