The Fall Reset: Why You're Shedding More Right Now

...and How to Undo a Summer's Damage

If your shower drain looks more hair-filled than usual this month, its not your imagination. Every Fall, searches for “hair falling out” spike, salons field more questions about shedding, and people begin noticing more hair in their brushes and showers. Don’t panic. The truth: autumn shedding is a real, documented and largely self-resolving biological phenomenon.

But it also happens at the exact moment your hair fiber is at its weakest, worn down by three months of UV exposure, chlorine, salt water, heat, ponytails and more. September is when biology and summer damage collide—so this month, we’re covering: what’s happening at the follicle, what happened to the fiber, and the path back to healthy hair.

Seasonal Shedding Is Real

As discussed in previous articles, every hair on your head cycles independently through three phases: anagen (active growth, lasting years), catagen (a brief transition), and telogen (a resting phase of roughly three months, at the end of which the hair is shed). At any given time, about 10% of your follicles are in the resting phase—and the shed hairs you see are simply resting hairs completing their cycle.

This cycle actually has a seasonal rhythm. In a large study by the University Hospital of Zürich analyzed six years of trichogram data (microscopic hair-root analysis) from over 800 healthy women. The proportion of hairs in telogen peaked in summer and reached its lowest point in late winter [1].

Because telogen lasts about 100 days, hairs that entered their resting phase in June and July are released—right on schedule—in September and October.

This is believed to be an evolutionary holdover: like other mammals responding to daylight cycles, we appear to retain a subtle molting rhythm, and it is proposed that summer UV exposure itself contributes to pushing follicles into rest, called actinic effluvium [2].

What this means is an uptick in shedding that begins in late August through October, lasts a few weeks, and affects hair diffusely (rather than in patches or a widening part) —and it resolves on its own. The follicles aren’t dying; they’re recycling. Each shed hair has a new anagen hair queued up behind it.

What Summer Actually Did to Your Hair

While your follicles were quietly scheduling their autumn recycling, the hair already on your head was taking environmental damage. Unlike skin, the hair fiber cannot repair itself—every bit of summer damage is still there until it’s trimmed off or treated.

Sun. UV radiation is the single most aggressive environmental stressor hair faces. Photochemical studies show that UV exposure oxidizes melanin (that’s your “natural highlights”—actually pigment destruction), degrades structural amino acids including tryptophan and cystine, cleaves the disulfide bonds that give hair its strength, and generates cysteic acid as a damage byproduct [3,4,5]. The results: increased porosity (absorbs more water), reduced tensile (breaks easier) strength, lipid loss, rougher texture, and diminished ability to hold moisture [3,5].

Chlorine. Pool disinfectants are strong oxidizers, chemically a milder cousin of bleach. In a controlled laboratory study, chlorinated water shifted the color of both natural and bleached hair and attacked hair proteins, and adding UV light made the damage significantly worse and showed damaged pigment granules [6,7]. In other words, chlorine breaks down the hair you already have, but it doesn’t harm the follicle growing new hair.

Salt and dehydration. Ocean water, wind, heat and related wet-dry cycles exposure draw moisture out of the fiber and leave behind salt crystals that increase friction making hair more prone to tangling and breakage.

Getting Back to Healthy

The breakage and shedding look identical in your brush, but they’re completely different problems. The good news is that both problems respond to the same patient, evidence-consistent approach.

1. Don’t chase the shedding. Seasonal telogen release cannot be stopped, and it doesn’t need to be. The follicles are already regrowing. Resist the urge to buy aggressive “anti-hair-loss” products in response to a normal biological rhythm.

2. Remove what summer left behind. Chlorine residue, salt, mineral deposits, styling products and excess oil can accumulate on the hair and scalp. A gentle but thorough double cleanse—massage, rinse, repeat.

3. Rebuild the fiber with hydrolyzed proteins. Hydrolyzed proteins are proteins that have been broken into smaller fragments, including peptides. Their molecular size affects how they interact with hair: larger fragments tend to deposit on the surface, while some smaller fragments may penetrate more deeply into damaged areas of the fiber. - these peptides penetrate the damaged cortex, reduce UV-induced protein loss, restore tensile strength, and smooth the lifted cuticle [7,8].

4. Restore moisture and reduce friction. Damaged, high-porosity hair loses water as fast as it absorbs it. Conditioning after every wash, cutting heat styling while the fiber recovers, and reducing overnight friction (yes, the silk pillowcase again).

5. Trim strategically. The most photo-damaged fiber is at your ends. It’s the oldest hair on your head, and it caught the most sun. A modest trim removes the most compromised, breakage-prone length. It won’t change how thick your hair grows from the scalp (that’s a myth), but cutting away frayed, split ends makes the hair you have look fuller and healthier.

6. Feed the regrowth. The hairs replacing your autumn shed are being built right now, from amino acids. As we covered last month, consistent dietary protein is the raw material of the anagen phase.

How Mijo® Fits In

Mijo® shampoos and (and soon - conditioners) were formulated for exactly this kind of recovery: hydrolyzed proteins replace what UV and chlorine took, gentle biodegradable cleansers that clear residue without stripping an already-depleted cuticle, and—as always—because a scalp pushed through a summer of sun and sweat needs clean without irritation.

Ingredient of the Month: Hydrolyzed Baobab Protein

Baobab (*Adansonia digitata*) —the “upside-down tree” of the African savanna that, once hydrolyzed into low-molecular-weight peptides, binds readily to damaged, negatively-charged sites on the hair fiber. Baobab peptides are studied for film-forming moisture retention and improved elasticity in stressed hair, making them particularly suited to high-porosity, post-summer fiber.[9] You’ll find hydrolyzed baobab protein in Mijo® formulas doing quiet structural work: filling the gaps summer left behind.

Strengthen the follicle from within. Fortify the fiber from the outside. The shedding is temporary. The damage is repairable. Your hair will be back to its best by winter.

Because beautiful hair isn’t just clean—it’s informed.

References

1. Kunz M, Seifert B, Trüeb RM. Seasonality of Hair Shedding in Healthy Women Complaining of Hair Loss. Dermatology. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19407435/
2. Asghar F, et al. Telogen Effluvium: A Review of the Literature. Cureus. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7320655/
3. Sebetić K, et al. Photoaggravation of Hair Aging. International Journal of Trichology. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2938585/
4. Fernández E, et al. Photodamage Determination of Human Hair. Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1011134411002417
5. Ramos T, et al. Impact of Ultraviolet Radiation-Induced Damage to Hair Fiber Integrity. International Journal of Cosmetic Science. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ics.70104
6. Joekes I, Pires-Oliveira R. Hair Color Damages Caused by Exposure to Chlorinated Water in the Presence of Ultraviolet Radiation. Journal of Cosmetic Science. 2010;61(5):403–415. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20839655/
7. Hair-Discoloration of Japanese Elite Swimmers. Journal of Dermatology. 2000;27(10):625–634. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11092265/
8. Performance and Mechanism of Hydrolyzed Keratin for Hair. Polymers. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11902160/
9. Recovery and Protection of Photo-Damaged Hairs with Keratin-Encapsulated Cationic Liposomes. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12319434/