Some babies are born with a full mop of hair; others come into the world with a shiny chrome dome. Either way, you will probably notice significant changes in your baby's hair from the time they are born until they are at least a year old.

Newby Dos

Will your baby have curly hair like you? Or will it be straight like your spouse? The second that our children are born, we soak in what they look like and evaluate who they resemble.

But the tricky thing about hair is that the hair a baby is born with is not necessarily the hair he or she will end up with. Hair color can eventually go lighter or darker, straight hair can go curly and curly hair can get curlier. Ultimately, you won’t have much of an idea until of what your baby's hair will be like until they get to be about one year old or so.

Baldy Baby

It’s perfectly normal for your newborn to go through a bald phase. Everyone’s hair goes through cycles of growth and rest due to vacillating hormone levels. Known as telogen effluvium, newborn hair loss happens when baby’s hormone levels drop during a hair growth resting stage and a lot of hair stops growing at once, typically around three months of age. Mom and baby might even experience parallel hair loss (although not as dramatically for mom!), as women also tend to lose hair after childbirth when their hormone levels drop.

Sometimes babies lose hair when they spend too much time lying in the same position. Always placing baby on his back, try alternating which side of the bed their head points toward, so the hair loss isn’t concentrated in just one area.

Monkey Boy (or Girl)

If you notice your newborn is unusually hairy all over, no worries! Some babies are born with fine, downy hair all over their little bodies known as lanugo. It typically falls off after a few months.

Lanugo develops in utero to insulate a baby as it starts to develop protective fat, and starts to shed at around 36 - 40 weeks gestation. That said, it’s a more common occurrence among babies born before their due dates.

Cradle Cap

Cradle cap is a very common condition. It develops when babies develop flaky or dry skin resembling dandruff, or yellow or brown scaling on their scalps. The scales can block pores on the scalp, making the condition worse.

If your baby has cradle cap, there’s no need to worry -- it often looks a lot worse than it feels. Cradle cap is completely harmless and usually heals on its own between six and twelve months of age.

A way to help heal cradle cap is to rub a small amount of almond or olive oil on the scalp and gently loosen the flakes with a soft brush or fine tooth comb. After the flakes are loose, follow with a gentle shampoo session to wash out the oil and the flakes.  Your baby’s scalp will heal in no time.