Is Your Stress Causing Hair Loss? The Facts

On any given day, a healthy scalp can lose anywhere from 50 to 100 hairs. But if you’re noticing a sudden increase in locks accumulating around your drain and that pillowcase, look back at the last three months. Did you experience higher-than-normal stress levels? If the answer is yes, stress could be the hair loss culprit.

The fact is, stress can, and often does, result in hair loss. Here’s what you need to know!

Why Does Stress Cause Hair Loss?

It’s all thanks to a process called telogen effluvium, and it’s the resting phase of your hair growth. When people are under stress, it causes a spike in the body’s production of the hormone cortisol, which in turn can lead to this dormant phase in the hair growth cycle.

Any early entrance into this phase can be due to a number of stressors…. Read on.

Adrenaline

When you’re experiencing physical or mental stress, your body is likely to significantly increase its adrenaline production. Your body then converts this into cholesterol, which can result in increased testosterone levels.

Women experiencing a boost in testosterone can experience a delay in their hair growth cycle. Meanwhile, men who have follicles sensitive to these varying levels of testosterone can experience an increased likelihood of hair thinning and loss.

Diet

Let’s face it, we tend to take poor care of ourselves when we’re stressed. We’re likely to eat more processed foods when we’re stressed… And eat more than we should! Others of us skip meals altogether, giving our bodies no nutritional support. Diet has wide-reaching implications on hair growth, with improper nutrition being a leading cause of hair loss in women thanks to vitamin imbalances, iron deficiency, and inadequate protein/calorie intake. Making things worse, stress impacts digestion and the absorption of vital nutrients, reducing their effectiveness.

Avoid skipping meals and try to eat at regular intervals (think breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a snack in-between). Well-formulated nutritional supplements can also be very helpful, providing your body with a boost of essential vitamins and minerals… Just watch the sugar content!

How To Fight Stress-Induced Hair Loss

Practice A More Peaceful Lifestyle

We recommend reducing your stress levels by practicing the following activities on a weekly basis:

• Yoga
• Meditation
• Pilates
• Moderate Cardio

Also, mindfulness has also shown to help its meditators cope with their day to day stress more effectively, resulting in a reduced likelihood that you’ll feel overwhelmed when a storm hits.

Alternative treatments can also help, like professionally administered acupuncture or herbal remedies.

Hair Treatments & Growth Regimens

Focus on products that will help kick hairs out of their extended rest period! Use a Stimulating Shampoo that rejuvenates hair follicles (this one works with a combination of caffeine, acetyl-tetrapeptide-3 and red clover). Then, follow up by building an internal support system using biotin supplements. We use this Advanced formula from Amplixin!