Can Stress Really Cause Hair Loss?

Well, the short answer to the title of this article is yes it can and I know because I have experienced this condition first hand. Many different aspects of our lives can bring on stress; it could be bereavement, money worries or a divorce for instance. In my particular case it was work related.

Back in the early 90's I was employed as a purchaser, the only purchaser in fact, for a small shop-fitting company. The job was okay although the pay was poor. I was happily plodding along until the firm started to take on way more work than they could handle.

I was under quite a bit of pressure making sure that the various fittings and fixtures were delivered to schedule and solving supply problems but I seemed to be coping fine even though the work was just mounting and mounting. This went on for a couple of months until one day the powers that be decided to take all the men off a small local job to meet a deadline at a refit that was worth much more money. They did this without informing me.

The next morning I received a call from the local shop owner who was in a real state. He had arrived at his property to find that he had a small fortune's worth of counters etc standing outside his shop getting ruined in the pouring rain. There was not a sole on site to cover them, move them inside or fit them. This was bad enough on it's own but it bothered me more because I knew the guy personally.

Shortly after this I began to notice a steady build up of hair in the sink each morning after combing it. My wife had noticed that I'd been a bit edgy for a while so I made an appointment at the doctor's. The doctor confirmed that the hair loss was almost certainly stress related. After getting nowhere at work in regard to getting some help (and a raise) with a now impossible workload, I decided to solve the problem myself. I quit the job and kept my hair.