My hair is falling out badly, what should I take:
why autumn is the peak and what to check first
The most useful answer is also the disappointing one: probably nothing, for now. The hairs left in your brush today entered their resting phase a few months ago, and whatever pushed them there happened roughly three months back. Four published studies, in men and in women, find the same peak at the end of summer and the start of autumn. This article shows you what was measured, what the European Food Safety Authority rejected, and what your doctor should check before you buy anything.
The right question is not what to take,
but how long it has been falling
Search Google for “my hair is falling out badly, what should I take” and read the first five results. You will find a list of thirteen causes, a list of vitamins, a shampoo and, usually, a biotin supplement. What you will not find in any of them is the one piece of information that changes what you do next: timing.
The hair left on your pillow today did not die today. It left the growth phase months ago, sat quietly on your head for the length of its resting phase, and has only now been pushed out by the new hair growing beneath it. The shedding is not the event. It is the echo of it.
What you see in your brush is a snapshot of June or July, not of today. A supplement started today cannot change a decision your body made three months ago.
That does not mean there is nothing you can do. It means the right order is different: first you look for the trigger, then you have your doctor check what needs checking, and only at the end do you talk about what to take. This article follows exactly that order.
Four years of growth,
four months of rest
Every follicle on your head works on its own, to its own calendar. There is no shared cycle, no month in which your hair “moults” the way an animal’s coat does. Every hair runs on its own timer.
The timer has three stages. The hair grows for years, then spends a few weeks in a short transition phase, then rests for a few months, and finally falls out and makes way for a new hair. The clinical reference from the National Center for Biotechnology Information puts it in simple figures: a follicle produces a growing hair for almost four years, then rests for roughly four months.
And at any given moment, on a healthy scalp, roughly 85% of hairs are growing and roughly 15% are resting.
Remember that 15%, because it is the key to this whole article. It is not a constant. It is an average. And if something pushes it to 20% or 25% one summer, all those extra hairs will fall out together, a few months later.
Why autumn:
what was measured, in whom, and what came out
The idea that hair falls out more in autumn has been doing the rounds in magazines for decades, without a source. It does, however, have real studies behind it, published in dermatology journals, and they are worth reading for exactly what they say, not for the summaries made of them.
What it was: a six-year retrospective study, published in the journal Dermatology in 2009, of apparently healthy women complaining of hair loss. After excluding those with an illness or taking medicines known to cause hair loss, 823 women remained. Each had blood tests and a trichogram.
What came out: a clear yearly pattern, with the highest proportion of resting hairs in summer. A second, less pronounced peak in spring. The lowest rates at the end of winter.
What it does not say: it does not name a specific month. The published abstract says “summer”, nothing more. Anyone who gives you an exact month while citing this study is giving you something that is not in it.
What it was: 14 healthy men aged 18 to 39, with indoor jobs, measured every 28 days for 18 months in Sheffield, at a latitude of 53.4 degrees north. Published in the British Journal of Dermatology in 1991.
What came out: the proportion of growing hairs reached a single peak of over 90% in March, then fell steadily to its lowest point in September. The number of hairs shed peaked in August and September, exactly when the fewest hairs were growing.
The most useful figure: at that peak, average loss was roughly 60 hairs a day, more than double the figure for the previous winter.
What it was: ten men, with or without alopecia, followed for 8 to 14 years with phototrichograms of a precisely marked area on the crown. Also published in the British Journal of Dermatology, in 1996. It is the longest follow-up of the three.
What came out: a yearly pattern, with the highest proportion of resting hairs at the end of summer and the start of autumn. Some participants had two peaks a year. In those with very few resting hairs, no pattern could be shown.
The interesting detail: the authors link the pattern to climate factors, particularly the number of hours of sunshine, and warn that this needs to be taken into account when assessing any treatment for hair loss.
Placed side by side, the three complete each other. The women in the Swiss study and the men in the two British studies were measured with different methods, years apart, and came out with the same pattern: the resting peak in summer, the shedding at the end of summer and in autumn.
There is also a fourth study, an analysis of Google search volume in eight countries between 2004 and 2016, published in 2018. The publisher’s official press release says that summer and autumn were associated with greater hair loss in all eight countries. We could not open the full text today, so we are not giving you exact months from it, nor any statistics. What remains is the direction, which is the same.
The resting phase lasts roughly four months. If the peak for entering the resting phase is summer, the peak for leaving it, that is, for shedding, lands in autumn. There is nothing mystical about it. It is a queue at the till.
What “badly” means,
in numbers
“Badly” is an impression, and impressions are shaped by how often you wash your hair, how long it is and the colour of your bathroom tiles. A long hair is three times as visible as a short one. If you washed your hair every other day on holiday and now wash it daily, the count per wash goes down even though nothing has changed.
The clinical benchmark used in practice is simple: collecting 100 or more hairs in 24 hours raises the suspicion of telogen effluvium. It is not a diagnosis, it is a threshold from which it is worth looking more closely.
Put it next to the figure from the British study. At the August and September peak, the average was roughly 60 hairs a day, more than double the figure for the previous winter. In other words, shedding doubled in healthy people, with no illness and no deficiency, simply because it was September.
| What you notice | What it usually means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Noticeably more falls out than in winter, but your hair looks just as thick | seasonal Most likely the autumn peak | Look for the trigger, but do not rush to buy anything |
| You consistently collect 100 or more hairs in 24 hours | worth discussing It may be telogen effluvium | Look for the trigger one to six months back and see your doctor |
| Your parting has widened or your crown has visibly thinned | something else This is no longer about the season | A dermatology appointment, not a supplement |
| Clearly defined bald patches, or a scalp that is red, painful or crusted | urgent This is not telogen effluvium | A doctor, as soon as possible |
Look for the trigger
three months back
Telogen effluvium is the name for the state in which an unusual number of hairs enter the resting phase at the same time, in reaction to something. The clinical reference says that a careful history reveals a causal event roughly three months before the shedding began, with a possible range of one to six months.
So do not look at this week. Look at the summer.
If nothing stands out in June, widen your search to the whole window above.
What exactly you are looking for. The clinical reference lists: an acute febrile illness, a severe infection, major surgery, severe trauma, the hormonal changes after giving birth, particularly the drop in oestrogen, hypothyroidism, suddenly stopping a medicine that contains oestrogen, crash diets, low protein intake, ingestion of heavy metals and iron deficiency.
And a list of medicines: beta blockers, retinoids, including excess vitamin A, anticoagulants, propylthiouracil, carbamazepine and vaccinations.
Notice what is on that list: excess vitamin A. You will find it in many “hair” formulas. It is not a detail to brush aside, it is precisely why the chapter on what to take comes last, not first.
Some good news, from the same reference: acute telogen effluvium is a self-limiting condition. If the factor that triggered it has been resolved, the hair grows back. By definition, the shedding in acute telogen effluvium lasts less than six months, and the period is often much shorter. Anything that goes beyond six months or looks like progressive thinning falls outside this discussion and should be assessed by a doctor.
If your summer also ended with an abrupt return to routine in September, it is worth reading the article on back-to-school stress in parents, where we explain in detail how the load builds up, and the one on getting back to your sleep schedule.
What your doctor checks,
before any supplement
This is the part where a supplement blog should take a step back, and we do.
The laboratory assessment described in the clinical reference is short and specific. For iron deficiency: full blood count, serum iron, transferrin saturation and ferritin. The same reference notes that transferrin saturation is the most sensitive indicator of iron deficiency. For the thyroid: thyroid stimulating hormone, when there are symptoms. In certain situations, the doctor may also order a test for syphilis.
Four or five tests. Your doctor orders them, your doctor interprets them, and the results decide whether you need anything and, if so, what. We are not giving you ferritin thresholds in this article, because there is no single one that everyone accepts, and a figure you read here could have you arguing with your doctor over a value that does not mean the same thing for everyone.
Go to your doctor, not to the shelf, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, if your hair has been falling out for more than six months, if clearly defined bald patches appear, if your scalp is red, painful or crusted, if your parting or crown is visibly thinning, or if there are other signs too, such as marked tiredness, intolerance to cold or changes in weight. A supplement does not replace a blood test and does not replace a diagnosis.
If your doctor tells you to take iron, one practical detail matters: iron and zinc compete for absorption, as do a few other combinations. We have written out the full timetable in the guide to which supplements should not be taken together.
What EFSA rejected,
word for word
In the European Union, a product may only say about itself what is covered by authorised health claims. Authorisation is given to a nutrient, not to a plant and not to a formula, and only if the product contains a significant amount of it.
What is useful here is not the list of what can be said, but the archive of what was applied for and refused. For hair, there are two files worth reading, because they describe exactly the products on shelves today.
| What was assessed | What it asked to be allowed to say | What the Authority decided |
|---|---|---|
| Thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, pyridoxine, biotin and pumpkin seed oil | “Contributes to the reduction of hair loss” and “increases the number of hairs” | rejected A cause and effect relationship with the maintenance of normal hair has not been established |
| A combination of keratin, copper, zinc, niacin, pantothenic acid, pyridoxine and biotin | Maintenance of normal hair | rejected A single uncontrolled study, from which no conclusions can be drawn |
Read the middle column of the first row once more. “Contributes to the reduction of hair loss.” That is exactly the promise you are buying, worded exactly like that. It was formally applied for, it was assessed and it was rejected, because the only publication submitted had not even used the product the application was about.
The second file is even more relevant, because the formula assessed contained zinc and biotin, the two ingredients that sell half the hair supplement shelf. The Authority said that maintaining normal hair is indeed a beneficial physiological effect. The evidence simply was not there.
There is talk of claims along the lines of “contributes to the maintenance of normal hair” for certain vitamins and minerals. We could not open the text of the regulation today to read them at the source, so we are not using them in this article. Our house rule is that we do not write what we have not checked. But even if you found them printed on a box, “maintenance of normal hair” does not mean “stops hair loss”. The second wording was applied for and refused.
Four things people say about hair supplements
and what survives a fact check
Deficiencies exist and are checked with blood tests, and iron deficiency is explicitly listed among the causes of telogen effluvium. But the autumn peak also shows up in people with no deficiency at all. In the study of 823 women, every participant with an illness or taking medicines known to cause hair loss was excluded from the outset, and the pattern was still there. So the absence of a deficiency does not rule out shedding, and shedding does not prove a deficiency.
Collagen has no authorised health claim in the European Union. None. That means nobody is allowed to attribute an effect on hair to it, whatever study they cite.
Zinc has an upper limit set at European level, in the 2003 opinion of the Scientific Committee on Food: 25 mg a day for adults. For adolescents aged 15 to 17, 22 mg. It falls further by age band, down to 7 mg for children aged 1 to 3. A single product can bring you close to the adult ceiling, and two overlapping products can take you over it without you realising. Always add up the amounts on the labels.
The clinical reference for telogen effluvium lists retinoids among the medicine triggers, explicitly including excess vitamin A. Many formulas sold for hair, skin and nails contain vitamin A. We are not saying that every product on the shelf will harm you. We are saying that “it can’t do any harm” is not an argument, and in the particular case of vitamin A it is actually contradicted by the list of causes.
What is in our gummies
and what they are not allowed to promise
Our product closest to this discussion is the one with vitamin C, zinc and D3. It is not a hair product, we did not formulate it for hair and we do not sell it as one. Here is what it contains, at the daily dose of two gummies, and how it compares with the European limits.
| Ingredient | Per daily dose | European benchmark | Which claim can be used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zinc | 22.74 mg | Adult upper limit: 25 mg a day | Contributes to normal cognitive function |
| Vitamin C | 500 mg | No upper limit set | Contributes to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue |
| Vitamin D3 | 40 µg i.e. 1,600 IU | Adult upper limit: 100 µg a day | Contributes to the normal function of the immune system and the maintenance of normal muscle function |
| Rosehip powder | 50 mg | Not a nutrient with a limit | No authorised claim. We can only say what it is |
Look at the first row. 22.74 mg of zinc is a little over 90% of an adult’s upper limit. That is not a problem if it is the only zinc product you take. It becomes one if you add it on top of a “hair, skin and nails” formula, which almost certainly contains zinc as well.
And look at the last column. None of the three claims we use is about hair. Not because we chose not to talk about it, but because we have no verified claim to use, and the one everyone would like to read has been rejected twice, as you saw in chapter 7.
If what you are really after is the right vitamin D dose for the cold season, we have written separately about how many units a day make sense, about what time of day to take it and about what the number in your blood test means. Our 4,000 IU vitamin D3 gummies are a much larger amount, and those articles explain why the number is not chosen by how big it is.
What to do over the next three months,
if there is nothing to treat
Let us assume you have seen your doctor, your tests came back with nothing to correct and you have found a plausible trigger in the summer. What follows is not a protocol and not a treatment. It is four ordinary things that promise nothing and that you cannot get wrong.
Count once, properly, then stop counting. Pick a day, collect the hairs over a 24 hour period and write down the number. Repeat it a month later, under the same washing conditions. Two comparable measurements tell you more than peering into the sink every morning, which only tells you how anxious you are that morning.
Eat enough protein. Low protein intake is explicitly on the list of triggers, alongside crash diets. You do not need anything exotic. You need every main meal to include a source of protein.
Do not start four things at once. If you start a supplement, a shampoo, a serum and a diet in the same week, in three months you will not know what made the difference. And, more importantly, if the seasonal peak passes on its own, you will give the credit to the last thing you bought. That is how shelf myths are built.
Go back to the calculator in chapter 5 in a month’s time. If as much is falling out in November as in September, this is no longer about the season, and that is information only time can give you.
The rest of the autumn routine, the digestion and immunity side, is in a separate article on what actually changes after the holidays, and if you want to see what an autumn label is and is not allowed to say, the test is in the article on which vitamins to take in autumn.
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