Stress and hair loss: What is the relationship?

Currently our rhythm of life, the worries and dislikes and the growing anxiety that the population is suffering due to the appearance of Covid-19 in our lives, has caused stress and hair loss to be more and more widespread, and each Cases of alopecia more marked by this problem are sometimes known.

For that reason, today we want to show you in depth the relationship between stress and hair loss, as well as tell you what you can do to avoid it.

Why does hair fall out from stress?

Stress is a problem that affects our body both inside and out and that can cause some effects such as telogen effluvium of the hair more pronounced than when we are going through stressful situations or that generate anxiety. 

Increased cortisol levels

Cortisol is a steroid hormone that increases its blood levels when we are under stress. This increase means that the circulation slows down, reaching less irrigation to the scalp. 

When we suffer an episode of severe stress, a large part of the hair goes into the telogen phase and a large amount falls off in a short time.

Adverse effects of stress in your day to day

Stress damages our hair health from different fronts, since it affects our sleep cycles, alters our appetite and metabolism and can even cause physical symptoms that affect us on a day-to-day basis.

All this greatly affects our hair, especially because if we do not feed ourselves by providing our body with all the necessary nutrients due to lack of appetite, our hair will be weakened. 

Symptoms and causes of stress alopecia

We can detect that we are suffering from stress alopecia if we observe a massive hair loss when we go through a stage of stress, anxiety and / or anguish.

Symptoms of stress alopecia

Generalized hair loss, without occurring, is in a specific localized area and seeing that our capillary density decreases drastically. This will occur for as long as the focus of stress remains present.

Causes of this type of alopecia

This type of alopecia can be due to different factors such as a careless diet. Having a diet low in vitamins and minerals while we are going through a stressful time will promote hair loss. 

The lack of iron is another factor to take into account and that all women can suffer due to menstruation. 

Does stress and hair loss have a solution?

The first thing to know is that if alopecia is caused by stress, once the focus of the problem disappears, we will recover and the hair will grow back normally. 

It is essential that we identify the source that causes us nervousness and treat it. It is necessary to calm down and return to our normal state of mind so that our hair can grow back and stop falling in this exaggerated way. 

Treatments to help stress hair loss 

There are some things that we can put into practice to recover our hair or prevent a nervous breakdown from leaving us with 50% less hair.

A healthier lifestyle

An good nutrition and the habitual practice of sports helps us, on the one hand, to avoid a stress crisis so marked that it causes alopecia and on the other, if we have already suffered a crisis and we are noticing hair loss, we can enhance its growth by nourishing ourselves from the inside , favoring the hair to grow strong and healthy. 

Pharmacology adapted for stress alopecia

This type of alopecia can be treated with drugs, as long as we do it under medical supervision and after a prior exhaustive hair diagnosis. If you have doubts about whether you can treat your alopecia nervosa in this way, you can request your appointment for a free diagnosis at Hospital Capilar.