Five tips for preventing stress induced hair loss

Board-certified dermatologist Dr. Michelle Henry discusses five tips for preventing stress-induced hair loss.

Video Transcript

MICHELLE HENRY: Are you losing your hair? Well, 50 million American men and women are suffering from hair loss. Stress levels are really high right now. And more stress means less hair on your head. But it doesn't have to be permanent-- the stress or the hair loss. So I'm here to give you five tips to help you prevent and treat hair loss.

I know it's hard to get rid of stress completely, but you can try to manage it. Because by taking care of your mental health, we also can help promote hair growth and reducing hair breakage. So to destress, what I love to do is meditation. And I'm a huge fan of the guided apps Headspace and Calm.

Eat foods rich in healthy fats, like salmon and avocado. So these contain the nutrients to really feed your hair and contribute to its luster and its beauty. So one of my favorite on-the-go meals is actually avocado toast with salmon. It's delicious, it's nutritious, and it helps promote healthy hair.

So healthy hair depends on having a healthy scalp. So scalp care is absolutely critical to have beautiful hair. We really need to pay the same attention of detail that we do to our skin to our scalp.

So one product that I absolutely love is Nioxin Purifying Exfoliator. So I recommend using this once a month to get rid of dirt and oil and debris and all of those things that can cause inflammation and compromise our hair growth. It's made with biodegradable cellulose beads, so it's safe for the environment. It helps to get rid of those flakes. And it also feels really cool and helps the scalp feel really clean after using it.

Tip number four is maintaining a consistent regimen. So a lot of my patients, when they start noticing hair loss, they stop washing their hair as frequently. But the key is consistency.

So what I recommend is choosing products that really focus on promoting hair density. And that's why I like the Nioxin Three-Step System. So it comes with three steps-- first the shampoo, conditioner, and a scalp treatment.

And they're all made to treat and prevent hair loss on the scalp and the length of the hair. And I really love that it comes in six different variations. So it helps you to customize your hair loss treatment.

And it depends on the kind of hair that you have. So are you natural? Are you color treated? Are you chemically treated?

And then the second category is how progressed is your thinning? So it really helps you to focus on your specific and unique hair type and hair concern.

So my fifth tip is to maybe try some at-home, non-invasive devices to stimulate growth. One of my favorites are the red light treatments. So here's one that I actually have at home. It's called the iRestore. So it's a helmet you put on your head. It releases non-inflammatory red light to reduce any inflammation on the scalp.

Make sure that you talk to your dermatologist so you can get to the cause. And they can help direct you in the direction of the right treatment. Maybe you might even have to come into the office for a treatment, like platelet-rich therapy.

They actually draw your blood, but not your platelets. Your platelets are a rich reservoir growth factor. We activate those growth factors and we inject them into the scalp. And our hope is that those growth factors will tell your follicles to stimulate healthy follicles and increase your hair density.

So you have many, many options. If you're really suffering at home, don't forget to see your dermatologist to provide you with all the best options possible for you.