If your hair is shedding and your doctor told you your iron is fine, but your brush, your pillow and your plughole are telling you a very different story, this is for you.
I've been there. So have thousands of women. And there's one number that explains the gap between "your bloods are normal" and "so why is my hair still falling out?"
It's called ferritin. Let me walk you through it the way I wish someone had walked me through it.
First, the honest bit. I'm not a doctor or a health professional. Everything here comes from my own journey and a lot of reading, and it's meant to help you ask better questions, not to replace medical advice. Please take all of this to your GP. With iron especially, that matters, and I'll explain why further down.
This started with my own hair, my own mirror, and a lot of late nights reading.
Ferritin isn't the same as "iron"
This is the part that catches almost everyone out.
When your GP says "your iron's fine," they're often looking at the iron circulating in your blood right now. Ferritin is different. Ferritin is your stored iron, your reserve tank, the iron your body keeps in the bank for when it needs it.
Here's why that matters for your hair. You can have perfectly normal blood iron and an almost empty reserve tank at the same time. And your hair is one of the very first things your body sacrifices when those reserves run low, because growing hair isn't essential to keeping you alive. Your body quietly prioritises, and your hair loses out first.
So if you've only ever had a standard "iron" test, you may not have had the one test that matters most for your hair. Ask for ferritin by name.
Why hair is often the first warning sign
Each hair follicle is a tiny, busy little factory, constantly cycling through growth, rest and renewal, and that work needs a steady supply of oxygen and nutrients. Iron is central to that supply.
When ferritin drops, follicles can shift early into their resting phase, which means more hairs let go at once and new growth slows down. There's even a name for this kind of diffuse shedding: telogen effluvium. It's one of the most common causes of sudden shedding in women, and low iron stores are a frequent trigger.
The frustrating part is you can feel completely well, energetic and healthy, and still have low ferritin. That's exactly why the hair is so often the first sign that something's off beneath the surface.
Women are far more prone to this too, between monthly periods, pregnancy and postpartum recovery, iron reserves get drawn down faster than diet alone can always top them back up.
The brush, the pillow, the plughole. If this is your morning, you're not imagining it.
The number gap nobody explains
Here's where so many women get stuck.
Labs often flag ferritin as "normal" from somewhere around 15 to 30. But for hair specifically, many dermatologists and trichologists want to see it higher, and you'll commonly see a range of 40 to 70 talked about as the zone where hair is better supported, with some specialists aiming higher again for active regrowth.
So you can sit at, say, 33, be told you're "fine," and still be shedding. You're not imagining it. You're stuck in the middle.
Now, one honest caveat, because I won't oversimplify this for you. There is no single magic number. Plenty of women sit in the low 30s with no hair issue at all, and a low-ish reading doesn't automatically mean iron is the cause of your shedding. That's the whole reason you get your actual number and talk it through with your GP, rather than guessing or self-diagnosing from a blog (even this one).
How ferritin is actually raised (the bits people get wrong)
If you and your GP decide your ferritin needs to come up, here's the part most people don't realise: it's not just about how much iron you take, it's about how much your body actually absorbs.
A few things that genuinely make a difference:
Vitamin C is your friend. It significantly boosts how much iron your body absorbs from food. A squeeze of lemon, some peppers, an orange alongside an iron-rich meal, all of it helps.
Tea, coffee and calcium are blockers. That comforting cup of tea with your meal can cut iron absorption right down. Try to keep tea, coffee and calcium-rich foods an hour or two apart from your iron-rich meals.
More isn't always better. This one surprises people. Recent research suggests that taking iron every other day can absorb better than taking it every single day, because daily dosing triggers a hormone that temporarily blocks absorption. So doubling down doesn't always help, and again, this is a conversation to have with your GP, not a plan to start alone.
The one caveat I will always flag
Please don't start an iron supplement off your own back.
Iron is one of the very few things you can genuinely take too much of, and too much causes its own real problems. On top of that, if you're unwell or fighting any inflammation, ferritin can read artificially high and actually mask a deficiency.
This is exactly why a proper blood test and a conversation with your GP come first, every single time. Get the real number. Then decide what to do with it, together with someone qualified.
The other half: the bit you can actually control
Everything above is the inside. And it matters enormously.
But there's an outside half too, and the two work together. That's the whole idea behind what I call the 360 approach. The inside is your ferritin, your nutrition, your overall health. The outside is your scalp and follicle environment: keeping the scalp healthy, oiling consistently, handling your hair gently, giving new growth the best possible place to come through.
The inside half often needs your GP. The outside half is the part you can take into your own hands day to day, and it's where our Strong Roots Hair Oil comes in. It's an Ayurvedic blend of eight oils, made to nourish the scalp and support hair from root to tip. I want to be really clear about this though, because I won't ever blur the line: a hair oil does not raise your ferritin. Nothing topical does. Strong Roots looks after the external half, the scalp and the strands. Your ferritin is the internal half, and that's between you and your GP.
Strong Roots Hair Oil, eight oils for the scalp and strands. The external half you can control.
Both halves, working together. That's the point.
What to do next
If you take one thing from this, let it be this: get your ferritin number, not just a vague "your iron's fine." Ask for it by name, write it down, and talk it through with your GP.
Then, while you're sorting the inside, look after the outside too. Be consistent with your scalp care, be patient, and give it real time. Shedding can take a couple of months to settle and regrowth is gradual, often three to six months before you see a real difference. That's not me being slow, that's just how hair works.
Consistency is key, with both halves. Get the number first, then build the routine around it.
My own hair, before and after. Not one product, not one fix. This was both halves, inside and out, given real time and consistency.
Your glow starts here.
Parul x
This article is for general education and is not medical advice. Always speak to your GP or a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to supplements or your diet, particularly with iron.
