Certain diseases may cause leg hair to disappear, while thinning ponytails tell unhealthy tales of nutritional gaps and stress. Here are just some of the connections between your health and your hair.
What only your hairdresser — and doctors — know
Breakup haircuts and playoff beards are hair-related clues to a person’s mindset. Hair also can reveal a lot about someone’s health. For instance, certain diseases may cause leg hair to disappear, while thinning ponytails tell unhealthy tales of nutritional gaps and stress. Here are just some of the connections between your health and your hair.
Iron deficiency
Nutritional deficiencies often show up in the hair first, says dermatologist Dr. Shani Francis, medical director of Ashira Dermatology in Evanston, Illinois. Iron deficiency, one of the top causes of hair loss, is a common menstrual side effect in women. This temporary form of hair loss is called telogen effluvium. “Iron-deficient hair usually is not only thinner but more wiry, sometimes more coarse and brittle, and dry,” Francis says. Fortunately, once the cause is determined, over-the-counter iron supplements can replenish the body’s depleted iron stores and restore a healthy head of hair.
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Lack of protein and luster
When it comes to protein in your diet, your hair only gets the leftovers. “The body is very efficient and intelligent,” says Francis, who is also a clinical assistant professor at University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine. “When we’re not eating enough protein and our body doesn’t have enough protein for our muscles and internal functions, the hair doesn’t get anything.” That means hair, which is almost exclusively made of protein, takes a hit. “Sometimes it doesn’t have the same luster or healthy appearance,” she says.
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Weight loss, diet and hair loss
Even healthy changes — like losing excess weight — can lead to temporary but noticeable hair loss. In her practice, Francis sees patients who drastically change how they eat, such as going vegan or switching to a low-calorie diet, and then experience hair shedding a couple of months later. Gastric bypass, a surgery that leads to dramatic weight loss, also leads to hair loss, says endocrinologist Dr. Caroline Messer, a clinical assistant professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and an assistant professor at Hofstra School of Medicine, both in New York state. In those cases, Messer says, there’s little to do but reassure patients that hair will eventually grow back.
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Thyroid imbalance
With thyroid conditions, people experience a wide variety of symptoms, often including hair changes. Medication to treat hypothyroidism (too-low hormonal levels) or hyperthyroidism (too-high levels) may need to be fine-tuned, Francis says. Once hormones are back in balance, dry, brittle hair or shedding problems should resolve.
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Hair-pulling disorder
In the condition called trichotillomania, people feel compelled to repeatedly pull out their hair. That can be hair from the scalp, eyebrows or any part of the body. Treatments include mental-health counseling and medications like antidepressants.
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Circulation and body hair
Loss of hair growth on the legs, rather than the scalp, may signal diabetes. “When we see really shiny legs, that’s usually a sign that blood flow to the legs is diminished and there’s a vascular issue,” Messer says. “When people stop growing hair on their toes, that’s a pretty bad sign there may be some peripheral vascular diseases, which may be related to chronically high [blood sugar].”
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Female-pattern hair loss
Receding hairlines and back-of-the-head bald spots are normal changes in men. However, in women, this hair-loss pattern signals one of several possible health problems. High levels of male hormones, notably testosterone, can lead to female hair loss in conditions like polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS. Endocrinologists also test for other male hormones to pinpoint potential causes, Messer says, such as adrenal gland tumors, Cushing’s syndrome and, in rare cases, adrenal cancer.
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Stress and shedding
“We lose about 100 hairs every day,” Francis says. “It’s ongoing. But we have over 100,000 hairs on our head.” So although most of us have hair to spare, she says, when daily hair loss reaches a “massive” 300 to 400 daily strands or more, people get anxious. On the other hand, stress can affect hair. In her Manhattan practice, Messer says, “I have very few patients who aren’t under stress: emotional stress; physical stress. All can lead to hair loss.”
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Healing and hair
It’s important to take care of medical concerns first, Francis says. No one should pass up needed treatments, like cancer chemotherapy, to prevent temporary hair loss, she emphasizes. When it comes to other hair-loss causes, Messer offers reassurance: “Even if we can’t find an underlying [cause], there are lots of treatments we can try.” For instance, some patients may turn to certain scalp injections to build back their hair follicles. In many case, medications can improve female-pattern hair loss. “A lot of people panic when they start to lose their hair,” she says. “Ninety-nine percent of the time all they need is reassurance that hair will come back.”
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