Did you know that you may lose hair because of stress? Holistic treatments like homeopathy help.

You may have heard that stress can cause hair loss, and it’s true. Stress can take a toll on your hair health and lead to hair thinning, hair loss, and even balding if not addressed on time. The good news is that hair fall caused due to stress is temporary and can be treated holistically with the help of homeopathy.

Before talking about its prevention methods, let us understand how stress affects your hair health?

Stress-triggered hair loss is commonly known as Telogen Effluvium. It is a reversible condition in which your hair may fall out after a stressful experience. Stress can be of any type which can trigger this condition such as chronic or prolonged period of any illness, divorce, death of a loved one, job loss, surgical stress, or accidents. It can stop hair from growing. After a few months, the hair falls out and is not replaced.

Why does this happen? Severe stress can cause shock to your hair cycle (growing phase, shedding phase, and resting phase), pushing your hair into the shedding phase. Also, fewer hair follicles are available to grow new hair during the growing phase. This results in gradual hair thinning and hair loss.

The shedding may not be apparent for the first few weeks; but, when it occurs suddenly, it becomes obvious. An individual suffering from this type of hair loss may see as many as 70% of the scalp hair being shed, usually in handfuls. It becomes noticeable about two to six months after the shock occurs.

What compounds the problem is the stressful event per se is often forgotten. It is also seldom connected with the ‘new’ dilemma - hair loss. The end result is a scalp showing hair loss.

However, once the stress factor is reduced, there is often re-growth, although the process can take up to six months, or more - provided there is no other stress factor waiting to ‘detonate.’

Coping with stress-triggered hair loss

We understand that you can't always prevent stress from occurring in your life, but you can often minimize the amount of stress you experience and help yourself cope up with hair loss too.

In a few situations where physical stressor or trauma is disrupting hormonal balance in your body and therefore causing you hair loss, hair growth can be regained on its own. For example, if you are experiencing hair loss due to pregnancy, then your hair will re-grow at normal rates within a matter of months after childbirth. But continual stress at work or in a relationship, financial worries, parenting problems, and any other type of emotional stress can have a major impact on the entire body, including the hair follicles.

Therefore, it’s important to nurture your physical and mental health so that your hair cycle can continue unhampered. Homeopathy treatment for hair loss can help you deal with the condition effectively. Homeopathy being a mind-body medicine not only treats the physical complaints but also targets the mind and gently restores the mind-body equilibrium. Thus, it treats the patient as a whole. This makes homeopathy treatment for hair loss an excellent solution for hair problems related to mind, such as stress-related patchy hair loss (alopecia areata), hair-pulling disorder (trichotillomania) or stress induced massive hair shedding (telogen effluvium).

Homeopathic medicines for hair loss are also free from side-effects. Not only do homeopathic medicines reduce hair loss but they also protect the body from harmful effects such as decreased libido or ejaculation problems that are common with conventional drugs. Stress causes hormonal disturbances in the body like thyroid problems/ PCOS which are also known to cause hair loss and are very effectively treated with homeopathy.

Finally, nothing beats stress more effectively than a smile. Having a positive outlook holds the key to cope with the everyday stresses of life. You can reduce stress by learning relaxation techniques like meditation, deep breathing, and guided imagery. Or you can take time each day to relax by doing a fun activity or listening to soothing music, exercise regularly, get more socially active and indulge in fun activities other than your daily routine.

It is this coping ability, along with appropriate treatment, that adds the healing synergy needed to help one face and reverse stress-related setbacks — including hair loss.