The famous “eggplant season”: what your hair is trying to tell you after summer

By Georgina Buscaglia, hair color and care specialist

@exhalapeluqueria.

March and April arrive with a shared sensation: hair falls out more. The brush fills up, the shower seems to accuse us and the inevitable question appears: am I losing my hair? Peaceful. Before panicking, let’s understand what is happening.

Summer doesn’t end when we put away the mesh. UV rays don’t only act when we are lying in the sun on the beach. From December to early March, radiation is intense even in the city: walking on the sidewalk, driving, waiting for a traffic light.
The scalp—unlike the length of the hair—is alive. It has cells, blood vessels, metabolic activity. And the hair bulb receives that direct impact for months.

The damage is not always seen in the moment. Hair has biological memory.

What is the “eggplant season”?

This is the colloquial name for the period in which many hairs that were weakened during the summer enter the loss phase.
It is not immediate: the hair cycle has times. What suffered UV impact in January may only manifest itself in March or April.
This is normal and has a name: a reactive seasonal decline.

What is normal… and what is not

It is normal:
• Notice more hair in the shower or on the brush.
• Hair feels duller, rougher or more fragile.
• May the fall last a few weeks.

It is not normal:
• Intense and sustained hair loss for more than 6–8 weeks.
• Visibly unpopulated areas.
• Burning, itching, or pain in the scalp.
• Fall accompanied by extreme fatigue, recent hormonal changes or prolonged stress.

In those cases, it is always advisable to consult. The key fact that almost no one takes into account. We lose, on average, around 100 hairs per day.
Now: if you didn’t wash or detangle your hair for two days, those 200 hairs don’t disappear… they accumulate.
Result: the famous “bun” appears in the shower and we think that something is wrong.

How to test if the fall is real or just perception

The simplest (and honest) way to evaluate hair loss is to accompany it with a more frequent washing routine:
• Wash every day or every other day.
• Always detangle before washing.
• Observe how much actually appears in each shower.

If the fall remains stable and does not increase wash after wash, you are probably facing a normal process.

What can you do to accompany your hair at this stage?
• Prioritize cleansing the scalp (a clean follicle works better).
• Avoid tightness, tight hairstyles or excessive friction.
• Add products that protect the fiber and scalp from oxidative stress.
• Do not space out washes “for fear of more shedding”: this usually generates the opposite effect… emotional and visual.

The “eggplant season” is not a punishment or a failure of the body. It’s an answer.
Understanding it, observing it without fear and accompanying your hair with awareness is, many times, all you need to return to your balance.

Because not everything that falls is a problem. Sometimes, it’s just a cycle fulfilling itself.