Stress Leads to Serious Hair Loss in Women, Study Shows

Great looking hair is not only the result of using good haircare products, such as shampoos and treatments. Hair looks good when we’re healthy too, which implicitly means its appearance takes a turn for the worse when we’re not well. Stress is one of the main factors behind hair loss, with a new study cited by the Daily Mail showing that one in three women over 25 suffer from considerable hair loss.

It’s not just stress at work or at home that leads to this, though, a recent study has established. Apparently, more and more women over 25 worry excessively about their weight which, in turn, prompts them to skip meals and otherwise starve themselves to achieve the desired figure. This also translates into hair loss, which, in some cases, can even go as far as the appearance of bald spots.

“The stresses of modern life have left one in three women over the age of 25 suffering from hair loss, research has revealed. Experts believe a major cause is society’s obsession with being thin. This leads women to eat less as they try to imitate the skinny frames of celebrities, which means they are not getting enough nutrients which, in turn, is causing their hair to thin or even fall out,” the Mail writes based on the findings of the study.

Of over the 3,000 women interviewed for the study, 37 percent admitted to losing hair to one degree or another, while a vast majority said they would not own up to it otherwise. It’s the very fact that thinning hair or hair loss are mostly associated with old age that contributes to increasing the pressure and stress women feel, which comes to double the impact an unhealthy nutrition has on her mane, researchers have learned.

“We are all leading more emotionally stressful lives and are more nutritionally deficient than previous generations. The pressure on women to stay thin often means that they simply don’t eat enough to get all the nutrients or they are not eating the right foods. Hair is essentially the least important tissue of your body; therefore, your hair only receives nutrients if there are any remaining in the body after your vital organs have taken what they need,” trichologist Sara Allison says for the Mail, pointing out the importance of eating right to have gorgeous hair.