Stress and Beauty

Feeling Stressed? How Your Skin, Hair And Nails Can Show It

Pending job cuts at the office. Back-to-back final exams. A messy divorce. An unexpected surgery. What do they all have in common? In a word – stress. While everyone knows that stress can take a toll on a person physically and psychologically, it also can lead to dermatologic problems, such as acne, brittle nails or even hair loss.

Stress and the Skin When a person becomes stressed, the level of the body’s stress hormone (cortisol) rises. This in turn causes an increase in oil production, which can lead to oily skin, acne and other related skin problems. Even patients with skin that is not affected by acne tend to develop temporary stress-related acne due to increased oil production.

In fact, a study in the January 2001 issue of the Archives of Dermatology entitled “Psychological Stress Perturbs Epidermal Permeability Barrier Homeostasis,” found that stress has a negative effect on the barrier function of the skin, resulting in water loss that inhibits the skin’s ability to repair itself after an injury.

Specifically, the study involving 27 medical, dental and pharmacy students examined how periods of higher stress (in this case, during final examinations) impacted the skin’s response to repeated stripping of cellophane tape on the subjects’ forearms vs. periods of lower stress (such as after returning from winter vacation). Researchers found that it took longer for the skin to recover from the minimally invasive tape stripping during periods of perceived higher stress than during less stressful periods.

This study was the first of its kind to suggest what dermatologists anecdotally have known for years – that psychological stress adversely affects the normal functions of the skin. While the subjects in this study did not have any pre-existing skin conditions, I would suspect that people with skin conditions such as eczema or psoriasis would have been even more adversely affected by this experiment.

Stressed-Out Hair

There are many reasons why men and women lose their hair, but we believe that stress may be the primary reason for unexplained hair loss. When someone is under stress, hair can go into the telogen (fall-out) phase. Telogen effluvium is a very common hair loss problem that can occur up to three months after a stressful event. After the initial hair loss, hair usually grows back in six to nine months.

Life-changing events such as childbirth or surgery also can cause hair loss. During these times, the body takes a “time-out” from growing hair to concentrate on recovery and healing. As such, hair does not grow as much and some could shed and not grow back right away.

Stress affects people differently – some may develop an ulcer, or have a heart attack, or lose their hair. Hair loss is a normal response to stress, but patients should see a dermatologist for a proper evaluation to rule out other medical causes. I also advise patients to avoid any strange diets where only one or two foods are allowed, as improper nutrition and extreme or rapid weight loss can result in hair loss.

Effects of Stress on Nails

Nails are not immune to showing outward signs of stress, and some people develop the nervous habit of biting their nails or picking at them when they feel stressed. Another stress-related nail habit that the dermatologists discussed is people who rub their fingers over their thumb nail, which can create a ridge across the nail. This rubbing causes a distortion of the nail plate, and when the nail grows, a raised ridge forms in the middle of the nail. In addition, physical or emotional stress, certain diseases, and chemotherapy can cause white horizontal lines to appear across the nails. Brittle, peeling nails also are a common side effect of stress.

Sometimes patients with nail problems are not aware that their habits or tics from being stressed out or nervous are at the root of their problem,” said by dermatologist. “There are instances where patients self-inflict skin, hair or nail problems that go beyond what we normally expect from stress, and these patients often need psychological help to modify their behavior.”