First week here, nervous about extra shedding post-med

fellow broke dorm-dweller here. The 60-vs-20 thing is so real. What helped me stop spiraling: same bathroom light, same Sunday, photo of my part + sticky-note count of shed hairs after washing.

Sounds unhinged, but it showed my “widening” was mostly lighting and ponytail placement. Cheap protein rotation: tuna packets, cottage cheese, dining-hall hard-boiled eggs, Greek yogurt with peanut butter.

Sharp question: are you still eating in a deficit now that your appetite is back? My shed got worse when I was accidentally under-eating because I was scared of rebound. Not saying that’s you — just the one thing I’d track besides protein.

Honestly, welcome — I’m glad you posted. The per-wash number can be misleading if your wash schedule has changed at all; stretching washes means more accumulated shedding in one go.

Something that helped me was tracking weekly averages instead of fixating on a single wash: I jot down the shed amount on wash days and dry-brush days, then compare the week to the previous one. I also take a part photo every Sunday in the same window light.

Has your wash frequency shifted since you paused? And is the extra shedding mostly on wash days, or are you seeing it with dry brushing too?

That pattern might give you a calmer baseline while you wait.

Welcome — first week posting is the hardest part. I hit goal and have been maintaining for a while, and I went through a similar shed after tapering off.

One thing that helped me stop spiraling was switching from “strands per wash” to “strands per day”: if I washed every third day, 60 was really ~20/day, which matched my old normal. I also took same-angle part photos on the 1st of each month and looked for those little tapered baby hairs along my hairline.

Are you seeing any short regrowth hairs yet, or is it mostly long shed strands? Hang in there — the long game is your friend here.

fellow 3am gamer here. i went through a big shed after coming off a med a while back (not the same one, but similar timing).

what helped me not spiral was taking pics every sunday, same window light, plus counting strands only on wash days. are you tracking daily or just wash days? i also logged protein, water, and my soda-swap (sparkling water + lime instead of dr pepper). the 6–8 week lag thing

broke dorm gremlin checking in. The only thing that kept me from measuring my part with a ruler daily was a stupidly cheap protein rotation: dining-hall hard-boiled eggs + tuna packets + those microwave lentil pouches from the international aisle.

I also started taking a mirror photo every Sunday, same window, same wet hair, because my brain lies on Tuesday. Sharp question: did your shed ramp up when you were still eating less overall, or after you started adding protein?

I ask because my first month post-pause I was basically surviving on coffee and vibes, and the shed felt way worse then. Also, if you have a communal shower, a hair catcher is $3 and saves your RA from thinking you’re a yeti.

Hey, welcome. Three-year regular here — there was a long thread last spring about the post-med shed, and the one thing that helped me was changing how I tracked it.

Instead of counting every wash, I did the same two photos (wet, parted down the middle) in the same bathroom light every Sunday, plus a hair-tie wraps test. The counts bounced around, but the photos barely changed for a month before I saw any real shift.

Are you seeing extra shed on dry brush days too, or mostly wash days? That distinction made me way less panicky.

the delay is what messes with your head — shedding tends to show up weeks after whatever set it off, so what's in your brush today probably got triggered before you changed anything. One concrete thing that helped me: I weighed my protein for a week instead of eyeballing it and found I was hitting like 60g, not the 100 I assumed.

Also started checking my crown in the same bathroom light once a month instead of counting every wash, because daily tallies made me obsessive. Are you still lifting, or did that fall off when you paused too?

Welcome! Small-town pharmacy chatter here — our shelves are mostly gummies and bandages, so I get the counter panic.

What helped me was separating “scalp shed” from breakage: I comb before showering over a white paper towel, then compare long strands with white bulbs vs. short snapped pieces. Mine was mostly breakage from claw clips and hot tools, so I switched to a soft scrunchie and air-drying, and the paper-towel count slowly got less scary.

Are you seeing full-length strands or short pieces? That’s a useful note for your next appointment, whichever provider you use.

I’m two kids deep in chaotic dinners, so my only tracking that survives is stupid-simple: same wash days (Sun/Wed), same white towel, and I snap a photo of the hair I pull off the drain catcher before it goes in the bin. Photos beat my memory because I always think it’s worse than last time.

I also keep a snack-drawer bin of edamame cups and cheese sticks so I’m not running on coffee and crusts. Are you counting only wash-day strands, or bruh strands too?

Mixing them made my numbers look bonkers.