Can COVID-19 Make You Go Bald?
The disease known as the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, has changed a lot about the way we live our lives. We have added terms like “social distancing” to the words we use, and the effects on our national economies are still undetermined.
If you’re wondering whether this pandemic will have an effect on your hair, you’re right to be concerned. Although none of these negative changes are guaranteed, you might find yourself dealing with an increase in hair loss from the pandemic in two notable ways, and one of those ways doesn’t require you to contract the virus at all!
Can Stress Cause Hair Loss?
We don’t need a pandemic to feel stressed out and overwhelmed by the demands of our lives, but it certainly doesn’t help. Though hair falling out and then growing back is a part of the regular cycle of healthy hair, times of stress can both increase the amount of hair lost and can make the loss happen earlier in the cycle. Hair loss due to stress is usually delayed by about three to five months, so if you notice that more of your hair is falling out over the summer, this might be why.
Possible Hair Loss from COVID-19 Infection
There is no evidence that the novel coronavirus causes hair loss to accelerate, but some scientists have made the startling discovery that hair loss might be a predictor of the severity of a COVID-19 infection.
A group of scientists, In a letter to the editor in the journal Dermatologic Therapy, representing researchers from Brown University, New York University, Spain, India, and Italy, have identified the possible role of the hormone commonly associated with male characteristics in determining whether a patient is likely to develop more severe COVID-19 symptoms.
The mechanism is believed to work like this: higher levels of the hormones called androgens, which are known to cause male pattern baldness, and even hair loss in women, also appear to be a key factor in the severity of a COVID-19 infection. The higher the patient’s androgen levels, the more susceptible they appear to be to these complications.
While the scientists responsible for this research are confident in their results, they agree that more study needs to be done to confirm their findings.
As always, a Starks representative is happy to guide you through the process to grow back hair that you have lost, no matter what might have caused it.
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