Hem About hair loss Causes Stress and hair loss

Stress and hair loss

Losing hair and thinning hair due to stress is a well-known fact – but what causes it?

Every day we lose about 100 hairs. It’s rare to lose more hair than that from ordinary everyday stress, as long as you’re not burnt out or have symptoms of exhaustion.

Extreme stress over a long period of time or the type of stress that is classified as a trauma to the body can cause hair loss. Hair loss caused by trauma occurs many months after the event itself.

Do you suspect that you are suffering from stress-related hair loss? Book a free consultation with us to find out the underlying causes of your hair’s condition.

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Stress and hair loss

Physical or psychological trauma affects the hair

The body equates extreme stress with physical or psychological trauma. It can be a stress caused by childbirth, illness, an operation, grief or depression, for example.

The trauma causes the growth phases of the hair to change. When something makes its mark inside the body in this way, the body can react by shutting down the production of hair and putting the hair follicles into sleep mode. When the hair follicles are put to rest, it normally takes 2-3 months for the hair to fall out.

This means that you can lose hair 2-3 months after a trauma – but it can also take up to 6 months.

With stress-related hair loss, we lose many more hairs than usual in a short period of time, leading to a noticeable difference.

Hair loss occurs several months after

Since the period when the body was exposed to high stress happened a long time ago, it can be difficult to link the hair loss to that moment. Many people come to us wondering why they are losing more hair than usual even though nothing special has happened that week.

But if we dig deeper, we can often link it to a situation that has been traumatic for the body – psychologically or physically.

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Telogent effluvium

Ordinary stress is not dangerous

If we start to dig deeper, we can often connect it to a situation that has been traumatic for the body – psychologically or physically. Many people think that it is everyday stress that affects the hair, but it is actually what happened six months ago that matters if you have hair loss from stress.

Ordinary stress is not dangerous. But when people lose a lot of hair from stress, it’s usually related to gross, traumatic stress to the body. Since the trauma happened many months ago, it is often difficult to connect your hair loss to stress. The medical name for the traumatic stress that causes hair loss is called telogen effluvium. The body equates telogen effluvium with a physical or psychological trauma. When something leaves a mark internally in the body, it can react by shutting down the production of hair and putting the hair follicles in a resting phase, this causes you to lose hair from stress.

Once the hair has fallen out, it usually eventually returns to its normal growth phase. You can slow down hair loss with PRP treatments, which accelerates the growth of the hair and stimulates the hair follicles.

Want to know more about other causes of hair loss? Read more about thyroid hair loss here.