Remember when your dad used to say that your teenage years made him want to pull his hair out? Well, turns out he might not have needed to do it manually. That’s right: stress and hair loss can be related.
If you were a fairly mild teenager who only sent your dad into the occasional lecture on responsibility, you’re off the hook—stress and hair loss are only linked when the stress is severe. Paradi Mirmirani, MD, a dermatologist with the Permanente Medical Group in Vallejo, Calif., says the stressful event must be “something that causes you to lose sleep or changes your appetite and raises the level of stress hormones.”
We’re talking about a physiological stress, not emotional stress. According to Amy McMichael, MD, professor of dermatology at Wake Forest Baptist Health in Winston-Salem, N.C., related factors could be a strict low-calorie diet, a fall in estrogen levels after childbirth (obviously not the case with your dad), or severe illness. Mirmirani says that hair shedding can also result from certain medications, thyroid disease, and nutritional deficiencies such as vitamin D or excess vitamin A.
If your dad’s hair loss truly is a result of stress (rather than that male pattern baldness your girlfriend desperately hopes you didn’t inherit), his hair will grow back once the stressor is addressed or eliminated.
In the normal life cycle of hair, about 10% of hairs are in a resting stage, which lasts for three to four months before the hair falls out and is replaced by a new one. “Typically, people shed about 100 hairs a day,” says Carolyn Jacob, MD, founder and medical director of Chicago Cosmetic Surgery and Dermatology. “Most people don’t even notice.”
There are two types of high-stress related hair loss that could have interrupted your dad’s typical hair life cycle and bumped up that 100 hairs a day:
1. Alopecia areata. This can be caused by other factors, but stress is a possibility. If your dad’s scalp started suffering from alopecia areata around the time you got your first (visible) tattoo, it is likely his white blood cells began taking the tattoo induced stress out on his follicles by stopping their growth. Alopecia areata affects a small, defined area that is round or oval, leaving a smooth area without hair.
2. Telogen effluvium. If your dad suffers from Telogen Effluvium, a disproportionate number of his hairs are in the resting phase. A few months after you got your motorcycle (or brought home the boyfriend with the motorcycle), his hair probably fell out suddenly. This is actually fairly common, and the hair will likely begin to grow back within six to nine months of the stress going away (selling the bike).
When trying to identify the stressful culprit, the trick is to look at events three to nine months prior to the hair loss. If your dad still has teenagers in the house, you might offer to take him out to the golf course more often now to help him blow off some steam. You’ll help his hair and his quality of life. In the meantime, buy him some sunscreen or a good hat.
Our blog entries are for your information only and are not intended as medical advice. Because everyone is different, we recommend you work with your medical professional to determine what’s best for you. Toji: Pure Density is designed to support healthy hair growth, and comes with a 3-bottle guarantee. Yes – this means you can try it for 3 months, and if you don’t grow faster, thicker, longer hair we will gladly provide you a complete, 100% money back, refund . For more info, check out our site:www.tojilife.com.
Our blog entries are for your information only and are not intended as medical advice. Because everyone is different, we recommend you work with your medical professional to determine what’s best for you. Toji: Pure Density is designed to support healthy hair growth, and comes with a 3-bottle guarantee. Yes – this means you can try it for 3 months, and if you don’t grow faster, thicker, longer hair we will gladly provide you a complete, 100% money back, refund . For more info, check out our site: www.tojilife.com.