More than a quarter, or 27%, of patients recovering from COVID-19 reported hair loss as one of the lingering problems in a survey of more than 1,500 people in the Survivor Corp Facebook group. Members are sometimes called “long haulers” because they discuss long-term effects of the disease.

Doctors say telogen effluvium is to blame, a temporary condition where people experience excessive hair shedding after an illness, surgery, high fever, a stressful life event, extreme weight loss or giving birth…

But doctors are seeing a lot more telogen effluvium in general — regardless of illness status — because most everyone has been deeply stressed this year, whether by worrying about catching coronavirus, adjusting to life in quarantine or dealing with a job loss.

Dr. Marc Glashofer, a hair loss expert with The Derm Group in West Orange, New Jersey, has recently noticed an overall increase in telogen effluvium cases at his practice.