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Tyra Banks says the stress from writing her new book gave her alopecia. What's behind the link between stress and hair loss?
Tyra Banks definitely has a lot on her plate, but she recently complained about having much less on her pate. The "supermodel-turned-mogul" just added "fiction writer" and "New York Times bestselling author" to her ever-growing list of accomplishments.
But banging out a book and running a multimillion dollar beauty, fashion, and entertainment empire reportedly took a toll on her in an unexpected place -- her scalp.
Banks let her hair down in a recent Wall Street Journal interview, confessing, "I got a little alopecia from the stress." The stress is the five years it took to write her newly released young-adult book, "Modelland" while juggling her other professional responsibilities. Banks prefaced her comment by admitting, "How can I say this without tearing up?"
We feel her pain, even though we suspect she could afford to hire a ghost writer to pen the pages.
Even so, losing the hair on your head -- whether it's temporarily or permanently -- is hard to do, even for the most beautiful and richest among us.
"Writing a book can definitely be a stressor that can lead to hair loss, or alopecia" says Orr Barak, MD, a dermatologist at Main Line Dermatology in Philadelphia. But in women with hair loss, doctors also have to rule out if the stressor is a thyroid problem or low iron levels. "While these are rarely the causes, it's more commonly an emotional stressor like Tyra is talking about," he points out.
Barak suspects Banks had "telogen effluvium," a kind of stress-induced hair loss.
Still, we needed to get to the root of her problem. Our "mane" question (sorry) was: Why does stress cause your tresses to fall out?
As Barak explains it, a normal head of hair spends 80 percent to 90 percent of its time in the growing phase of the hair cycle, known as anagen, and 10 percent to 20 percent of its time in the resting, or telogen, phase. (An exception to this is pregnancy when the hair cycle increases to 100 percent anagen, or growth.)
"When the body undergoes a stressor, the hair follicle is affected and a new equilibrium is set for the hair cycle," Barak says. The rate may fall to say, 60 percent of its time in the growing cycle and 40 percent in the resting phase. This down shift causes more hair to fall out, and you see more of it in your brush or shower drain.
Thankfully, shedding more hair than usual is often temporary. "When the body recovers from stress, hair will get back up to its normal 80 percent to 90 percent ratio of growth over time," notes Barak. We hope that's what happened to Bank's locks.
Have you noticed more hair loss during an especially stressful time?
Related:
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- Science of the silver fox: Why hair goes gray
- Your hair knows when you're about to have a heart attack
Want more weird health news? Find The Body Odd on Facebook.
Leave a Comment:
I seriously doubt someone held a gun to her head and forced her to write a book.
Cortizone injections will help.
.
When I had alopecia I just shaved my head.
It was cool.
Everyone called me Yul (Brynner).
She's an attention whore
If she was on the street scrounging for her next meal I might give a damn.
I don't think people appreciate the inhuman level of stress Tyra Banks undergoes on a daily basis. First thing every day she has to answer the question, "What do I wear?" Then, after fighting through that she has to answer the question, "What to have for breakfast?" Then a call from her agent - then perhaps a publicist - See what I mean? All I can say is Thank God for you Tyra - showing such heroism on a daily basis. If the Republicans had picked someone like you to run for President we could get the country moving in the right direction again. Has anyone thought abut asking her?
Everybody can't run a country.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alopecia#Causes
Not one of these causes noted is STRESS.
we don't care.
I always thought she wore wigs anyway so we never really saw her real hair to begin with. I have a friend with this and never even knew she was wearing a wig when I first met her, she has had it for years.
I would think if she's had it "for years" it no longer falls under the category of hair loss caused by stress. Perhaps it's more of a medical problem.
She wears lots of different wigs (and weaves). Many models do, to achieve drastically different looks without having to wreck their hair each time.
My mother started losing her hair when she was about my age, so I freak out when I seem to have a lot that falls out while washing it. What is awful about it is that losing the hair in the first place is an emotional stressor, which can turn into a vicious cycle.
after a point, you don't need more money. i wouldn't live such a stressful life. life is short and you should enjoy it happy as much as you can. you can die anyday. no guarantee is present for how long you will live or so called golden years of retirement.
Are you sure it wasn't the weaves and extensions that caused her hair to fall out?
I have had this happen several times in my life. Primarily when I had lost a great deal of weight over a short period of time. But there were other times when my hairdresser was the one that noticed a small patch of hair was missing. I have a thick head of hair, however, so some loss is no big deal. This is a common occurence.
Stress didn't give her Alopecia, years of wearing weaves did. Keeping the hair braided tightly in cornrows in order to sew the weave in makes the hair fall out. Same thing with Naomi Campbell. Get real.
I was stressed recently, and found strands in the shower and in my brush...it was also hair dye...but I @!$%#ing panicked.....my hair is fine now.
Boo freakin Hoo, I feel so bad for her and all her problems!!
This hair loss was NOT from the stress of writing a book. It's from years and years of chemicals to straighten hair. Additionally, weaves and wigs that did not let her scalp "breathe." But she needs to put her "spin" on it. Sorry, Tyra, but everything about you is fake. Especially the fake contacts to have green eyes. You're a phony.
Yeah, stress. Not years of chemicals, stress.
I ache for her.
Booze and drugs for sure.
Too bad, so sad
Hair weaves cause alopecia too?
Boo Hoo, Tyra, Go buy another wig and cover the ball spots
I feel very lucky, esp. when I hear stories like this. In my teens, my hair had a growth spurt in terms of length and thickness, which largely continued during my college years, b/c even during periods of stress (exams; love life, thankfully though largely smooth sailing, friendship tensions, etc.), whilst my hair would seem to fall out in larger amounts, overall the thickness and glossiness increased. This levelled off, but didn't fall, as I've gone into my 30s. I feel very lucky that -- for me at least -- it's a very obvious connection: eat right, DEFINITELY EAT PLENTY OF CARBS!!!, and all is great. It's when I do more protein in that overall balance, that's when I notice a bit of a change, and once I revert to my love of carbs, esp. cereals, breads, whole grain bagels/muffins, pizza, and the like that I immediately notice less hair loss and continued solid growth. The proteins that seem to work best for me are the heme-iron protein rich foods like beef (organic), liver, etc., and then esp. eggs, low fat cheeses etc. And fats like olive oil, fish oil (natural, no freakin' capsules), some butter... it's all good. Too many models and thin women suffer hair loss I've noticed; and one last thing: no overprocessing. My hair has to dry naturally, no tight ironing, curling, processing, nada!! Frankly, I couldn't feel happier with my looks overall and that includes nails, teeth, .. feel very fortunate when I see so many women, in particular, obsessing with their looks and so unhappy. Life is short; make the most of it with balance.
Stress?? Seriously?? Drug abuse and alcoholism is a lot more likely to cause hair loss.
This is news? You must be kidding! Find something else more interesting to report on. There are many more pressing issues in the world than Ms. Banks losing her locks!
I imagine it is of interest to any woman reader who is herself losing her hair, for whatever reason. Reading of a professional model who is herself dealing with hair loss may make them feel better about themselves. For that reason, one could argue that Tyra Banks has performed a public service in going public with a problem that most women would try and keep secret.
Yeah, there are more important issues in this world. But this one is worth a line or two. After all, one of the biggest headlines on MSNBC.COM this morning is regarding the Cardinals victory over the Rangers in the opening game of the World Series, and how important is that in the cosmic scheme of things?
Karma.
Buy a wig, multiple wigs, all styles, lengths, colors and textures and get over it. There are far more essential things in life to worry about, like losing ones job or home and not knowing where the next meal's coming from. Hair is easily replaceable these days but not so when a person loses a job or home.
I am surprised to read how callous many of the responses are to this article. Dispite her fame or fortune, she is a human being with faults like all the rest of us.
I have had a thick curly head all my life, hair like a hurricane. It has always defined my "look". After a tremendous amount of stress, economy, caring for a family member who then passed, menopause along with hormonal changes that go with this change, I began suffering Alopecia Areata, spots of hair loss. In my case, it is two large areas on one side of my head. Lucky for me, at this point my full head of hair left still covers it. I have taken extra measures to take vitamins for hair, using quality hair conditioner to midigate the loss while combing out in the shower, apple cider rinses and raw ginger to stimulate the scalp but at this point much of the stress is ongoing as well as the worry of more loss. At this point, I have not taken other measures like cortizone injections or other treatments that may or not help but looks like that will be the next step.
I have more empathy for both men and especially women that suffer from unwanted hair loss and I am daily tring to "buck up", deal with it and midigate stress. After all many have much worse problems and we all should count our blessings...especially some of the mean people.
I had thick long wavy hair the majority of my life and now suffer with hair loss also, but such is life. Nothing remains the same forever. I purchased a couple of nice wigs, wear them, and keep it movin'. With or without hair my heart remains the same.
Tyra, welcome to the world of the average person. We aren't stressing about running our multi million dollar empires like you. We're just stressing about feeding our children or putting a roof over our heads. I guess your stress is newsworthy and ours is well, all too common.
Stress isn't making a hair fall out. Years of the constant abuse to her hair . She straightens her hair. Never have ever I seen her with the typical Black women s fizzy hair. Every time you see her its different color. What do you expect with constant abuse ??
Wow...lots of anger at Tyra for being successful! You can be jealous all you want, but the fact remains that no matter how much money or success you have as a woman, you still value your appearance. For a woman, hair falling out is stressful and scary. It's not like you men where it's not only ok, but rather expected, and you can just shave what you've got left and not worry about it. We're expected to have luscious flowing locks when we roll out of bed in the morning. Especially someone like her, who's success is based on being the feminine ideal. Lighten up on the hate.
What a shallow, stupid idiot you are Michi. The anger isn't about her being "successful". . . it's about how f***ing petty her whining is, especially about something as trivial as hair loss. You've been reading too many fashion magazines and watching too much reality TV. Get your head out of your ass. Just that fact that you think people are jealous shows just how ignorant you are. Pathetic . . .
REALLY? Your comment is pathetic. Maybe Michi was totally off on her "view" of where others comments are coming but I strongly doubt that qualifies YOU to say she is a shallow, stupid idiot. Comments like yours seem shallow to me.
Oh puh-leeeeeze!!! Cry me a river Tyra. Try having some REAL problems, like the rest of us. I will trade "problems" with you any day of the week. Try being bald and bloated from chemo, or burned by radiation. Grow up!!!
And we're supposed to feel sorry for her? Give me her money and I'll shave my head completely.