Is Hair Loss from Stress Going to Be Diffuse?

Hi Mr. Rassman! Many off us now that chronic stress is bad for the overall health, one of the potential effects of stressors is an increased hairloss, maybe not such a big problem if you dont have androgenetic alopecia but if you do this temporary increased hairloss can potentially do more damage to the already weakening follicles! So my questions is:

1. In the connection to stress what is exactly happening chemically in the hair follicles that is leading to increased hairloss/premature entering of the anagen follicles to telogen?

2. And finally, hairloss that is connected to severe stress follows a diffuse pattern or am i wrong?

I do not have the answer to your question. Extreme stress (both emotional or physical) can cause hair loss and for men with genetic hair loss, it will follow a pattern of loss (not become diffuse). In women, this is often not the case as they are more likely to develop a diffuse form of thinning (without a specific pattern). I do not know the exact biochemical science behind hair loss caused by stress. As it is often said, medicine is mostly a descriptive science. Many times, we don’t know exact mechanisms.