Is Stress Affecting My Hair?

Stress-related hair loss is something most of us have heard of, but are not entirely sure whether it is a real condition or just another medical myth people choose to believe in. The truth is, you can, in fact, develop problems with your hair and scalp due to severe stress and anxiety issues.

Only people who have some sort of genetical predisposition to the risk factors, or already suffer from some underlying condition, may experience these sorts of problems. In most cases, hair loss is not severe, doesn’t last long and is easily managed by altering your lifestyle and unfavorable habits.

The Effects Stress Has on Your Hair

Stress and anxiety can have adverse effects on your health, especially if you are exposed to them over long periods of time. They increase heart rate, may cause shortness of breath and high blood pressure, deprive you from sleep and cause release of certain hormones, leading to an overall chemical imbalance in your organism. This imbalance becomes obvious when it affects your appearance, as your skin and hair start looking worse than they did before.

Scalp Problems

Stress causes peripheral blood vessels to constrict, channeling blood away to muscles and vital organs. This deprives your skin from vitamins, oxygen and essential nutrients and leads to its dehydration and deterioration. The result is dry and itchy scalp that gets easily irritated by the beauty products you haven’t had problems before, it starts flaking and you get dandruff.

In extreme cases, some people develop serious conditions, like Alopecia Areata, Eczema and Psoriasis, which are hereditary illnesses known to be triggered by stress, along with worsening their symptoms and causing nasty flare-ups.

Those suffering from Alopecia Areata experience loss of hair in clumps, leaving them with bald spots that may easily lose the ability to grow back hair ever again. Eczema and Psoriasis usually look like a red, itchy, scaly rash that can bleed or flake, causing the hair to get fragile, weak and break easily on spots affected by the illness.

Telogen Effluvium

Constriction of blood vessels in your scalp leads to further damage and causes your hair to lose shine, become thinner, fragile and fall out more than usual. Due to stress, you may develop Telogen Effluvium, the most common condition linked to stress-induced hair loss. This is when the hair growth cycle gets disrupted due to the imbalance of chemicals in your body.

Normally, hair has a two-year long growth cycle, after which it falls out and gets replaced by new hair in the following two months. If you suffer from Telogen Effluvium, your growth cycle is shortened, and hair starts falling out in significantly greater quantities than normal.
Risk factors that contribute in developing this condition are pregnancy and childbirth, unhealthy diet, malnutrition, significant weight loss, various physical injuries, surgical procedures, illnesses, medication and chronic emotional stress. Fortunately, this condition rarely lasts longer than 2-6 months, but it takes up to 18 months for the hair to grow back and for the normal growth cycle to be established once again.

Bad Habits

Sometimes, when under a lot of stress, in a subconscious effort to calm down, you start doing things that are worsening the state of your skin and hair even further. Stress is often related to bad eating habits and cravings for junk food, which are poor in nutrients and high in fat and sugar content. Stress can also cause you to start twisting and twirling your hair, or even develop a condition known as Trichotillomania, which is when you start pulling your hair out without even realizing it.

Preventing Hair Loss

When you suspect there might be something wrong with your health and your hair, visit your doctor to confirm that problems are stress related. If that is the case, your problems should disappear once the stress is eliminated, along with the habits that make your problem worse. The best thing that can be done for your hair is to avoid developing conditions that are stress-induced by following methods of prevention.

Reduce or Eliminate Stress

There are many ways to manage your stress levels to make sure your body stays in balance. That said, always choose a method of relaxation that suits you best and make it your daily or weekly routine.

For example, start a regular exercise program – exercise keeps your body in good shape and improves your physical and mental health. It enables you to take some steam off and triggers production of serotonin, which helps you fight bad moods and makes you feel more positive.

However, if exercise is not your thing, choose to meditate instead, using different techniques like yoga, tai chi, mindfulness meditation, mantra meditation, deep breathing or guided imagery. Experts believe a daily meditation in the long term helps to improve your overall resilience to stress. If you don’t want to meditate, choose another relaxing activity that helps you unwind, such as listening to some soothing music, reading a book, knitting, crocheting or doing crafts.

Spend time with your friends and family, express your worries to them and share the burden of the problems bothering you. Enjoy fun activities and make sure you laugh a lot, as laughing lowers the stress hormone cortisol and boosts the production of mood-lifting endorphins. If you don’t feel comfortable confiding in your family or friends, see a therapist and talk to him or her about your stress and anxiety issues.

Whichever method you choose, be patient and give your body time to recover from any stressful event that has left consequences in its wake.

Healthy Diet

By eating healthy, you get all the nutrients essential for your body to have enough energy and function properly. Eat a minimum of three meals a day, combining vegetables, lean proteins, fruits and grains. Additionally, avoid sugar, processed foods, vegetable oils, gluten-rich food and give up soda, coffee, energy drinks, alcohol and cigarettes if you wish to stay healthy and beautiful.

Increase your vitamin intake, as well, to help your hair stay strong. Vitamin C will prevent your hair from breaking, Vitamin E will stimulate the blood flow to the scalp, Vitamins B6, B7 and B12 transport nutrients through the body and are directly linked to your hair’s health, while sufficient levels of Vitamin D will help prevent hair loss.

Conclusion

Normally, you lose around 100 hairs a day, so every hair loss that varies significantly from this number should be examined by a doctor or a hair specialist, as it can indicate the presence of some other condition such as anemia or ovary and thyroid disorders.

Sometimes, hair loss is induced only by some stressful event, but the longer you are exposed to stress and anxiety, the greater the chances that you will develop serious problems with your hair that are not so easily resolved. Focus on a healthy diet and stress relieving activities to help your hair recover and keep your body chemicals in balance.