THE UNEXPECTED SIDE EFFECT SUFFERED BY COVID SURVIVORS
Best-selling Author // Board certified physician // graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with honors for genetic research in neurobiology DR. BROOKE GOLDNER:

More than a quarter, or 27%, of patients recovering from COVID-19 reported hair loss as one of the lingering problems in a survey of more than 1,500 people in the Survivor Corp Facebook group. Members are sometimes called “long haulers” because they discuss long-term effects of the disease. Doctors say telogen effluvium is to blame, a temporary condition where people experience excessive hair shedding after an illness, surgery, high fever, a stressful life event, extreme weight loss or giving birth. Dr. Esther Freeman, who directs the Dermatology COVID-19 Registry — a database of dermatologic manifestations of COVID-19 that now contains 1,000 cases from 38 countries — said there’s been a growing number of hair loss cases recorded. She declined to give specific numbers while researchers were actively working on a data analysis of the phenomenon.