Stress and Hair Loss: What the Science Says and What You Can Do About It

Who hasn’t, at one point, heard or even uttered the phrase ‘I’m so stressed my hair is falling out!” Unfortunately, it’s also often accurate. Work and personal stress, lack of sleep, and hormone shifts can all negatively impact your hair follicles, causing various levels of hair loss and shedding. But there’s a lot you can do to ease the negative impact of stress on your hair. Here’s what you need to know. 

Factor	What Happens Biologically	Hair Outcome
Acute stress	Temporarily shifts follicles from anagen (growth) to telogen (rest)	Short-term shedding
Chronic stress	Sustained cortisol elevation keeps follicles in telogen longer	Ongoing thinning
Hormonal disruption	Stress alters estrogen, progesterone, and cortisol balance	Weaker growth signals
Inflammation	Inflammatory cytokines disrupt follicle metabolism	Increased shedding
Sleep disruption	Poor sleep raises cortisol and inflammation	Slower regrowth

Stress Can Push Your Hair Into Shedding Mode

Major or prolonged stress (say a stressful job or ongoing family situation) can shift hair from the growth phase (anagen) into the resting/shedding phase (telogen), leading to a condition called telogen effluvium, a common cause of overall hair loss.

Acute and Chronic Stress Impact Hair Loss Differently

• Acute Stress: Short-term events that happen in life can cause acute stress (a work deadline, for example), and this can trigger temporary hair shedding. Once the stressor ends, the hair shedding does too.

• Chronic Stress: If you’re going through a longer period of sustained stress, this can cause hormonal disruption that can interfere with the functioning of just about everything, including the hair growth cycle, perpetuating shedding over time.

Stress Hormones May Directly Affect Follicle Biology

When you’re stressed out, your cortisol levels are chronically elevated, and this can interfere with the hair growth cycle at the cellular level by keeping hair follicles in a non-growing state.
In fact, cortisol can actually be measured in your hair. Higher chronic stress levels can show up as higher cortisol levels in hair samples, indicating a biological response that happens along with hair shedding.

Hormonal Shifts Can Cause Hair Shedding

• Postpartum: During pregnancy, higher estrogen levels extend the anagen phase, which means they stay in the growth mode longer which reduces the number of hairs that enter the resting/shedding phase. So you basically lose less hair during pregnancy.
  Postpartum, a big shift happens and rapidly falling estrogen levels cause many hairs to go into the telogen phase. This causes noticeable hair shedding within months of delivery.
• Menopause: Again it’s the hormonal shifts that impact hair growth. Lower estrogen and progesterone levels during menopause influence the hair growing cycle, with estrogen-sensitive hair follicles getting fewer growth-supporting signals and a reduced flow of nutrients that support hair growth. The changing hormone levels and imbalances that occur can make your hair more sensitive to stress and contribute to hair thinning.

Lack of Sleep Can Lead to Hair Shedding

Stress impacts your sleep, and when your shut eye is disrupted and/or you don’t get enough, your body’s biological rhythms are thrown out of whack, which can impact hair growth. Poor sleep has also been linked to inflammation and an increase in the production of the hormone cortisol (which your body can produce in excess under extended periods of duress) which can negatively impact hair growth and also lead to hair shedding.

Inflammation Impacts Your Hair

Stress can ramp up inflammation, which disrupts the hair growth cycle. Inflammation can push hair follicles out of the anagen (growth) phase into the telogen (resting) phase too early. When many follicles enter the resting phase at once, this causes increased shedding. 

Inflammation can also impair blood flow and the delivery of nutrients that support the hair follicle. If stress and inflammation persist over time, this can make the follicles less efficient at producing healthy, strong hair.

Overall, stress and inflammation negatively reinforce each other: Inflammation can amplify the damaging effects of cortisol on hair follicles, making hair more vulnerable to shedding during periods of stress. 

Seasonality May Influence Hair Shedding Patterns

Many people experience more hair shedding in the late summer or fall due to seasonal biological rhythms which can interact with stress and hair cycle timing. Hair follicles interact with seasonal cues (like longer days in the spring and summer), which can increase the percentage of follicles entering anagen. After that, a wave of follicles transition to telogen and shed a few months later in late summer and early fall.

Weight Loss Is a Physiological Stress That Can Cause Hair Loss

You may have heard that people taking GLP-1 agonists are reporting hair loss as a side effect. But the preliminary research shows an association between GLP-1 medications and hair loss, not a direct link.

What can happen, though, is that losing weight, whether it’s rapid or gradual, can be stressful for your body and may contribute to hormonal and nutritional changes that cause the follicles to prematurely shift into the telogen phase.

Scalp and Hair Follicle Health Matters

Maintaining a healthy scalp provides a foundation that helps your hair withstand stress and eases the potential negative effects on hair growth and shedding. Your scalp is the environment in which hair follicles live and function. Research shows that an unhealthy scalp, especially if it’s impacted by stress, can impact hair quality and shedding.

• Cleanse regularly: This helps remove excess oil, dead skin cells and other debris that can clog hair follicles. 

• Consider treatments with antioxidants: One study found that people who used a shampoo and leave-on treatment containing functional antioxidants reported less hair shedding. 

• Make sure your scalp is getting the right nutrients: Your scalp needs good blood flow so the hair follicles can get the building blocks they need, including protein, iron, zinc and vitamins D and B12. They also need a steady source of keratin peptides, which strengthen hair by reinforcing the internal protein structure and supporting collagen production.

Hair Nutrients: Checklist

Make sure your diet is balanced, this table can help you notice if you're missing any key nutrients and where you can find them.

Nutrient	Role in Hair Health	Food Sources
Protein	Builds the hair shaft and supports follicle structure	Eggs Chicken Turkey Fish Greek yogurt Tofu Lentils
Iron	Supports oxygen delivery to hair follicles	Red meat Liver Spinach Lentils Chickpeas Pumpkin seeds
Zinc	Aids follicle repair and regulates the hair growth cycle	Oysters Beef Pumpkin seeds Cashews Chickpeas
Vitamin D	Helps regulate the hair growth cycle and follicle signaling	Fatty fish (salmon, sardines) Egg yolks Fortified dairy Fortified plant milks
Vitamin B12	Supports rapid cell turnover in hair follicles	Meat Fish Eggs Dairy Fortified plant-based foods
Keratin peptides	Reinforce hair’s internal protein structure and support collagen	Bone broth Collagen-rich cuts of meat Collagen or keratin peptide supplements

Hair Health Checklist: 4 Ways to Protect Your Hair Against Stress

While it’s true that stress can negatively impact your hair growth cycle and the quality of the hair that does grow, there’s a lot you can do to protect the health of your hair in times of stress.

1. Prioritize Sleep

Aim for seven to nine hours of shut-eye nightly, and try to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. Create a wind-down routine that you start 30 minutes to an hour before bed.

2. Exercise

Both moderate and intense exercise, including taking a brisk walk, jogging, riding a bike, taking a dance class, help reduce the impact of stress on the body by lowering stress hormones like cortisol while triggering the release of endorphins.

3. Eat your fruits and veggies 

The benefit of eating healthy is twofold: Your hair follicles need nutrients including zinc, iron and vitamins D and B12 as well as keratin peptides. Research shows that people who ate a diet high in fruits and vegetables, particularly those rich in antioxidants called anthocyanins (purple cabbage, blueberries) and polyphenols (spinach, broccoli, kale, dark leafy greens), had lower levels of C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation. 

4. Go easy on alcohol and don’t smoke

Physical stress from chemicals or toxins can harm the health of your hair. Oxidative stress, caused by an excess of reactive oxygen molecules that overwhelm the body’s antioxidant defenses, has been strongly linked to hair loss. Lifestyle factors like smoking and drinking alcohol are two major sources of oxidative stress.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can stress really cause my hair to fall out?

Unfortunately, yes. Significant or ongoing stress can disrupt the normal hair growth cycle and push more hairs into the resting (telogen) phase, leading to increased shedding (called telogen effluvium). But the good news is that this type of hair loss is usually temporary.

What can I do to protect my hair when I’m under a lot of stress?

To protect your hair from stress-related shedding and loss focus on these fundamentals: Prioritize sleep, manage stress with exercise and eat a nutrient-rich, anti-inflammatory diet. Also, take care of your scalp: Keeping it clean and well-nourished helps create a healthier environment for hair follicles and can buffer stress’s effect on the hair growth cycle.

Why does hair loss often happen after pregnancy or during menopause?

Hormonal shifts play a big role. After pregnancy, rapidly dropping estrogen levels can cause many hairs to enter the shedding phase at once, leading to noticeable postpartum hair loss. During menopause, declining estrogen and progesterone can shorten the growth phase and make hair follicles more sensitive to stress, contributing to thinning and shedding.