Being a new mother is difficult; from adjusting to a new addition to the family and an increasingly hectic schedule to a lack of sleep and body changes. One of the things that can make the experience more difficult to cope with is significant postpartum hair loss. According to the American Academy of Dermatology Association, dermatologists refer to this condition as excessive hair shedding caused by falling estrogen levels. Although postpartum shedding is a common side effect of hormonal changes after giving birth, it doesn’t happen immediately after your baby is born.
Peak hair loss can rear its ugly head around four to five months postpartum, leaving new mothers confused, frustrated, and embarrassed. There aren’t many recommended solutions from medical experts aside from a new hairstyle, revitalized shampoo, or an increase in prenatal supplements.
Candera Thompson, a Bahamian native and mother of three, is seeking to provide a solution for other mothers suffering from postpartum shedding. After experiencing severe postpartum shedding and noticing a lack of natural products to address hair thinning and loss for new moms, she founded the brand Bask & Bloom Essentials in 2017. The products are highly concentrated with herbal extracts and naturally-derived ingredients.
It’s a science-backed hair-care line designed to provide efficacious formulas to help restore hair after postpartum shedding, breakage, and overall hair loss. The name Bask & Bloom was inspired by the intended result they want customers to have by using their products: “lustrous, flourishing hair and skin.”
ESSENCE spoke with Thompson about her postpartum shedding process, the catalyst for creating her brand and tips for new mothers experiencing hair loss.
ESSENCE: Can you tell me why you developed Bask & Bloom?
Candera Thompson: I am a mom of three. When I had my first daughter, who is 13 years old now, I experienced normal postpartum shedding, but then it got severe. My hair never went back to being the same. So I was on a quest to find solutions. There were a lot of Facebook and natural hair groups, and these communities grew around textured hair. I wanted to know what moms who weren’t wearing relaxers were doing to get their hair back feeling healthy and full. My hair was thin and breaking off. We were just trying to figure it out during that time.
When I had my second daughter, I experienced complete hair loss in the middle of my scalp. This pushed me to research hair loss and examine what raw materials might work. I thought, “What can I do to create more supportive products to help women strengthen their hair, retain length, and help growth promotion?” So, that’s when I started searching for a chemist. I also played around in my kitchen with formulas and took a course on formulation to learn how to do it myself. In 2017, we launched our More Moisture Cream and Herbal Infused Hair and Scalp Oil. Those two products took off in the Facebook group, as they were debuted to 50,000 women.
Those women watched me on this hair-care development journey when I had my third child. I also used them to test the products to see if our brand resonated with them.
How did you develop the formula independently before partnering with your chemist?
This is where the Facebook group came in. Many of the women there used Ayurvedic herbs and tea rinses. I was very familiar with that approach. Growing up in the Bahamas, we didn’t have a major hospital on the island that I was from. So anytime you got sick, the remedy was to drink some tea. I was well-versed in the different types of teas and how they can help your body, like Burdock root. So it was interesting that these women were using that on their hair and saw positive results. I gathered the information, started researching different types of herbs, and explored how we could infuse them into the products.
How does the product exactly help hair loss?
The product helps with bouncing back from hair loss. And that’s one of the biggest things we do through education, especially when discussing something like postpartum. We know it takes up to a year or so for the pregnancy hormones to leave your body. So all of the formulas do have the herbal infusion in them, as well as mild proteins in there to help promote growth, but also, on the primary side it’s strengthening the hair, so you don’t lose as much.
Did losing your hair affect your self-esteem?
It affected me on many levels because I had to learn this new person looking at me in the mirror. I’m a mom of three creating this line, and I want to let other mothers know that you don’t have to put your life on hold to go after your dreams. Bask & Bloom is more profound than just hair care because we also explore how we, as mothers, make time for ourselves and find the beauty in who we are after becoming a mom.
My brand pushed me to talk about my hair loss struggles more. I wanted to show mothers that I see them, and while there may not be a light at the end of the tunnel through all of this, we will be here to provide solutions for you continually and support you on your hair journey, whatever that may be.
Black women’s hair care is part of self-care. So when we lose our hair and don’t choose to cut it or reshape our look, it can be devastating.
As you said, it was not something I chose to do. It just happened to me. I was in the shower one day after detangling my hair, and I washed my hair, and it just came out in clumps, to the point where I couldn’t even get a comb through it anymore. It just batted up. I threw in the towel and just went to the salon. My hairstylist had to cut it all off.
I was speaking to other women and mothers because I was desperate to find something and to know that I wasn’t alone. Those women admitted that they hate that no one talks about this. They’ve said, “People expect me to push out a baby and return to normal.” That broke my heart more than what I was dealing with.
I assume you went to the doctor to figure it out. What happened?
I went to three dermatologists and one gave me a topical solution for my bald spot. I don’t know if I was allergic, but the solution left my scalp pretty itchy. So I went to another one, and he took a piece of my scalp and did a biopsy and determined that I had minor trauma on my scalp. So they gave me some pills; it was an antibiotic for inflammation. I was never able to digest a single pill. By the time I went to the third dermatologist I’m still working with, I told her there were a lot of more innovative raw materials on the market. Now I work with that same dermatologist and the chemist to develop our products.
So even though I still didn’t get the solution that would help me, I just realized that this will be something where, over time, it will either go away, or I will just have to live with it. Thankfully, my hair continued to thrive.
Can you share some tips for our mother readers suffering from hair loss?
These tips are coming from a licensed cosmetologist and a dermatologist, as I only share tips if they come directly from an industry expert. Always use hydrating shampoos that are scalp friendly—knowing that many women have postpartum issues from your skin, which is your scalp. It’s very, very important. Keeping your scalp healthy with hydrating, non-toxic shampoos is vital for all your other products and stuff to work and for the results to last. And make sure you’re using a deep strengthening treatment because as your hair transitions and those pregnancy hormones leave your body, you’ll need the retention side of it.
What are the common misconceptions about postpartum shedding and hair loss?
People think that it’s something that you bounce back from naturally. You not only can lose your hair, but the complete essence of it can also shift. At Bask & Bloom, we want to educate moms on how to care for this new type of hair they’re experiencing. Because bouncing back doesn’t necessarily mean it will be the same.