Khloe Kardashian says she's 'struggled' with this COVID side effect
With the world slowly reopening and the vaccine rollout well underway, it looks like we might be coming towards the end of the coronavirus pandemic. But, that doesn't mean the longer-term side effects of the virus will disappear overnight. In fact, many who tested positive have spoken about how they're dealing with long-COVID, along with issues including loss of smell and taste. Now, Khloe Kardashian has revealed the COVID side effect that she's been dealing with, more than a year since she had the virus.
Speaking in a public Twitter chat about her experience with coronavirus in March 2020, Khloe said: "My hair really fell out with COVID."
"It was really a struggle," she said of the hair loss, before pointing out that her sense of smell and taste were "the only things" she "didn't lose." The 37-year-old added, "I had everything else — like anything else you can imagine."
Although hair loss isn't listed as a symptom of long-COVID on the NHS website, a medical study carried out earlier this year revealed that nearly a quarter of COVID patients suffer from hair loss within six months of infection.
The study, which was published in the medical journal The Lancet, focussed on the long-term side effects of patients who had tested positive in Wuhan, China. It found that 359 out of 1,655 hospital patients who had coronavirus went on to suffer hair loss.
To combat the hair loss she experienced, Khloe explained that using collagen powder "helped so much."
"I do the powder," she said, "and I take so many vitamins a day."
But Khloe isn't the only celebrity who's opened up about how COVID has affected hair growth. Earlier this year, Drake also took to socials to comment on the way his hair has changed since he contracted the virus. "I had COVID that shit grew in weird I had to start again," he said in response to a fan who noticed a change in his hairstyle.
On the topic of the link between COVID and our hair, Michael May, director of the Wimpole Clinic, previously told Cosmopolitan: "While the scientific discoveries are still ongoing, evidence suggests that there is some kind of connection between virus symptoms or side-effects and the health of the hair and scalp."
The good news, however, is that your hair should recover from this as it's classed as a temporary hair loss condition. "Excessive hair shedding does not cause any permanent changes to the hair follicle," Ellie Coldham, a consultant trichologist at Philip Kingsley Trichological Clinic, reassures. "However, hair does grow slowly (approximately 1.25cm a month) so the results will take some time to become obvious."
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