How To Reverse Hair Loss From Covid
Medically reviewed by Katelyn Hagerty, FNP
Because of its serious and well-known complications, the number one greatest fear of someone with a newly positive COVID diagnosis should be the potential for death.
COVID has killed millions of people worldwide and the survivors can still see lingering and potentially permanent damage.
While lung function may be the biggest concern for surviving patients, COVID can cause a variety of health issues beyond breathing problems, and in some cases that can include hair loss.
If youre experiencing COVID hair loss, fear and uncertainty are probably taking a toll on your mental health, which very well may be making things worse. Luckily, we have some good news.
Hair loss from COVID, for the most part, is reversible. Its based on a type of hair loss that occurs when your body is stressed out, and typically, once the stress is resolved, your hair should grow back.
To understand how this all works, let’s start with some basic facts about the hair growth cycle.
Stress And Hair Loss: Potential Ways To Cope
Any number of stressful situations can trigger hair loss, including pregnancy, chronic illness, injury, relationship issues, financial concerns, poor nutrition, surgery, medications such as antidepressants, and even jet lag. To counteract stress and protect your hair, try these tips:
- Learn and practice relaxation techniques regularly
- Get regular exercise, which helps manage stress and its effects
- Spend time with positive people isolating yourself can make stress worse
- Seek professional help from a therapist
- Eat a healthy diet and take a multivitamin if your doctor recommends it
- Treat your hair with care when washing, drying, and styling it
Hair loss from stress doesnt have to be permanent. If it continues, talk to a doctor about a prescription or over-the-counter remedy to spark hair regrowth.
Is Stress The Reason For Your Hair Loss
Think you have stress hair loss? Are you finding yourself shedding strands more than usual and concerned stress might be a factor? Youre not alone if youre feeling that your hair is thinning because of daily pressures.
Yes, stress can greatly affect hair loss. Scientists have discovered the stress hormone cortisol may be responsible for your sudden hair loss problems. One study by J Drugs Dermatol found that cortisol affects hair follicles adversely, especially when the hormone is present at higher levels.
While rising stress problems can create hair loss patterns, it may also be from other genetic factors and even your diet. Both men and women have issues with stress-related hair loss. Here are some reasons you may be shedding and how to reduce your stress today read on.
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What Can You Do To Reverse The Damage
The first and most important thing is to take active steps to reduce your anxiety levels. Since anxiety may be the root cause of your hair loss, reducing your anxiety levels may have a direct impact on your hair growth. Secondly, you need to reverse the damage caused by high stress levels.
Just as you need to eat more proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals after participating in heavy exercise to compensate for the use of nutrients, you need to increase your intake of key nutrients that help promote hair growth in order to recover from stress related hair loss.
There are really three key elements to this equation. One is an increase in the consumption of the key amino acids for hair growth, such as cysteine and lysine. Another is an increase in the consumption of supporting nutrients that better enable your body to use the building blocks to grow new hair. And last but certainly not least you need to increase the amount of blood being supplied to the hair, in order to deliver the nutrients to the follicles.
That said, I cant stress enough how important the first step is: reducing your anxiety levels. Although it is relatively easy to increase your consumption of the key nutrients that promote hair growth and there are some easy ways to increase blood flow to your scalp conquering your anxiety is not an easy task. And until you are able to reduce your anxiety levels you will always be compensating for the underlying problem.
Take Control Of Your Daily Stressors
While major stressful life events, such as those mentioned above, cause stress-related hair loss, chronic stress can have the same effect.
Regardless of the severity of the stress, how you deal with it impacts your overall health, including hair growth. Find stress-reduction strategies that work for you.
Mindfulness, journaling, meditation, yoga, breathwork, spending time in nature, and talking to a therapist or counselor are all options.
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Not All Hair Loss Is Anxiety Related
Its also important to note that not all hair loss is anxiety related, but the two may occur at a similar period of time. Some people that start to suffer from hair loss are at an age with many other stresses, like kids, work, and finances. Because they happen at the same age they may seem related, but are technically different conditions.
Furthermore, some people start to feel anxiety**_ because_** theyre experiencing hair loss. In a way, hair loss is their anxiety trigger, and they experience greater levels of anxiety because they are so worried about losing their hair.
Finally, sometimes those with anxiety simply see more hair loss where it doesnt exist, because of their fears. Its not uncommon for hair to look exactly the same but anxiety plays tricks with the mind to make it seem or feel like more fell out than usual.
While anxiety can absolutely cause hair to fall out in some cases in very large clumps anxiety is not always the problem. Sometimes the problem is simply that your anxiety causes you to think more and care more about your hair than necessary, giving the impression that the two are related.
Other Causes Of Hair Shedding
Just because you tested positive for COVID-19, doesnt mean its the cause of your hair loss. Other hair loss types can cause the appearance of shedding, and they can potentially be more serious.
Traumatic alopecia, for instance, is caused by trauma to the follicle in the form of pulling or irritation by chemicals.
It can also be caused by emotional stress and related stress disorders that literally make you pull your own hair out, or it could potentially be caused by hairstyles including tight ponytails, which pull on your hair.
But the worst case scenario is that you might have a more serious disease creating problems.
Alopecia areata is a symptom of certain autoimmune issues rather than a specific type of hair loss.
With alopecia areata your immune system attacks your follicles mistaking them for foreign bodies, and that can force them out of production, where they can stay dormant as long as the condition is untreated sometimes permanently.
In both cases, the damage is often permanent after a certain length of time, which is why you should address hair loss problems at the first instance.
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Why Does Stress Cause Hair Loss
Theres a condition called Telogen Effluvium, where large numbers of hairs are lost after a stressful experience, explains Annie Chiu, M.D., a board-certified dermatologist in California. Normally, Dr. Chiu explains, hairs only shed when they enter a stage called Telogen, and most hairs are in a constant growing phrase, called Anagen. But when you experience stress or shock, Telogen Effluvium, it pushes growing anagen hairs into telogen, so you will see a ton of hair loss in a short time, she says.
How Stress Disrupts Hair Growth
Hair normally grows in a healthy cyclical pattern with hair follicles cycling through four distinct phases:
1. Active growth or anagen2. Transition or catagen3. Resting or telogen4. Returning growth or mesanagen
When youre under a great deal of stress, this normal pattern of hair growth may become disrupted. Stress can block active growth and force more follicles to remain in the resting phase. When growth is stalled, hair becomes weak and thin, eventually breaking off. An imbalance in the hair growth cycle isnt hard to miss: you see much more hair on your hairbrush and thinning hair on the scalp. When a large group of follicles all turn off in one place, bald spots may appear. Most of the time this occurs slowly, but in some cases it can happen all at once, causing a clump of hair to fall out.
The negative effects of stress on hair growth has long been known. The process by which stress influences hair loss, however, has remained a mystery until now.
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How To Stop Stress
Could a big clue to your bodys ability to cope with chronic stress be staring back at you in the mirror? Excess stress can set off a series of hormonal and psychological imbalances that you might not know are even happening until a clear sign shows up like hair loss.
Is chronic stress making your hair fall out? Heres how to tell and how to get your hair growing again.
Hair Loss Due To Hormones: Will It Grow Back
Hair loss due to hormones is a reality for many people after menopause as well as during pregnancy. But will it grow back? The answer is yes, but there are also things that can help the body along.
Wash hair regularly with a mild shampoo. Treat hair gently. Dont comb or brush hair when its wet. Using the fingers to detangle is a gentler option. Putting hair up in a tight bun or ponytail can cause added stress on the hair and its follicles.
Finally, try to limit the use of hair dryers or irons on hair, as they can dry and damage it.
Here are five tips to prevent hair loss during the menopausal transition and after menopause:
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Stress Hair Loss: Heres What You Can Do
Medically reviewed by Kristin Hall, FNP
Noticed more hairs on your brush, pillow or around the shower drain than normal? Dealing with hair loss is never fun, especially when youre not sure whats causing it.
Most male hair loss is the result of androgenic alopecia, or male pattern baldness a form of hair loss thats triggered by a genetic sensitivity to DHT. However, its also possible for a range of other factors to cause and contribute to hair loss.
One of these factors is stress. If youre feeling overly stressed due to work, your personal life or anything else, its possible that this stress could contribute either to mild thinning of your hair, or significant hair loss.
Most male hair loss results from androgenic alopecia, or male pattern baldness a form of hair loss triggered by a genetic sensitivity to DHT.
However, its also possible for a range of other factors to cause and contribute to hair loss.
One of these factors is emotional stress. If youre feeling overly stressed due to work, your personal life or anything else, its possible that this stress could contribute either tomild hair thinning, or significant hair loss.
Below, weve explained how and why stress can cause you to lose hair. Weve also looked at a range of treatment options that can help you regrow any hair you lose due to stress.
How Can You Stop Or Slow Down Stress
The first step seems obvious: relieve yourself from stress. But of course, thats easier said than done. Dr. Chiu recommends yoga, meditation, lavender aromatherapy, drinking chamomile tea before bedtime, and practicing self-care to help to slow down your stress brain waves. Dr. Kogan agrees, saying that combining lifestyle changes with nutritional shifts can be helpful in reducing stress both inside and out. She suggests taking ashwagandha, a botanical that has been clinically shown to help balance stress hormones and build resilience in chronically stressed adults. Additionally, Dr. Kogan suggests avoiding strict diets or cleanses during a particularly stressful time since they could be additional stressors on the body.
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Opt For Gentle Hair Care
Switch to gentle hair care that suits your hair. Say no to toxic ingredients like sulfates , parabens, alcohols, fragrances, dyes, etc. in shampoos and conditioners. Keep heat styling like straightening, blow drying and curling for special occasions. Visit salons less frequently for your dyeing, perming or bleaching sessions.
An Effective Solution After 1 Month Of Treatment
Proven anti-hair loss efficacy after the first month for 92% of users*- 42% of hair collected after a month of use positive response for 90% of users**+ 10% of cutaneous microcirculations stimulation after only one use with massage****Significant average increase of hair in the growth phase . Clinical study conducted on 51 individuals.**Significant average decrease in the number of hairs collected. Pull test.***Significant average increase in cutaneous microcirculation on scalp after unique application and massage. Study conducted on 22 individuals.
EFFICACY CONFIRMED BY THE CONSUMERSCONVENIENT
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Can Stress Cause Hair Loss And Will It Grow Back
Stress is well known to cause hair loss. However, this hair loss is unlikely to be permanent and will grow back. The hair should start to grow back roughly 6 months after the stress has resolved.
It is important to distinguish between physical and emotional stress when it comes to hair loss. While both can cause hair loss, physical stress can often be quicker to address and fix than emotional causes of stress. Physical stress can include severe illnesses, childbirth and extreme changes to diets.
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Surround Yourself With Positivity
The people and things that you surround yourself with play into the overall feel of your life. If you are surrounded by negative people, experience, and stuff then you are going to eventually be brought down by the negativity and live a stressful existence.
This also works the other way. Make sure you are living your life next to people that bring life and positivity into your world. This will greatly reduce your stress and help you live a life that you really like.
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