Last time you learned about Cortisol the stress hormone and the effects too much can have on your body. This week I want to share exactly what can happen to your hair from too much Cortisol AKA stress.

Your hair has 3 main cycles of growth and sometimes stress can lead to your hair falling out in the wrong phase. This doesn’t happen to everyone as we all have many ways of manifesting stress and if it does happen, it can happen in different ways.

One common cause we call Telogen Effluvium and it happens deep within the scalp where the growing begins.

The stress basically shocks the hair into resting instead of growing and as it takes approximately 2 months for the hair that is growing right now to come through at scalp level, it takes 2 months after the shock for the hair to fall out.

Often by then, we are no longer stressed, so it can feel a little confusing. If you ever think you are losing hair, stop and think about what your life was like two months ago and if life was going through a rough patch.

Pregnant women often have an effect on the hair similar to this known as postpartum alopecia. The hair is amazing during the pregnancy because all the hair that should be naturally coming out stays in the resting phase, then usually 2-3 months after the birth a lot falls out and there is heaps of new growth and short hairs to deal with.

Another common stress related hair loss is Alopecia Areata which is what you see here on the attached photo. Most of the time the hair will grow back but occasionally it can be permanent or last a few years before the hair returns.

Now you have a really clear idea of what stress can do not only to your hair but your whole body but what can we do about it?