Three months after giving birth, I looked at my crown in a photo
Illustrative story written in the first person.
Three months after giving birth, I looked at my crown in a photo and didn't recognize my own hair.
My sister-in-law took the photo at the lunch after the christening. I was bending down to pick my daughter up from the stroller and she snapped a picture from behind, without warning — the kind that ends up in the family group chat without a second thought.
I saw it that same night, with the baby already asleep, scrolling through my phone in bed. And I stared at the photo for a long time without quite understanding what was bothering me so much.
It was my crown. You could see my scalp. Not a receding hairline, not one specific spot — the whole top looked lighter, thinner, as if I had much less hair than I remembered.
I liked the photo because I didn't know what else to do, and saved it in a folder I never opened again.
At first I thought I was imagining it, or it was the angle, or the light in the garden. But I started noticing other things. My ponytail, which had always been hard to tie because my hair was so thick, now took an extra twist of the hair tie. And another one, a few weeks later.
In the shower I started seeing clumps tangled in my fingers that I hadn't seen before. On my pillow in the mornings, strands I would never have thought of counting.
I mentioned it to my midwife at the six-week check-up, almost in passing, a little embarrassed to bring up something "so superficial" when she was focused on other postpartum things. She said it was completely normal, that it's hormonal, and that it settles on its own within a few months.
And I understood, I really did. But "it's normal" didn't stop me from wanting to cry every time I looked in the bathroom mirror under the overhead light — the least forgiving light of all.
With the baby, the lack of sleep and going back to work coming up, I had neither the time nor the headspace to research treatments. Until one afternoon my daughter finally took a long nap and, instead of sleeping too, I started searching on my phone for exactly why this was happening.
I learned that during pregnancy hair enters a kind of "pause" that makes it shed much less than usual — which is why so many pregnant women have such thick hair. And after giving birth, when hormones return to their normal levels, all the hair that didn't fall out for months sheds at once, concentrated into a few weeks. It's not that you're losing "more hair than normal" forever. It's that the hair that didn't fall out before is falling out all at once.
That reassured me, but it also made me think of something else: if new hair had to grow back, wouldn't it make sense to help keep the roots as active as possible in the meantime, instead of just waiting for it to pass?
That's how I found Valoreao. An at-home microneedling kit designed to stimulate the scalp before applying any serum or treatment. Nothing like clinic needles or anything invasive — they're very fine, you glide them over your scalp 1 to 2 times a week, and they're meant to help keep the area more active while the hair cycle rebalances.
I started using it without many expectations, to be honest. With a three-month-old baby, I didn't have the energy to get my hopes up about anything.
At four weeks, my ponytail fit with one less twist of the hair tie. I thought it was a coincidence.
At eight weeks, at another family lunch, my sister-in-law took another photo from behind — this time I asked her to, so I could compare. My crown didn't look the same anymore. It still wasn't my pre-pregnancy hair, but my scalp no longer showed through like in that first photo.
I don't know if this works the same for everyone, or whether it would have happened on its own with time, as my midwife said. What I do know is that for the first time in months, I stopped avoiding photos from behind.
If you've just become a mom and this is happening to you, before assuming all you can do is wait, try giving your own hair tie an extra twist right now. If you notice it takes one more twist than a few months ago, you're not imagining it.
About the kit I used
Valoreao is a complete at-home scalp microneedling kit: 6 serums + 6 microneedle heads. It doesn't replace your usual treatment (minoxidil, serums, oils) — it's used before it, to help it penetrate better. Apply it 1 to 2 times a week; suitable for all skin types, and no salon visit needed.
Insured shipping: your order is tracked all the way to your door. If it arrives defective, damaged, or there's any error with your order, we'll cover it at no cost — just write to us and we'll sort it out.
Results and timelines vary from person to person. This product supports scalp stimulation and absorption; it does not cure or regenerate follicles.