So today we’re going to be talking about stress and how stress can affect your hair. Now, the primary focus, as many of you know, I’m always watching the hair system, but I’m also very interested, and I hope you are too, in how we get to this stage of hair loss whereby we need a hair system. Now, I’m going to look at the science, I’m going to discuss it with you, and we’re really going to unpick how stress, or should I say, how too much stress, too much chronic stress, can have a detrimental effect on your hair and its health.

Now, before we look at this, if you want to have a full head of hair like me, maybe consider a hair system. I wear the LaVivid’s Hair Systems. I’ve negotiated a 15% discount for you guys that you can use as many times as you want. Add ”Adam15” in their coupon code box. Visit VividHair.com. Don’t miss out on that deal.

Now, a few weeks ago where I discussed how genetics and hormones can play a massive role in developing hair loss, especially in males. It also happens in females, but it’s much less common. Now, another thing that didn’t mention, a role which is really underappreciated and undervalued, is the role of stress. Now, on its own, stress will not cause you to lose your hair, but it can certainly play a role in it. So now, a lot of you are probably thinking about male pattern baldness when discussing stress and hair loss, and there did actually used to be a hypothesis that too much stress was the main driver of hair loss in men. Obviously, science has come a long way, and now we know that not to be the case, but it still does play a role. There are certainly other types of hair loss that are brought on by stress, namely Trichotillomania. Now, many of you who have been watching my content for a long time, know that that is what I suffer from alongside androgenetic alopecia. Trichotillomania is a chronic hair-pulling condition that’s driven by stress and anxiety. It feels uncontrollable, and quite often, as a result of Trichotillomania, a lot of people like myself end up wearing wigs if you’re female or hair systems if you’re a man like myself.

Another type of hair loss that can be brought on by stress is alopecia areata. So that’s basically when you just start losing the hair on your head, and it’s a type of autoimmune disease. So it’s basically when your immune system starts attacking the hair follicles on the top of your head and basically all over your head. The last type of hair loss, which is basically driven by stress, is telogen effluvium, which is basically where stress pushes the hair follicles into what’s called a resting phase, which is where they just don’t grow.

Now, It’s going to share a quick study with you. It was a study done on mice. Now, a lot of research is initially done on mice before it’s done on humans because we have, believe it or not, a fairly similar biology, and it’s much cheaper to do experiments on mice and rats than it is on humans or chimpanzees, for instance.

So a team led by Yachi Su of Harvard University studied the underlying mechanism that links stress to hair loss. The study was supported in part by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. Results appeared in Nature on March 4, 2021. The researchers began testing the role of the adrenal glands, so that’s where we produce adrenaline and cortisol in our body, basically the hormones that are produced when we are under stress. Removing the adrenal glands from mice led to rapid cycles of hair regrowth. Hair follicle regeneration didn’t slow as these mice grew older like it did in control mice. Rather, hair follicle stem cells continue to enter the growth phase, so when hair is growing out as it naturally should, and regenerates hair follicles throughout the animal’s lifespan. The team was able to restore the normal hair cycle by feeding the mice corticosterone. Subjecting mice to mild stress over many weeks increased corticosterone levels and reduced hair growth. Hair follicles remained in an extended resting phase, remember what I was talking about in the resting phase earlier where hair just doesn’t grow, this is a result of the stress, the stress hormones that these mice are experiencing. Together, these findings supported the role of corticosterone in inhibiting hair regrowth. The scientists next examined how corticosterone affects hair follicle stem cells. They found that stress hormones were not regulating stem cells directly. By deleting the receptor for corticosterone from different cells, they determined that the hormone acts on a cluster of cells underneath the hair follicles called dermal papilla.

Okay, so what we’re seeing there is basically mice’s version of cortisol. When that is heightened, it’s causing hair, or the mice’s fur rather, to go into a resting phase, AKA it’s not growing. So this is showing, and this is very, very highly likely to be represented in humans as well. So even if you are suffering genetically and hormonally from male pattern baldness, it’s probably pretty likely that it’s going to be sped up if you are experiencing chronic stress or anxiety.

Now, I know that chronic stress, at times in our lives, is basically unavoidable. I mean, I’m experiencing a lot of stress right now. We’re trying to move, we’re trying to buy a property, and there are many other things that we’re trying to navigate through at the moment, so it’s not easy, and there’s a lot of stress going on right now. So I totally understand that. You know, we as humans, go through stressful periods in life, that’s normal. However, if I look at when I was younger, I was chronically stressed all the time, I was chronically anxious, and unknowingly, that can cause more of these stress hormones to bind to these already genetically sensitive hair follicles on the top of our head, which can cause the shedding, the hair loss, to happen quicker and quicker compared to if we weren’t chronically stressed all the time.

So I suppose if there’s a lesson to take from this, it’s that, yes, stress can affect hair loss, it can certainly speed up hair loss, and it can certainly cause certain hair loss conditions like Trichotillomania, alopecia areata, and telogen effluvium. Now, thank goodness, there are solutions to this as well. Obviously, on the mental health side of things, you might want to look at what is causing you to be stressed all the time if you fall into that category. Are you a chronic people-pleaser? Are you a chronic perfectionist? These kind of patterns, looking at those and actually changing those patterns or working on changing them could be super helpful.

On top of that, there are actual solutions. For instance, hair systems. I wear a hair system. I couldn’t go without one. Now, there are other solutions that you could consider if you’re experiencing hair loss. There are always medical options. I don’t personally recommend them myself, having gone down that route and it didn’t really work for me. But at the end of the day, guys, it’s your choice. You do what makes you feel most comfortable. But yes, there is a stress connection, it can expedite your hair loss.

Do you feel like you’re a chronically stressed person? Do you feel that sometimes the level of stress you’re experiencing kind of spirals a little bit out of control? Do you think maybe you’re taking on too many responsibilities in life and that is giving you unmanageable levels of stress and affecting your hair or your hair loss? Let me know in the comments box below. It’d be really great to hear you guys’ thoughts on this. I’d also love to see more studies on humans in regard to stress and hair loss.