There’s no doubt that pregnancy affects every aspect of your life. From obvious physical changes, to mood swings, to “mom brain,” hormones run your world. One thing I did not expect them to impact, however, was my curl pattern.
My hair actually went through quite a lot during pregnancy, even before the shift in shape. While most women experience the joys of thick, long hair, mine starting falling out while I was pregnant. I had a difficult pregnancy and was on modified bed rest from about 16 weeks on. Stress, combined with the fact that I had no energy to regularly wash or brush my hair, led to hair loss (IMO). But even through this period, my curl pattern remained intact.
It wasn’t until I had my son that I noticed the change in my hair. It stopped falling out pretty soon after delivery and I regained some thickness. But now it was slightly straighter.
My hair has always been straight/wavy at the root, and then curls into big ringlets the longer it gets. After I had my son, my hair was nearly waist length, but I’d lost the ringlets; it just fell in waves all the way down.
I thought it might have been the length weighing it down, so I cut it into a bob. I regained a bit of my previous bounce, but it still wasn’t as curly as it had once been. So I researched to learn why.
Turns out, no one really knows (though the article, “Pregnancy made me lose my curls,” was helpful.) There hasn’t been a ton of research on the subject of texture change in relation to pregnancy. I did, however, learn this interesting fact: hair texture is determined by the shape of your hair follicle. The rounder the follicle, the straighter your hair. The more oval-shaped or flatter, the curlier.
This basically means that hormones reshaped the hair follicles under my skin. What?!?! I swear, hormones can move mountains.
I cut my hair into a pixie before waiting to see if my curl pattern returned. Now that I’m growing the pixie out again, it will be interesting to see what has happened. There is some curl happening but again, it takes a little bit of length to see the true texture of my hair. I hope I can avoid the scissors for the next few months. :-O
Has pregnancy affected your curl pattern?
~Thais
Curl on a Mission 
I noticed with both of my pregnancies that my hair was straighter towards the second trimester. What makes it especially strange for me is my curls come back after two weeks once they’re out of me.
I don’t know how I would feel if the change had the potential to be permanent especially after embracing them.
Hey, how are your curls now?
Hi! They’re definitely springier, but probably still not as tight as before pregnancy.