MALAYSIANS are no strangers to stress, between the traffic, the deadlines and that one group chat that never sleeps, there is plenty to go around.
So it is perhaps both reassuring and alarming that science has confirmed what many have long suspected after finding clumps of hair on the pillow.
Can stress actually cause your hair to fall out?
Verdict:
TRUE
The short answer is yes, and the science behind it is wild enough to make you even more stressed.
This is actual, involuntary hair loss, not just the result of anxiously running your hands through your hair during a particularly tense Zoom call.
When the body is under significant psychological or physical stress, it triggers a biological chain reaction that can quite literally shut down hair growth.
The most common result is a condition called telogen effluvium, a temporary form of diffuse hair shedding that has been documented in medical literature since 1961 and is, reassuringly, one of the more reversible things stress can do to the body.
To understand why it happens, a quick look at how hair actually grows is helpful.
In a normal, healthy scalp, around 85% of hair follicles are in the active growth phase at any given time, busily producing new hair.
Under significant stress, up to 70% of those actively growing hairs can be pushed prematurely into a resting phase, according to research published by the US National Institutes of Health.
The follicles then sit idle for a few months before shedding all at once, which is why a stressful event in January might produce a very upsetting shower drain situation in March or April.
The specific biological mechanism was pinned down in a 2021 study published in the journal Nature by researchers at Harvard University.
The team found that cortisol, the body's main stress hormone, interferes with a cluster of cells beneath each hair follicle known as the dermal papilla.
Under normal, non-stressed conditions, these cells produce a molecule called GAS6 that acts like a wake-up call for hair follicle stem cells, nudging them back into the growth phase.
Elevated cortisol essentially jams the signal, keeping the stem cells locked in a resting state and preventing new hair from forming.
The good news from the Harvard study was that when the source of stress hormones was removed in mice, the stem cells recovered quickly and got back to growing hair, suggesting the damage is reversible.
Cortisol is not the only culprit.
Stress also triggers the release of compounds called neuropeptides, including one known as substance P, which promote inflammation in the scalp and can push even more follicles into early retirement, according to a 2025 review published in JAAD Reviews.
A study of 100 patients with diffuse hair loss found that psychological stress was the probable cause in around 30% of cases, making it the second most common trigger identified, behind fever.
Stress has also been linked to alopecia areata, a condition in which the immune system attacks hair follicles and produces patchy hair loss, though the mechanisms involved are more complex and still being researched.
Perhaps the cruellest twist is that stress-related hair loss tends to feed itself.
Research has found a bidirectional relationship in some hair loss conditions, meaning the hair loss causes additional psychological distress, which can in turn make the shedding worse.
The reassuring footnote is that telogen effluvium is considered a benign, self-limiting condition by the Cleveland Clinic, with hair typically beginning to regrow within three to six months once the underlying stressor is resolved, without the need for specific treatment.
So the hair does come back, eventually, assuming one can stop stressing about it falling out in the first place.
Sources:
1. https://www.jaadreviews.org/
2. https://www.nih.gov/news-
3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
4. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
5. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
6. https://my.clevelandclinic.
7. https://www.sciencedirect.com/
