Can stress make you bald?

Posted on Dec 10th 2007 2:21PM by Martha Edwards

Filed Under: Diet & Weight Loss, Motivation, Alternative & Green Health

When you're stressed out, do you feel like ripping your hair out? Well, you can save yourself the trouble -- stress can cause your hair to fall out naturally. And it's falling out in record numbers, according to this article from Daily Mail. Researchers are saying that stress and poor diet are giving many women bald spots, and modern life is to blame.

In fact, one in three women suffers partial or total hair loss during her lifetime -- and it can happen anytime in life, even puberty. So if you won't do it for yourself, do it for your hair: slow down, relax, take a breather and give all-consuming stress the boot from your life.

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Tags: bald, falling out, FallingOut, hair, stress, worry

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

jenny 12-10-2007 @ 3:04PM

This has happened to me before, and it was really horrible. I lost a big chunk of hair at the front. I hated my job and was really miserable.

Thankfully I left my job and moved from the south of england to california and have a new job and no worries since for the last 6 years!

daisy 12-10-2007 @ 8:20PM

I lost a ton of hair..mostly in the very front after I gave birth to my daughter. It was devastating. I took 5000 mcg of biotin every and after 3 months it began to grow back. I found the best price for biotin at drugstore.com which I shopped at through an online shopping mall. I buy most of my stuff at this online shopping
mall that gives me between 5-55% back in cash on all my purchases. There are over 1000 stores including Sephora, Apple, The Gap, Target (great for soo much), Macy's. I also wait for sales so I get my cash back and the lowest price
http://www.dailyoink.com The site is ugly, but well worth it.

Gina 12-10-2007 @ 8:48PM

I strongly agree about stress being a factor. However, I think a lot of hair loss in women is due to hair dyes and other harsh hair chemicals. If you notice those women who avoid coloring their hair and instead go gray, do you ever see their hair thinning? They have their usual thick heads of hair.

weezie 12-10-2007 @ 9:56PM

I dye my hair and it is thick and it grows very fast.
But I don't do it myself; I go to a salon. Home dyes just dry the hair out.
I know gray haired women with very thin hair; it has a lot to do with genetics as well.

realist 12-10-2007 @ 9:10PM

hmm.. could it possibly be because more women are starving themselves, going on crazy diets and not eating properly due to what the media tells them that skinny and malnourished is beautiful?

jbt6903 12-10-2007 @ 9:00PM

haha!!! women want equality...so, welcome to the real world ladies...maybe its not what you thought it was!!

Sam 12-10-2007 @ 10:25PM

Men like jbt6903 are the reason why men look so bad.
Do you know that in places where women are not treated as an equal they catch themselves on fire they are so misrable. Would you want that for your mother or daughter.

Sara 12-11-2007 @ 7:44PM

What the heck is that supposed to mean? It's a known fact that men go bald more often then women do. It has nothing to do with equality, it's genetics. *rolls eyes* Men...

Melanee 12-10-2007 @ 9:15PM

I am on my second round of massive hair loss, had ton of medical tests done, thyroid, lupus etc... everything came back normal, stress in my life is typical nothing out of the ordinary my job is good so I am a little flustered at trying to figure out my hair loss, I don't color my hair so chemicals are not the blame... I have a feeling that my estrogen levels are tapering off and I am going into my "change" but since I am 38 doctors shrug it off saying that it's unlikely... well early menopause runs in my family and most have gone through it well before the age of 35... so if you feel that your hair is coming out by the handfuls you may want to check your estrogen levels too... stress isn't always a factor.

Someone 12-10-2007 @ 9:28PM

Melanee I had the same problem and same tests. Turned out to be a low feritine level. I was told to take a tone of iron (which was too much so I cut that in half) and after 3 months, no more hair loss. Feritine levels are seldom checked unless you have the smartest doctor in the world. It took me 3 different doctors and finally the third one asked my feritine level within mins. of my appointment. Tests came back very very low.

tov 12-11-2007 @ 6:54PM

Make certaim that the Iron supplements are from organic sources. inorganic/synthetic sources will cause additional problems later on.

Jane 12-10-2007 @ 9:32PM

It is the stress. I have a great head of hair. Never had a hair problem until I went through a divorce. That divorce was so sad for me that I do not know how I survived. I lost a great deal of hair in the front of my head. It all grew back once the divorce was over and my life stabilized. Shame on jbt6903. What does "haha" have to do with anything? This jerk is clearly a misogynist. From his writing skills and ignorance of how to use an apostrophe I doubt this person knows the meaning of "misogynist." He ought to refer to a dictionary if he has one.

SKW 12-10-2007 @ 9:32PM

I started losing my hair when I was 17, but that was because I fell ill. I have a disease called posthural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTs) which revved my metabolism but I was sleeping all day. I lost 20lbs and a good chunk of my hair. My hair used to be really thick and made the hairdresser (whom I saw once a year) almost cry it was so thick she didn't know what to do with it, then when this happened she almost cried because it was so thin.

Angela Ashton 12-10-2007 @ 9:46PM

I would like to recommend a book called "The Hormonally Vulnerable Woman", by Dr. Geoffrey Redmond. It will give advice and info for women with hair loss not caused by stress. It really helped me! Female hair loss can usually be stopped and reversed. You can take the advice to your own doctor, or go see him in NYC. His website is www.hormonehelpny.com

sandra weisz 12-10-2007 @ 9:50PM

thyroid problems, cause a lot of hair loss, and pituitary problems, and malnutrition. low iron, low folic acid, all this and more and stress too.

Mea 12-10-2007 @ 10:08PM

I also lost hair in the front when I went through a stressful divorce and lost a lot of weight. Fortunately I had plenty of hair and you couldn't tell that I had lost any. After my life settled back down it all grew back. As for coloring your hair, it actually makes your hair feel thicker because it increases the size of the individual strands. My hair is pretty thick but it is fine - the strands are skinny - so coloring it makes it coarser and appear thicker. I think many women's hair thins a bit with age, whether they let it go gray or not. I choose not to go gray.

adhakari 12-11-2007 @ 8:53AM

Stress seems to have no problems in attacking men and women alike. Not only will it cause your golden locks to fall out, it will aid them sooner in turning grey. They say it has something to do with antioxidants and free radicals. Our stress levels (the way we respond to stress in our day to day lives) has a lot to do with it too. Of course our diet and exercise regiments is equally important, the amount of water we drink, the harsh chemical we put in our hair, are all factors contributing to loss of our hair do to stress. No wonder the good book (Bible) says: “give no thought onto tomorrow.” Being worried, overly concerned and fretful about the things of this world will hasten our exit out of here, as it destroys our body in the process.

OrionsReason 12-10-2007 @ 10:08PM

Both my sister and myself have gone through periods of hair loss, generally in the front but a little in the back too. The problem with ours was hormone related and we were both diagnosed with Polycistic Ovarian Syndrome. Not a pleasant thing to have and I found out that it runs in my family. It sucks and for a while I had to wear a wig because it was so bad. But thankfully my hair has grown back and I'm taking steps to control my disorder and see the doctor regularly as well.

barbara 12-10-2007 @ 10:09PM

Hello
I started losing my hair in my late teens .After I had my twins at 28 i lost my eyelashes , brows , and every hair on my head .I went to a dermatologist and he said I had alopecia areota.I went to my family dr and my thyroid was way off so that had a lot to do with it also .I used rogaine for over two years the first time before it grew back in but not healthy like it should .I am 38 now and I just recently went thru the same thing , lost every hair on my face .My mom had thyroid problems and hre hair never fell out .I was told there is no rhyme or reason for alopecia so I guess this is something that I will have to live with forever .I used to get compliments on my hair all the time in my early teens .If any one has the same condition and would like to discuss it feel free to email me . winniethehoe@aol.com

Kristen 12-14-2007 @ 11:33PM

I lost my hair at age 14 due to alopecia, I am now 19. I'm pretty sure stress had nothing to do with it. My hair completely fell out with in a matter of 3 weeks. I've never tried to grow my hair back and doubt I ever will. I've gotten so used to not having hair anyways. I also have a hypothyroid. Every doctor I've been to has always told me that neither one of the diseases cause the other, but they do tend to run together. IMO the thyroid disease is 10 times more annoying. Screw having hair! Bald women are hot anyways! :)

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