Provillus Hair Loss Treatment for Men and Women

Stress as One of the Most Common Hair Loss Causes

If you want to prevent hair loss, learn to take control of your stress level. Stress and hair loss are often closely connected.

Situations of stress happen to everyone time after time. Often it comes unexpectedly and you can not just avoid or undo it. If the stress stays within limits of ordinary everyday situations, just comes and goes, and you completely get over it within short time, then such stress is unlikely to cause any noticeable hair loss.

But be careful. You can see much hair loss if your let your stress become chronic. Like if the same stressful situation repeats day after day, and you feel constant tension. The impact of stress on your hair loss is even stronger if your emotional anxiety turns into physical stress, when you lose much weight or you have trouble sleeping.

You can also have baldness even after a short term event, if the stress reaches traumatic levels. This can come from a severe illness, major surgery, strict diet, or a big change in your life, like divorce, job loss, or a child birth. Note that the hair loss from traumatic stress does not come right away; it becomes noticeable only in about in three to six months after the anxiety exposure.

The exact biological mechanisms connecting stress and hair loss are still under research. One link is that chronic stress increases the level of hormone cortisone, which stimulates baldness. It is also suggested that the connection between stress and hair loss can be mediated via an increased presence of substance P, a neurotransmitter, near the hair bulbs.

The most common type of stress-induced hair loss is telogen effluvium. In this condition, emotional or physical stress — related to a death in the family, pregnancy, severe weight loss or surgery, for example — pushes large numbers of growing hairs into a resting phase. Within a few months, the affected hairs may fall out suddenly when simply combing or washing your hair. The hair typically grows back when the emotional or physical stress is resolved, although this can take months.

It is also believed that you have a higher risk of baldness from stress; if you have a condition known as alopecia areata (shows as hair loss in small patches). In this condition, white blood cells attack the hair follicle – which stops hair growth. Within weeks, the affected hair falls out. For some people, intense anxiety may lead to this condition. The baldness usually begins as a small round patch but may finally spread to the whole scalp, and sometimes to body hair as well. Generally, the hair will grows back, but the cycle may repeat itself.

An interesting situation connecting stress and hair loss is that some people develop a nervous habit of pulling out their hair under stress. It can be even much worse than that. There is a complicated psychological disorder, known as trichotillomania that shows itself as compulsive hair pulling. Curing yourself from trichotillomania usually requires much help from a psychiatrist.

The good news about hair loss and stress is that after the stress is gone, the hair growth mostly return to what it was before the stress. Though this return process may take more than several months.

Talk with your physician if you notice sudden or patchy hair loss when combing or washing your hair. This can signal an underlying medical condition that requires treatment. If needed, your physician may suggest the best product for hair loss treatment as well.

Stress as One of the Most Common Hair Loss Causes

Related articles and resources:

Recommended websites: