I sometimes hear from folks who are trying to figure out how much time they have until their hair loss starts to become noticeable to other people. Often, these folks are very well aware of the hair loss themselves. They notice that their hair is alarmingly more thin. They often also notice that the texture isn't the same. But sometimes, when they mention this to friends or family, they are told that they are seeing things that aren't there. And that is when they start to wonder how long it is going to be until other people genuinely start to notice what is going on with their hair.A sample comment in this situation would be something like: "I have been shedding hair for four months. It has been drastic shedding, with my losing hundreds of hairs per day. I notice a dramatic difference in my hair but my husband says that unless I draw his attention to it, he just doesn't notice. He also says that he is sure that most people would not see that anything is different unless I said something about my hair. He says that most people just don't pay that much attention to other people's appearance. I have to say that I disagree with this. As a female, I notice changes in the appearance of other females. And I believe that I would notice if one of my friend's had a dramatic change in their hair's appearance. So, who is right? I'm not sure if I have telogen effluvium or androgenetic alopecia. But when will people start to notice my hair loss?"It Often Depends On The Quality Of Your Hair Before The Loss Began And What Type Of Loss You Started With: I will try to answer this question as best as I can. But honestly, how noticeable your hair loss is depends upon many factors. One big consideration is how much hair you started out. Folks with thick, course, and wavy hair can generally go a longer time without noticeable loss than those who already start with sparse, fine, and straight hair. Also, people with telogen effluvium often fare a little better than those with androgenetic alopecia. The reason for this is that with telogen effluvium, your regrowth is not affected and while you are shedding, you are also regrowing normal hair so that what has been lost is eventually replaced. Sure, you will lose volume, but eventually you should regain it back.If you have androgenetic alopecia, you will generally have a more patterned loss and you're more likely to see distinct thinning areas. Also, hair miniaturization is common with this condition so your regrowth may not provide as much coverage as normal. And that's why this type of loss might be more noticeable. Because the regrowth just can't catch up with the loss. With that said, there are treatments for this type of hair loss that can lessen these issues.People Often Don't Notice As Much As Your Might Suspect: To be fair, this woman's husband was absolutely right. People honestly are not paying attention to your hair in the way that you assume they might. When you're shedding or losing hair, you can become very self conscious that every one is looking at you or wondering what is going on with your hair. This is rarely the case. I remember thinking that my hair was hideous when I was shedding so much. I had to update my passport at that time and I remember thinking how much I was going to hate taking an official photo with my hair in the state that it was.Well, I traveled this summer and had to use that same passport. When I was able to look at the photo objectively, I noticed that my hair wasn't nearly as bad as I had assumed. Yes, it was more thin than it is right now. But it wasn't so horrible that people were going to notice or stare at it.To answer the question posed, when your hair loss becomes noticeable can depend on many factors. But in my experience and opinion, it often isn't as bad as you might assume, especially if you have a hair loss condition that allows for you to grow the hair back as you are shedding it out.
