Along with many good and not so good changes during pregnancy, women expect changes in their skin, hair and nails also. While some women feel and look much better during pregnancy, some have to face adverse effects also. Read on to learn how hair and nails change during pregnancy.What are Effects of Pregnancy on the Body?
Pregnancy affects you in different ways, but everything is temporary. You will come back to your normal self once the term gets over. You will find that your skin looks better in pregnancy, your hair appears fuller and your nail growth has also been augmented. However, most of them find that they had immense hair fall after delivery and their nails too split after
childbirth.
Pregnancy causes an increase in your metabolic rate, which in turn nourishes your skin cells, making your hair and nails grow faster. In fact hair could also start appearing on the arms, legs, back, belly and face. Most of the hair disappears within 6 months after delivery. So relax as your hair and nails will simply get back to normal after childbirth.
What Happens to Hair During Pregnancy?
Your hair might seem fuller when you are pregnant. It is because you are not losing your hair as you normally do. In normal days, women lose almost 100 hairs everyday while brushing or shampooing because 5 – 10% of the hair falls every day. This gets reduced in
pregnancy because of the release of higher levels of estrogen in the body. This makes the hair look fuller.
Along with the growth of hair on your head, you can also experience hair growth on your face and chest. Well, there is nothing much to worry about as this is because of the hormonal changes that are going on inside your body. Everything will get back to normal within 6 weeks of delivery.
It is true that you will lose a considerable amount of hair after
delivery. But experts differ on the reasons for this hair loss. Some argue that you are losing the hair that you normally would have shed in the 9 months of pregnancy, but did not. Others say childbirth causes a widespread conversion of hair follicles from the growing state to the resting state. Hair growth and shedding is known to come back to the normal state after about three months of childbirth.
Although normal hair loss is seen at the time of pregnancy also, there is more loss of hair felt in the following months of childbirth. Seeing heavy
hair loss after delivery many women freak out thinking that they will go bald, but in reality they are just getting back to their normal self.
Not all pregnant women find so drastic change in the growth and texture of their hair before and after childbirth. These changes are more obvious with women having longer hair.
Nail Changes during Pregnancy
In some women nail growth is faster sometimes brittleness is observed along with fast growth. Groove formation and nail getting separated from the end of the nail bed is also seen in some pregnant women.
The main reason behind terrific nail growth in pregnant women is because of the pregnancy hormones. Although some women have long as well as strong nails, most of them find that their nails are thin, weak and easy to break.
What to Do?
The best way to cope with all the
changes going on in skin, hair and nails is to eat balanced food during pregnancy. Make sure your diet includes biotin, a B-complex vitamin. This will improve firmness, hardness and thickness of your nails and help keeping your hair and skin healthy too. You will get enough biotin through foods like soybeans, eggs, nuts, milk, mushrooms, avocados, bananas and whole grains.
Precautions You Can Take
- Avoid solvent based nail polish, remover, acrylic nails and others.
- Check labels of cosmetic products and avoid products with acetone and formaldehyde.
- When getting manicure, make sure the salon is ventilated.
- Do not bite or tug your nails.
- Keep your nails clean and dry.
- Use moisturising cream and apply it on nails and cuticles at night.
- Push back cuticles and avoid cutting them. This will save you from getting any infection and your nails will also grow stronger.
- Keep your nails short.
- Avoid digging into ingrown toe nails.
The hair growth and changes in the texture of nails is temporary. This is because all these changes that are seen during pregnancy are due to pregnancy hormones and huge amount of blood flow to different parts of your body. Once your baby is born, everything will get back to normal gradually.
How does pregnancy affect hair and nails? Why do nails grow faster during pregnancy? Why does hair become fuller and skin starts glowing during pregnancy? Discuss here. 
