Stress less with Spring around the corner! This Stress Awareness Month gives your hair and you the mental health boost you deserve. Stress can be troublesome for your beautiful locks, but here are some ways to chill out, help your hair, and give yourself a break. 

How stress affects your hair

Chronic stress can take a significant toll on your health, but you don't have to have chronic stress to begin to see physical changes from stress. Stress hormones are released whenever you're under stress. It doesn't have to be a traumatic incident that causes constant stress, even something as wonderful as planning your wedding can leave your strands stressed out. 

While stress and cortisol, the stress hormone, can be hard on your body in many ways, let's take a look at how it affects your hair.

♦ Hair loss. This is the most extreme result of cortisol interrupting the hair growth cycle. This causes funneling nutrition to other, more essential, parts of your fight or flight responses.

♦ Hair breakage. A slightly less dramatic issue than hair loss, but improper nutrition due to stress and cortisol can cause your hair to break.

♦ Dehydration. Stress is known to dehydrate skin and hair. Add to that the fact that you might not be paying attention to your body’s hydration needs, and your hair and scalp will show the results. 

♦ Nutritional deficits. Even if you’re eating correctly, stress can zap the nutrition that would normally fuel healthy skin, hair, and nails and use it elsewhere. But let’s face it, you’re not always eating right when you’re stressed. 

Ways to support hair health

If you want to put a little focus on hair health when you’re feeling stressed, the following tips will help you do just that.

♦ Hydration. Load up on fluids when you’re feeling stressed out. Even not drinking enough creates stress for your body. Make sure you’re consuming liquids all day long.

♦ Use HLV Serum. Hair La Vie Serum fuels your hair and scalp with healthy ingredients designed to fight frizz while boosting moisture. It's a perfect balance, and it's a great styling tool, too.

♦ Nutrition. Eating right is essential when you’re battling stress and when you want great hair. It should be a priority of yours every single day. That said, we know it can be hard to get all the nutrition you and your hair need for optimal health. That’s why we created Clinical Formula Hair Vitamins. While our focus is obviously on hair health, that’s not all these vitamins are good for. They support complete body health and can fill in some gaps in your nutritional intake for all-over health and beauty.

♦ Practice de-stressing techniques. Learn how to recognize your individual stress responses, and then develop some coping and relaxation skills that help you overcome stress before it gets overwhelming.

Ways to de-stress

So, what are those de-stressing techniques? Whether a spring break is in the cards or not, you deserve a little break and some stress relief in your life. These tips will get you feeling a bit better overall. It’s important to help your hair, but it’s even more important to nurture your soul.

♦ Change your environment. Some places (like our desks) are associated with stress. We sit there, and we feel stress. Getting up and moving to another place can be all you need.  

♦ Exercise. If you’re feeling stressed to the max, put down what you’re doing and go for a walk. It could just be a quick 10-minute break, but it can help you put things in perspective. Also, circulating blood in your body circulates nutrition, very important.

♦ Meditation and gratitude. Spending just a few conscious minutes relaxing, deep breathing, and being grateful for the good in your life can help fade the stress.

♦ Let it out. Scream therapy is one route you can take to relieve stress, but you don’t have to be so “vocal.” Just talking about what is giving you stress can help you feel better about it. Whether you’re chatting with another person or maybe listing your stresses out loud to yourself, there is definitely a benefit to be found.

♦ Treat yourself. No, you shouldn’t dive into a dozen donuts or sit down with a tub of ice cream. Remember, nutrition is still important. But how do you like to treat yourself that doesn’t involve food? Is it taking a bath and giving your hair a nice oil treatment? Or do you like to dance or draw or garden? Whatever it is that you see as a treat, nourish that part of yourself. 

Final thoughts

This is stress awareness month, and it’s the perfect time to take stock of the stress in your life. Being aware of what stresses you out is the first step in learning how to cope with it or how to remove it from your life. Stress can be incredibly damaging to your entire being, not just your hair.

If you’re looking to remove stress from your hair’s health, focusing on adding hydration and nutrition are some of the best steps you can take. Changing your diet is a big step in the right direction, but it’s often not enough. Adding vitamins and a nourishing hair serum gives you a head start on hair health. Clinical Formula Hair Vitamins are a blend of vitamins, nutrients, and antioxidants that support healthier hair through whole-body wellness. So, you won’t only be promoting beautiful hair, but you’ll start feeling it, too. And adding Hair La Vie Serum to your morning routine is the perfect way to style and hydrate your hair without the toxins that can weigh hair down.

To really combat stress, it's not enough to look at one part of your body; you need to consider the whole. We’ve suggested some techniques that can help you manage stress, and you should definitely try them. But, better yet, finding techniques that work best for you and speak to you can be your secret weapon against stress.