Keep Your Hair On!: How Stress Affects Your Hair

Stress has all kinds of negative effects on the body. One part of the body that is particularly prone to damage from stress is our hair. The research conducted by Hairguard.com has confirmed that chronic stress can even lead to hair loss. This post explains all the different ways in which stress can negatively affect our hair, and what you can do to prevent this.

How does stress affect hair?

Stress is our body’s defence mechanism to a crisis. The body produces a hormone called cortisol which increases our heart rate, tenses our muscles and makes our mind more alert. Stress also causes other changes around the body to help us survive an emergency. This can inadvertently cause damage to certain parts of our body such as our hair – especially if we’re experiencing chronic stress. A few ways in which stress can damage our hair include:

Greasy hair

Stress causes our skin to become more sensitive to protect it from outside threats. Those with oily skin may start over-producing oils. This can result in hair becoming greasy easily when we are stressed. If you’ve stressed a lot recently and you’ve been wondering why your hair is getting so greasy, this could be why.

Dandruff

If you have naturally quite dry skin, the opposite may happen when you are stressed – your skin may start to become drier and flakier. On your scalp, this could result in more dandruff than usual. 

Hair thinning

When we are stressed, our body takes energy and nutrients away from areas of the body that are not as essential in an emergency, diverting it to our muscles and vital organs. Our hair is not seen as essential when we’re stressed. When under periods of chronic stress, this may cause our hair to become thinner and more brittle.

Hair loss

Long periods of stress may eventually lead to follicles being so starved of nutrients that we start to lose our hair. In other instances, highly stressful events may force follicles into a permanent resting state. Our hair naturally goes through cycles where it falls out and regrows, however this permanent resting phase may prevent regrowth so that hair just falls out (this is known as telogen effluvium). Hair loss conditions like alopecia may also be caused by stress in some cases. All in all, stress can make your hair fall out. 

How to protect your hair from stress

There are several measures you can take to protect your hair against the negative effects of stress. 

Wash your hair properly

Want to know how to get rid of greasy hair? Washing your hair is an obvious solution – but it’s important that you wash it the right way. Shampooing your hair twice can help to get rid of the excess grease. Use warm water and shower if you can (rather than bathing). Contrary to what some people think, you shouldn’t wash your hair every day, as this can actually encourage your scalp to overproduce oil.

Maintain a good diet

Certain nutrients are essential for your hair. If you’re not eating the right foods, your hair isn’t going to get the nutrients it needs. Stress further restricts the amount of nutrients to your hair, which could result in your hair being more likely to get starved – leading to thinning and hair loss. By eating the right foods, you can increase the chance of your hair getting the nutrients it needs. Eggs, fatty fish, nuts and spinach are all foods that are great for your hair.

Try medication for hair loss

If you’ve started experiencing hair loss, you may be able to slow down the process or even reverse it by taking certain medication, but for some individuals with specific underlying causes, like medical conditions or nutritional deficiencies, addressing those factors can be equally crucial. Certain hair loss medication may need to be prescribed by a doctor – you are more likely to be prescribed such medication if you are younger as hair loss is less likely to be due to aging or genetics in these cases. Additionally, exploring alternative remedies such as dietary adjustmentscould also be beneficial in certain cases.

Most importantly, de-stress!

If you want to prevent your hair from being damaged by stress, the best thing that you can do is to find ways to de-stress. While you may not always be able to avoid stress triggers, you can always find ways to relax. Great ways to de-stress include exercising, meditating alongside listening to music, taking a hot bath, using herbal remedies. It’s worth exploring different methods of stress relief. You should also consider whether there are any big changes you can make to reduce stress in your life such as leaving a stressful job you don’t enjoy or getting out of a stressful relationship that isn’t working (sometimes, just taking a break from stress triggers can do wonders). Whatever you do to try to de stress could ultimately lead to your hair becoming healthier, so make sure you take time to relax and spend time on yourself!

*This is a collaboration post