When you are shedding or experiencing accelerated hair loss, you begin to notice nearly every hair that falls from your head.  You start to notice the strands on your floor, or on your clothing, or in your drain, and most definitely in your hair brush.  Often, you will notice too that brushing or combing your hair is followed by a shower of spent hairs shedding out.  If this goes on for longer than you are comfortable with, you may start to wonder if you should reign in things which you used to think nothing about like washing or brushing your hair. People often ask me questions like: "Does brushing or combing my hair make more of it fall out? Should I avoid this if I am shedding?"  I'll address these concerns in the following article.

Brushing Is Not Something That People With Healthy Hair And Scalps Need To Worry About: It's normal and natural for a small amount of hair to shed or fall out after you brush it.  Similar to shampooing, the manipulation of the hair follicles and scalp causes the hair that was already in the resting or shedding phase to be massaged out.  The amount of strands in this phase is often less than 50 per day (and sometimes much less than even this) for most people.   

But people who are shedding or losing more than normal can shed out excess amounts after the stimulation of brushing.  They can therefore begin to wonder if brushing is the cause of the excess loss or if this is something that they should avoid.  Truthfully, people with healthy hair and scalps who enjoy normal loss don't need to worry about the small amounts that normally fall. And, any hair that comes out in your brush was destined to come out anyway.  If your hair was not in the resting phase, the manipulation that comes with this process would not be enough to pull it out.  Strands not in the resting phase which are healthy and deeply embedded in your head need more than gentle tugging to come out. The brush is not to blame.  Whatever is making more of your follicles go into the resting phase is to blame.

But, if you're shedding excess amounts, you may start to believe that you can't spare even one more hair and that this combing or brushing business is a luxury you can't afford.  This isn't the answer either though, which I'll explain below.

Why You Shouldn't Skip Brushing, (Even If You Are Shedding) But You Should Modify The Technique And Tools That You Use: Combing your hair is an important part of scalp and hair health in the same way that shampooing is.  Not only does the practice stimulate your scalp, it also helps to remove the debris which could clog or shrink your follicles.  And, hair that is not combed properly can look less voluminous and plastered to your head, (a look that is not becoming if you're already suffering loss.)

You can do a few things to make the process not as difficult though.  Until you are able to figure out what is causing the excess loss and fix it, you may want to consider either using a wide tooth comb or one of the "ouch less" brushes or those designed for hair loss.  And, you never want to try to comb or brush wet or damp hair.  

Make sure that the hair is free of any tangles which will make pulling the comb through more difficult. (I often use a light weight spray in condition for this.)  Place your hand at the base of your scalp on the area that you are brushing so that you are only working with the shaft of your hair and not having to pull too hard from the scalp.  Once this step is done, you can then bend over at the waist and pull the comb or brush through (in a forward motion) if you need to. This will often make you look like you have twice as much hair (for a little while, anyway.)  And this modified method should result in less falling out because there is less manipulation.

Some hair loss experts recommend boar bristle brushes for scalp stimulation.  I find these too difficult to use and feel that they result in too much shed as the bristles don't give enough.  I have come to avoid them.  You can get the same results from more gentle tools and you can stimulate your scalp in a number of ways without having to sacrifice your hair in the process.

Finally, figuring out why you are losing more hair than normal and then stopping this process is the best defense against fearing a comb or brush.  Once you are no longer losing excess hair, you'll no longer need to hold your breath and have anxiety when you brush or shampoo.

How do I know all of this? Because I lived it. I used to live in fear of my brush because using it made tons more hair fall out. But, I came to realize that it wasn't the brush, but the shedding that was the enemy and that this is what I needed to address. In my quest to end my hair loss, I looked at my triggers, my iron, my thyroid, my adrenals, my hormones, and my scalp. It was a long, hard, frustrating journey which all but wrecked my self esteem but I finally found something that helped quite a bit. You can read my very personal story at http://stop-hair-loss-in-women.com/