Does Stress Cause Hair Loss?

By Author: Akshay Sharma
Total Articles: 20
Comment this article

The frequently asked question found on the internet is "Can hair loss be linked to stress"?
And the bad news is yes. Stress can cause extreme hair fall, but it is temporary.
Stress can cause a total of three types of hair loss such as Telogen Effluvium, Trichotillomania, and Alopecia Areata.
Telogen Effluvium: Telogen Effluvium is the main stress-linked hair loss. It caused due to extreme mental and emotional pressure. This stress pushes enormous pressure on hair follicles to go under the resting phase. After a certain time, affected hairs may come out just after shampooing or combing your hair.
“Telogen Effluvium” is the scientific terminology for stress-induced hair loss. Dermatologists and hair transplant surgeons term it as that.
Stress can be generated by illness, fever, childbirth, surgery, emotional stress, anxiety, and weight loss. Fortunately, stress-induced hair loss is not permanent. Hair can be restored if the stress is under control.
Trichotillomania: It is the irresistible desire to pluck hair from the scalp and other areas of the body including eyebrows. The urge to hair ...
... pull is triggered by negative emotions including extreme stress, frustration, boredom, and loneliness.
Alopecia areata: Different factors may cause alopecia areata. The main reason is severe stress and anxiety. Our body’s immune system attacks the hair follicles and triggers extreme hair loss and patches
As we said stress-induced hair loss is not permanent, but if you see continuous hair loss when washing or combing hair, then talk to a hair expert. Primarily they will give you non-surgical treatment for the growth and restoration of the hair. If that doesn't work then finally experts suggest surgical treatment like hair transplant.

How does stress impact our hair growth cycle?

Stress directly impacts our hair cycle. In an adult scalp, we can get approximately 100,000 hair follicles. Also, the number of follicles may differ based on hair colour. Just like cells of our body, each hair follicle is going through the cycle of growth and rest. The major number of hair follicles' present phase is the growth phase which is also known as "Anagen".
When a hair follicle comes under the telogen phase or resting phase, the hair starts shedding. But in telogen effluvium, stress pushes the maximum number of hair follicles to shift into the telogen phase at once. The sudden shift from the active to the passive point of the cycle causes extreme shedding of hair.

Emotional stress is the main reason for hair shedding. Negative life events like the loss of a loved one, divorce, lack of employment, financial crisis, prolonged health issues etc.
However, a single bad day or single negative incident won’t cause any hair loss, but prolonged stress meets the threshold limit of causing Telogen Effluvium.
The relationship between substantial stress and hair loss has been proved by a group of scientists. Researchers took mice and exposed them to sound stress ( It is a form of psychosocial stress), and they found that the sound stress causes early termination of anagen and a prolonged telogen phase. Therefore, researchers concluded that stress breaks the normal cycle of the hair follicle and initiates hair loss.
The signs of stress-induced hair loss; How could you identify?
The stress-linked hair loss is abrupt, diffuse, and temporary.
Abrupt onset of hair loss is the first sign of stress-induced hair loss. It is because hair follicles prematurely entered into the telogen or resting phase. Stress is the severe trigger of hair follicles being in the resting phase, and that causes the shedding of hair.
Diffuse thinning: Stress-related hair loss is mainly pattern hair loss. Male or female pattern hair loss and alopecia areata are the common types of hair loss caused by stress. This type of hair loss is not permanent. It has better treatment. Eugenixs hair transplant clinic provides both surgical and non-surgical treatment for pattern baldness.

Hi! I’m Akshay Sharma. I’m a blogger at LetsJumpToday & Imagination Waffle. You can contact me on Twitter and facebook.