The shedding gets all the attention. Nobody mentions what comes after it.

Somewhere around month four or five, the clumps in the plughole slow down and you think you're through it. Then the regrowth arrives — a halo of short, wiry, upward-facing hairs along your parting and hairline that will not lie flat, will not blend, and looks a bit like static that never discharges. Women in the forums call them cat whiskers, devil horns, 80s mum fringe. One described it as "the frizzy mum stage of my life".

Here is the useful distinction. The shedding was hormonal and it was temporary. That part sorts itself out on its own timeline, not yours. The regrowth is different — it is new hair, it is real, and unlike the shedding it is something you can actually influence. It is fine, it is unconditioned, and it has never been treated in its life.

What helps is the boring thing: weight and slip. Fine new hair stands up because there is nothing on it. A regular treatment worked from the scalp through the ends coats those short hairs enough that they sit down with the rest of your hair instead of hovering above it, and it softens the lengths, which by month five have usually gone dry and a bit coarse from being neglected while you were busy.

It will not make the regrowth grow faster. Nothing you buy will. What it will do is make the six months while it catches up considerably less annoying.

And if you are one-handed most of the day, which you probably are: five minutes, twice a week, in the shower. That is the whole thing.