How Much Hair Do You Lose in a Day? What’s Normal and What Isn’t

Time is one of the scariest pieces of the hair-loss puzzle. When you look at moms and grandmothers, you can see how decades change the landscape of a woman’s hairscape. But what about shorter periods — how much hair do you lose in a day?

As anyone with a shower will tell you, hair falls out of your head every day. Whether it gathers in the drain, on your pillow, or all over your partner’s possessions, there’s a daily hair loss reminder anyone can find without looking very hard.

It begs the question: Are these falling follicles signs of escalating hair loss or just normal bodily functions? The short answer is that it depends.

It depends on your age, genetics, and, most importantly, the amount of hair strands you’re seeing every 24 hours.

For the moment, what you need to understand is why you lose hair seemingly constantly — and why it’s not necessarily a reason to panic.

Shedding is a normal, daily function of the scalp.

While we’d all like to maintain indefinite hair growth throughout our lives, the reality is that, like the leaves on trees, hair follicles have a life cycle — and at the end of that cycle, hair falls out before growing anew.

This is all part of your hair’s natural growth cycle — a complicated process most easily broken down into four phases:

• Anagen phase

• Catagen phase

• Telogen phase

• Exogen phase

Here’s what to know.

Anagen Phase

In the anagen phase, which lasts two to eight years, hair follicles grow at a constant, barely perceptible rate. Most of the hair strands on your head — roughly 90 percent — are in this stage of development at any time.

If you grab a handful of strands right now, most of what you’re grabbing is likely anagen-phase hair.

Catagen Phase

In the catagen phase of normal hair growth, strands of hair transition out of the growth phase. In this stage, individual strands may become finer as part of their wear and tear in the natural hair cycle.

They’ll also begin to form into what’s called a club hair — a hair ready to be shed as part of the normal hair per day you lose. This thinner hair is still healthy hair, and this transition phase is really just a few weeks of preparing for the end.

Telogen Phase

The telogen phase (or resting phase) is sort of like retirement for hair follicles. No, they’re not heading out on seniors’ cruises, but in a sense, they’re downsizing their estates.

In the telogen phase, hair follicles stop producing new length — they stop growing altogether — and just kind of hang around.

Fun fact: About 10 percent of your total hair should be in this phase at any given time. When it’s less, you may be experiencing unusual growth.

When it’s more, you might be facing a medical condition called telogen effluvium (commonly known as excessive hair shedding). This hair loss condition is caused by bodily stressors — everything from major surgeries or illnesses to giving birth. You can even get it from too much stress at work.

Exogen Phase

In the exogen phase, old hair is gradually pushed out of the hair follicle, allowing new hair to grow in its place. Most of the hair you see on the shower floor, in your bed sheets, or on your bathroom counter is shed hair that was in this phase.

A hair strand may enter the exogen phase and immediately fall out, or it might take some time to jostle loose. But at that point, the growth cycle is dormant for a while before the anagen phase starts again.

Now that you understand why normal hair loss happens, let’s talk numbers. So, how much hair should you lose a day?

How much hair loss you have in a day will vary depending on various factors — down to how vigorously you scrub your scalp when showering or how aggressively you wield your hairbrush when styling. For the most part, though, the average person loses between 50 and 100 hairs a day.

It’s a seemingly large number of strands per day — until you remember that you have way, way more than that on your head at any given time.

Let’s put it in perspective: Most people have between 80,000 and 120,000 hair follicles on their heads — roughly 1,000 times the number of hairs you’re expected to lose each day (or more).

So losing 100 a day is pennies.

Losing one-thousandth of your hair a day doesn’t really put a dent in your total supply, especially since other hairs are growing or renewing their cycles at the same time.

But what about when those pennies start adding up? We could say the magic number is anything over the 100 mark, but you’ll lose more than 100 hairs some days and fewer than 50 on others over the course of your life. There’s no hard-cut number of daily shed hairs that officially puts you in problem territory.

Aside from seeing your hair come out in handfuls, trying to count what you’re losing isn’t going to give you useful information.

More important than counting your fallen tresses (which isn’t really an effective or time-efficient way to gauge your hair health) is knowing what may be causing excessive hair loss in the first place.

When it comes to actual hair loss, there are three common causes to know about:

• Female pattern hair loss

• Telogen effluvium

• Alopecia areata

Beyond these three causes, other factors can contribute to hair loss — we’ll get into those too.

Female Pattern Hair Loss

You’ve probably heard of male pattern baldness, but did you know there’s a female counterpart? Also known as androgenetic alopecia, female pattern hair loss is the most common type of hair loss affecting women.

This form of hair loss typically manifests as thinning hair at the crown of the head or around the temples.

Female pattern hair loss happens due to a variety of genetic and environmental factors. Since it’s more common after menopause, hormonal changes (like estrogen shifts) may also play a role.

Telogen Effluvium

Telogen effluvium is a form of excessive hair shedding. People with telogen effluvium can lose over 200 hairs per day.

This type of hair loss often happens due to physical or psychological stressors. These may include:

• Intense psychological stress, such as the death of a loved one, losing a job, or going through a divorce

• Severe illness or injury

• Underlying medical conditions like thyroid disease

• Major surgery

• Childbirth

• Deficiencies in iron or vitamin D

• Malnutrition

• Rapid weight loss

• Side effects of certain medications

 We’ve covered medications that can cause hair loss in our blog.

Alopecia Areata

Alopecia areata happens due to an autoimmune reaction in which the immune system mistakenly attacks hair follicles. This leads to patchy hair loss on the scalp and other areas of the body, which can cause visible bald spots.

Other Causes of Hair Loss in Women

Besides the three types of hair loss above, other things can cause you to lose more hairs than normal. These include:

• Tight hairstyles that pull on hair follicles, like ponytails, braids, and cornrows (known as traction alopecia)

• Exposure to excessive heat, such as frequently blow-drying on high heat or regularly using a flat iron or curling wand

• Certain hair care practices like coloring, perming, or relaxing

• Scalp conditions like scalp psoriasis and scalp ringworm (tinea capitis)

• Compulsively pulling on your hair, a condition called trichotillomania

• Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)

 Learn more about PCOS hair loss in our blog.

If you lose large clumps of hair, notice patchy hair loss, see visible bald patches, or spot a receding hairline, it’s time to seek medical support.

Irregular and sudden hair loss could signal an autoimmune disease or another medical condition. And if you’re seeing gradual thinning or patchy hair loss around the crown of your head or at your temples, it may be a sign of female pattern baldness.

In these cases, a healthcare provider can help guide you through treatment options for the type of alopecia you have.

When seeking care from a healthcare professional, a dermatologist is a great place to start. These are doctors who specialize in diagnosing and treating medical conditions that impact the skin, hair, and nails.

You can find a board-certified dermatologist in your area using the American Academy of Dermatology’s search tool.

Hair Loss Treatments for Women

One medication that may help you protect your hair is minoxidil.

Minoxidil is the generic form of Rogaine^®. You can buy topical minoxidil over the counter as a 2% liquid solution or 5% foam. It can also be prescribed off-label as a pill you take by mouth.

While experts are still trying to understand how minoxidil works, its ultimate function is increasing blood flow to hair follicles, which helps them stay active and healthy.

A 2016 research review found that the number of women experiencing at least moderate hair regrowth with minoxidil was twice as high as those who used placebos. Hair count per centimeter also increased in the minoxidil group.

Your healthcare provider may suggest alternative remedies to use with or instead of minoxidil, such as:

• Other medications like spironolactone and finasteride

• Hair transplant

• Red light combs and helmets

• PRP (platelet-rich plasma) therapy

These treatments have varying levels of success, but they may help when other options don’t work.

Interested in some of these other solutions? Read more about the best hair loss treatments for women in our blog.

Counting is for cards and muppets. If you’re wandering around with a notepad and a magnifying glass because you’re afraid you’re going bald, you’re focusing on the wrong numbers.

How much hair do you lose in a day on average, and when should you be worried? Here’s what to keep in mind:

• Knowing how many strands of hair you lose a day with a healthy scalp might be comforting. Most people shed 50 to 100 hairs a day. This is totally normal and part of the natural hair growth cycle.

• Being concerned about hair loss is also normal. The good news is, it’s easy to do something about it by talking to a professional and exploring research-backed treatments.

• Topical minoxidil can make a big difference by supporting hair regrowth in areas with thinning. Ask your provider about other remedies that might help.

The big picture: Daily shedding isn’t the problem you need to be worrying about. However, experiencing too much daily shedding or not seeing a rotation of new hair growth to replace it could be a concern that points to actual hair loss.

Take our free hair loss quiz to start exploring research-backed treatments from Hers.