Crash diets and stress can lead to hair loss

Fad diets, crash diets, cleansing diets are all robbing your body of the nutrients you need and can lead to temporary hair loss

Jan 2010

Have you ever heard that old wives tale worrying will just make you lose your hair? There may be some truth to that.

On average you lose between 75-100 hairs a day but drastic changes like crash dieting and stress can lead to temporary hair loss.

Hollywood has set the standard for hair-- lots of it -- but to keep that kind of long lustrous hair you've got to eat right.

Fad diets, crash diets, cleansing diets are all robbing your body of the nutrients you need and can lead to temporary hair loss, "Which can cause your hair follicles to go into a resting phase and the natural progression then is that they would fall out." Dr. Lance Owens with Metro Health's Cosmetic Treatment Center says too much stress in your life can also clog up that bathroom drain, "It could be a physical type of stress, extreme weather changes, it could be emotional stress."

And of course when you're stressed your reach for the heartburn medication, "Over the counter tagamet causes hair loss, there is a lot of cholesterol lowering drugs are known to cause hair loss." Dr. Owens says there are many drugs that have hair loss as a side effect so make sure you read the warning label.

So how do you know if you're losing too much hair?

Dr. Owens puts it to thru the pull test, "I'll take maybe a couple dozen hairs and then I'll just very lightly pull out you actually got none there. If you do one pull test and you get more than five hairs that would be abnormal."

You have to lose at least 20% of your hair before you see any change cosmetically, "When your hair falls out there's usually a resting faze between 3-6 months and then it can take up to six months for the hair to grow back to where its noticeable."

But you don't want it to go on for more than six months or it could lead to permanent hair loss.

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