Losing up to about a hundred hairs a day is normal. Sudden diffuse shedding usually follows a trigger — illness, low iron, thyroid disease, crash dieting or childbirth — around three months earlier. Gradual thinning at the crown or parting suggests pattern hair loss, which is different and treated differently.
Symptoms of hair fall
Symptoms vary, and few people have all of them. These are the ones most commonly reported.
2-minute check
What kind of hair fall is this?
Four questions. Your result appears immediately — we do not ask for an email.
Where is it thinning?
How did it start?
Illness, surgery, childbirth, crash diet or high stress 2-4 months ago?
Fatigue, feeling cold, or heavy periods alongside?
This looks more like pattern hair loss
It is genetic and progressive rather than deficiency-driven, and dermatological treatment is the main route.
The picture is mixed
Both can occur together. Blood work separates them, and correcting deficiency helps in either case.
This fits telogen effluvium — shedding after a trigger
The encouraging part is that it usually recovers once the cause is corrected. Ferritin and thyroid are the first tests.
This check is an indication, not a diagnosis. It does not replace medical advice.
When to see a doctor
Arrange a medical appointment rather than waiting if you have:
- Patchy, circular areas of complete loss
- Scalp redness, scaling, pain or pustules
- Scarring, or shiny smooth areas where hair will not regrow
- Sudden loss with other symptoms of illness
- Hair loss with signs of excess androgen — deep voice, rapid hair growth elsewhere
What causes hair fall
Hair grows in cycles. Most causes of hair fall work by pushing too many follicles out of the growing phase at once.
Illness, deficiency, hormonal shift, rapid weight loss or stress.
More than usual switch into the resting phase together.
Which is why the shedding is delayed and the cause looks unrelated.
A large cohort is released at roughly the same time.
Risk factors
- Low ferritin — extremely common in Indian women
- Thyroid disease
- PCOS
- Recent illness, surgery or fever
- Childbirth
- Crash dieting or very low protein intake
- A family history of pattern hair loss
- Vitamin D and B12 deficiency
How hair fall is diagnosed
| Test | What it indicates |
|---|---|
| Serum ferritin | The single most useful test here |
| Complete blood count | Anaemia alongside |
| Thyroid function | TSH with T3 and T4 |
| Vitamin D and B12 | Both commonly low and both relevant |
| Testosterone and DHEAS | Where PCOS or androgen excess is suspected |
| Zinc | Deficiency causes hair fall |
| Scalp examination or dermoscopy | To distinguish pattern loss from shedding |
Not sure which of these you have had?The assessment asks, and tells you which are worth requesting.
Check my health parametersWhat happens if it is left untreated
Stated factually, because these risks are real and manageable rather than inevitable.
- Considerable effect on confidence and mood
- Permanent loss where scarring conditions are missed
- Ineffective spending on products that do not address the cause
- Anxiety, and social avoidance
How Health Total treats hair fall
Our protocol runs alongside whatever your doctor has prescribed. We do not ask anyone to stop medication.
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1
Test before treating
Ferritin, thyroid, vitamin D, B12 and, where relevant, androgens. Treating hair fall without this is guesswork.
-
2
Look back three months for the trigger
Illness, surgery, childbirth, a crash diet or a period of high stress. The delay is why people miss the connection.
-
3
Correct deficiency properly and fully
Ferritin needs to be well into the normal range, not merely at its lower edge, and it takes months.
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4
Ensure adequate protein
Hair is protein. Very low intake, particularly on restrictive diets, is a frequent and overlooked cause.
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5
Set honest expectations on timing
Regrowth follows the hair cycle. Visible improvement takes months, and we will say so rather than promise faster.
What makes this different
A standard diet plan
- Oils and shampoos as the first response
- No blood tests at all
- Ferritin ignored if haemoglobin is normal
- Promises of rapid regrowth
How we do it
- Cause identified on blood work first
- The trigger traced back three months
- Ferritin corrected fully, not marginally
- Honest timelines tied to the hair cycle
Nine questions. Two minutes.You will see your result before we ask for your name.
Start my free assessmentAudited results
Publication pending. Aggregate outcome figures for this condition — sample size, inclusion criteria, mean and median change, range and dropout rate — will appear here once the audited outcome report is complete and signed by a second clinician.
Under the ASCI Healthcare Guidelines, a success rate, timeline or efficacy claim requires peer-reviewed data or the organisation’s own audited outcome report. We would rather publish nothing here than publish a number we cannot substantiate.
Case studies
De-identified clinical records — the plan as delivered, the markers as measured, and adherence as it actually was. Each signed by the supervising clinician and verified by a second.
Case file 1
Awaiting the case production line — dependency D6.
Case file 2
Awaiting the case production line — dependency D6.
Case file 3
Awaiting the case production line — dependency D6.
The standard each case must meet before publication →
Published with specific, informed and withdrawable consent. Individual results vary.
Why Health Total for hair fall
Clinicians, named
Over 200 doctors and nutritionists. Every condition page here carries the name and credentials of the person who wrote it and the person who reviewed it.
Indian food, Indian bodies
Thirty years of treating Indian patients, with plans built from Indian kitchens and read against Asia-Pacific metabolic cut-offs.
Our own data
Outcomes come from audited internal records, not from studies conducted elsewhere on other populations.
Somewhere to walk in
Physical centres across India, which most app-based programmes cannot offer.
Recipes for hair fall
Palak and lemon dal
The lemon at the end is not a garnish. It is what makes the iron usable.
See the recipe →Selenium and zinc seed mix
A spoon a day for thyroid and immune support — and why two Brazil nuts is the limit.
See the recipe →Iron and vitamin C pairings
Absorption, not intake. Moving your chai an hour often matters more than eating more iron.
See the recipe →Walnut and seed omega mix
Five walnuts a day — and why the ratio to omega-6 matters more than the amount.
See the recipe →Articles
Why weight will not move when your thyroid is underactive
When effort stops producing a result, the problem is often not the effort.
Read →What actually changes in a PCOS diet
Not a list of forbidden foods — a set of changes to how meals are built.
Read →Iron deficiency starts long before anaemia
A normal haemoglobin does not mean your iron is fine.
Read →What diet does and does not do for skin
Some dietary claims about skin are well supported. Most are not.
Read →Hair fall: the causes worth testing for
What you are seeing today started three months ago.
Read →Questions we are asked
How much hair fall is normal?
Up to around a hundred hairs a day is normal, and it looks like more than it is when hair is long. What matters more is whether overall density is reducing, and a ponytail circumference is a practical way to track that.
Will oiling my hair stop it?
Oiling can improve the condition of the hair shaft and is a reasonable thing to do. It does not address iron deficiency, thyroid disease or PCOS, which are the usual causes. It treats the hair rather than the reason.
My haemoglobin is normal, so iron is not the problem?
Not necessarily. Ferritin — the iron store — falls long before haemoglobin does, and hair fall commonly occurs while the blood count still reads normal. Ask for ferritin specifically.
How long until it improves?
Months, not weeks, because it follows the hair growth cycle. Shedding typically settles first, and visible density takes longer. Anyone promising rapid results is not being straight with you.
Start with your own numbers.Free assessment, free first consultation, and no figure quoted that we cannot substantiate.
Start my free assessmentReferences
- IADVL guidelines on the evaluation and management of hair loss.
- Reviews of micronutrient status in telogen effluvium and androgenetic alopecia.
- [Further references to be completed by the medical review panel.]