Does It Take A Long Time To Start Seeing Regrowth After Telogen Effluvium? I Don't See Anything

I sometimes hear from folks who are very upset about their hair. Because not only have they been dealing with hair shedding for far too long, but they also aren't seeing much hair growing back in which might help their hair's appearance. After all, a very common way to console yourself when you are shedding so much hair is to tell yourself that it will all grow back eventually. But when this doesn't appear to be happening, it can be very discouraging. And you often aren't sure where this really leaves you.An example of something that I might hear in this situation is something like: "I began shedding about five months ago. Things got so bad that I went to my primary care doctor. He told me that he suspected that I had telogen effluvium because he couldn't find any medical reason for my hair loss. He told me that the shedding would probably stop after a few months and then would grow back. Well, it didn't stop in a couple of months, although I have notice a slight improvement in my shedding levels within the last couple of weeks. But I don't see any regrowth at all. I part my hair in all different ways looking for baby hairs. I've even poured baby powder at my hair line looking for new hairs. And I am not seeing anything. Some of my friends have suggested that maybe I need to wait for the shedding to stop completely before the hair starts to regrow. Do I just need to wait for a while? Can it take a long while to see your hair coming back in?"The Regrowth Cycle Should Begin Immediately After The Hair Is Shed Out: Before I answer, I have to tell you that I'm not a doctor. I am answering this question based on my own experience and on the research that I conducted when I was going through this myself. Since your hair is in the resting phase when you are in telogen effluvium, the hair sheds out at that time. But as soon as the hair sheds out of it's follicle, it goes into the growing phase again. It does not wait for all of the follicles to go into the growing phase all at once. Each hair goes from resting to growing as soon as the hair in that follicle sheds out. In other words, all of the strands on your head are going through different phases at different times.The hairs that shed out first are going to grow back first. And if you have been hit with a very severe and a very lasting case of telogen effluvium, then you will have regrowth hairs of various lengths all over your head since the hairs shed out at various times. So while it may take a while for the hair to grow long enough that it starts to fill in, the actual process of regrowing begins as soon as the hair sheds out. There is no waiting period nor do you have to wait for a full recovery or for all of the shedding to stop. But because hair only grows a half inch every month, it can take a while before it begins to fill in so that it makes a difference in your appearance.In this situation, the beginning of the shedding had been well over three months ago. That was enough time so that she should have started to see at least some short regrowth from the earliest bouts of shedding. There are some conditions that can affect or slow your regrowth such as scarring alopecia or androgenetic alopecia. At this point, it might have been a good idea to go to a dermatologist rather than a general practitioner.But, to be fair, some folks' hair grows faster than others. Plus, it can be very challenging to see those super short, tiny little hairs when they are first coming in. But to answer the original concern, although it can a while before you can see a change in the appearance of your hair, usually the regrowth starts very soon after the hair sheds out. All of the hairs don't grow back at once nor do they wait until all of the shedding has stopped. Instead, they grow back at the rate they fell out.