Stress, in today’s society, is simply unavoidable. However, episodic or minor stress tends to be easy to cope with and has few lasting effects. Chronic or severe stress, on the other hand, can manifest itself in a number of ways, one of which is hair loss. Luckily, for the most part, dealing with the stressors in your life and managing the stress does seem to help to halt and even reverse the hair loss for the most part, although this is not always the case. Read on to learn more.
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Stress Management Techniques
Obviously, the first step in combatting stress-related hair loss is to come up with a few stress management techniques that help you to cope with the daily stressors that you face. If the stress is chronic and traditional stress management techniques prove to be ineffective, it might be worth seeing your doctor to see whether you are eligible for any medical interventions like medications to help you to cope with the stress or even manage the symptoms. However, for most people, stress management techniques will be of some help. Of course, the specific techniques are likely to vary depending on your preferences. Most self-care rituals will help to mitigate feelings of stress. This could be the indulgence of a hobby or anything that creates a sense of calm serenity. Meditation and yoga are also popular. It could be as simple as switching off your phone and taking a bath. Try to find things that work for you.
Eating to Promote Health Hair Growth
In times of stress, a lot of people find their diet impacted. This tends to be because they either find comfort in food or the stress erases their appetite completely. Simply put, in times of stress, people tend to find themselves either overeating or undereating. Obviously, your diet has a significant impact on your physical health, but it can also greatly impact your hair too. Vitamins C, B and E are all great for promoting a healthy scalp and hair growth. Water is also important for all bodily functions, including your hair too. This is why you should think about ways to incorporate more of these in your diet.
The Local Pharmacy
The next step could be to head to the local pharmacy. While dealing with the root cause of the stress and making an effort to live a healthier life, this in itself might not be enough to stimulate fresh hair growth. Essentially, it makes sense to address the symptoms too. There are several options when it comes to hair loss that you can purchase either at your local pharmacy or from an online pharmacy like Oxford Online Pharmacy, which has a number of options as well as information for treating hair loss with Dutasteride or Minoxidil. You might also want to give home remedies like castor oil or rosemary oil. You could also try caffeine shampoos too.
Medical Interventions
As touched upon briefly above, it might also be worth considering seeing your doctor. In addition to having them treat you for stress and medicate you or whatever they may prescribe, you could also mention your hair loss as a side effect of the stress. Obviously, it is important to address the root cause of hair loss; simply treating the symptoms will not solve the problem. However, treating hair loss as well can help to ensure that you are doing everything you can to promote new, healthy hair growth. Your doctor is likely to have a number of suggestions for hair loss. They might prescribe topical treatments or oral medications. Depending on the extent of the hair loss, they might also suggest steroid injections into the scalp or even a PRP procedure. Obviously, these can be somewhat invasive, which is why you will need to consider their efficacy versus the disruption they represent within your life.
To Sum Up
Stress-related hair loss, or in fact, any of the physical manifestations of stress, tends to be cyclical in nature. The stress causes the symptoms, which in turn causes more stress, and the cycle continues. Truth be told, stress is largely unavoidable in modern life. This is why finding ways to deal with your stress and coming up with ways to relax and destress is so important. The first step is obviously to get to the root cause. This means exploring the reasons why you are stressed and finding ways to not let the stress get to you as much. After that, it becomes about treating the symptoms. How are you going to deal with the hair loss itself? Once the stress is out of the way, the symptoms should subside; however, this does not mean that your hair will automatically grow back exactly as it was. It might need a little encouragement.
Nurture & Nourish says
Such a great post, thank you for writing it. My husband suffered from stress-related hair loss when he was just a teenager! It resolved in time but it's crazy how stress is cyclical - you get stressed because you are stressed. Breaking that cycle can be difficult.