All Blog Postings by Mary
Stress and Hair Loss
By Mary Francis · Originally published: October 25, 2021
Archive notice: This is a historical post from Mary’s years of blogging. Some older posts may mention products, courses or shop items that are no longer available, as Mary now focuses her time and energy on supporting widows inside her private Facebook community. The guidance and stories remain here as a free resource for widows.
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Stress and Hair Loss. No widow finds it surprising to hear about stress and hair loss. Grief and stress go hand in hand and they speed up the production of DHT, a hormone that damages hair follicles. DHT makes our hair follicles thin, delicate and prone to breaking.
After Donnie died I was losing big chunks of my hair. My bathtub drain got plugged because of all my hair. It scared me and so I went to my doctor and that was when I found out that stress was affecting not only my health but also my hair. Please don't add to your stress - go see your doctor to make sure that your health is not at risk. Stress is real and should not be ignored - we can do things to help not only with our stress but also with our hair loss.
Some things that may help with your hair loss:
- Dandruff shampoo that contains “Ketoconazole”
- Spritz hair with peppermint essential oils. Mix 1 drop of the oil in ¼ cup of water.
- Drink green tea that has the compound EGCG. Steeping tea bags for 10 minutes.
- 5 mg twice daily of antioxidant “astaxanthin” blocks the enzymes responsible for DHT
- Spend 30 minutes daily outside in the back yard. This quiets down your stress hormones.
- Re-growing/thicken of thinning hair may be helped by adding four drops of Rosemary essential oil to your shampoo and gently massage the mixture into our scalp for one minute before rinsing. Studies show Rosemary unclogs hair follicles and helps with hair growth.
- Other nutrients that may help for thinning hair: Apple extract (procyanidin) to prolong hair growth cycle, Keratin has shown to fortify strands at the root and Amino acids (marine proteins) are study-proven to increase thickness of hair strands.
- Vitamin D helps protect against depression. The best way to boost D is to get outside up to 35 minutes three times a week between 10 am and 3 pm.
Always check with your doctor if you’re losing your hair and before taking supplements as they may interfere with your other medications.
