Stress

When the body experiences stress caused by a traumatic experi-
ence, nutritional deficiency, or illness, the rate of hair loss can
increase. For example, a 39-year-old patient of Dr. Rassman lost his
4-year-old child to cancer and within just a few months, the man lost
all but the permanent wreath of hair around his head. He probably
had the genetics for this balding pattern, but only expressed that
pattern when it was induced by this extreme stressful situation.
Women’s hair seems to be more sensitive to the effects of stress
than men’s hair. This may be because women with a genetic predis-
position to hair loss usually have a higher percentage of fragile
miniaturized hair, which is hair with thinner than normal hair shaft
thickness. But unlike in men, the hair loss in women is often not
permanent or complete.
Stress generally causes a type of hair loss referred to as telogen
effluvium, which is very different from androgenetic alopecia (dis-
cussed earlier in this chapter). Telogen effluvium is the reversible
shedding of hair in the resting phase when the body senses, for
reasons that are not clear, that it needs to divert its energies.
Therefore, stress temporarily changes the amount of hair that’s
shed, but the lost hair is likely to grow back. Turn to Chapter 5 for
more explanation of telogen effluvium.