Travelling can be stressful, especially long-distance like international travel where crossing borders is involved. If you’re a business traveller, you can likely speak of numerous flight scheduling disappointments and the pressures of adjusting travel plans on the fly. This stress might already be affecting your mental health and other health conditions. But could there be more to it? Can travel-induced stress cause hair loss? This article delves into the linkage between the two, while also considering the various treatment options available.
Can Stress Cause Hair Loss?
The body has its own ways of dealing with stress. Often, it produces what health scientists term as a ‘flight response’ to stress or anxiety. This term refers to the body producing extra hormones to help you manage your stress. These hormonal changes can take their toll and cause hair loss.
The more sustained these effects, the more likely it is for stress to curtail the growth patterns of your hair follicles. Usually, you’ll start to see symptoms like your hair falling out after about three months of intense and sustained stress.
However, the hair loss effects related to stress are far from permanent. Studies show that your hair may regain its strength when the body has fully recovered from stressful events, thus if there’s no underlying medical condition causing your hair to fall off. This is enough reason to seek an effective diagnosis immediately after you notice your hair falling out. Visiting a professional Harley Street hair transplant clinic is a good start.
Different Types Of Stress-related Hair Loss
The general term for hair loss is alopecia, and various stress-related factors can lead to it. They include:
Telogen Effluvium
It is a temporary hair loss condition triggered by stress, shock, or trauma. Telogen effluvium curtails the growth of hair follicles forcing hair into a resting or shedding state. More so, it is a temporary hair loss condition that often appears after stress or a traumatic event and usually occurs on the tip of the scalp. The more you wash, style or comb, the more hair you lose.
Alopecia Areata
Alopecia comes in multiple forms, including Areata, Totalis, and Universalis. The Areata variant of alopecia results from severe stress spanning multiple days. The condition starts with one or more circular bald patches that may overlap, affecting your entire scalp. The main difference between Alopecia Areata and Telogen Effluvium is that the latter is purely temporary while the former can be permanent or temporary.
Trichotillomania
Trichotillomania stems from fidgeting your hair when you’re stressed. Suppose you’re on a delayed flight with a business panel waiting for your arrival for the session to start. For some people, pulling their hair is a coping mechanism for dealing with the stress. Eventually, it becomes a habit, and they start picking out their hair without realising it.
Treatment Options for Stress-Related Hair Loss
Travel stress is almost inevitable, especially if you’re a busy executive with business commitments across the globe. Here are some solutions to keep tabs on if your hair starts to act up due to your consistently increasing workload.
Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP)
PRP stimulates the dormant stem cells behind a patient’s hair loss or thinning. It involves injecting protein-rich substances mixed with your blood plasma into areas with insufficient hair on your scalp to revive your hair follicles and restore lost hair.
Hair Transplant
Hair transplant professionals remove rich grafts from your scalp, harvest them with clinical procedures, and then plant it back on the scalp to regenerate your hair.
Minoxidil
Minoxidil is a formula available in foam or solution which can be applied to the scalp for four to six weeks. The formula supplies hair follicles with oxygen and nutrients to increase hair growth. Generally, everybody loses hair daily. But your stressful travel activities can be the one to blame if you start losing more than usual, especially if you’re unaware of your body having underlying hair loss-related conditions.
