Covid-19 is said to cause long-term side effects in up to 67% of patients, and these health consequences can include chronic fatigue, loss of taste and smell and brain fog. Increasingly common too is Covid-related hair loss. Known as telogen effluvium, this phenomenon manifests as clumps of hair falling out after brushing or washing your hair.

It’s normal to shed hair daily – we lose about 100-150 hairs each day as hair drops from follicles to make way for new hair growth. This growth cycle occurs because 90% of the hair on our heads is in a growth phase (called anagen), while the remaining 10% is in a resting phase (called telogen). Anagen lasts for about three years before transitioning into the shorter telogen phase, following which hair is shed.

A stressful event like childbirth, certain medications, intense psychological stress and Covid-19 can trigger our bodies to shift a greater-than-normal proportion of growing anagen hairs into a resting telogen state, according to the University of Utah.

“Covid-related hair loss can affect up to 33% of symptomatic patients and 10% of asymptomatic patients,” says a plastic surgeon who deals with hair loss patients. “And this kind of hair loss seems to be different from that induced by stress or disease as cytokines (substances secreted by the body’s immune system) appear to cause direct damage to hair follicles,” she adds.

Covid-induced hair loss has also been reported to start earlier after the stressful event – in two months instead of the usual three.