The Stress of Divorce, Writ on Women's Heads

In men, baldness is due mostly to an unlucky roll of the genetic dice. But in women, hair loss appears to be linked much more strongly to lifestyle factors like stress — from divorce or the death of a spouse, for example — according to preliminary findings from two studies.



For the studies, Dr. Bahman Guyuron, a plastic surgeon at Case Western Reserve University, and his colleagues looked at 66 male and 84 female identical twin pairs.

Since twins are genetically identical — and programmed to have identical hairlines — the researchers knew that any differences could be attributed to environmental factors.

"What is amazing is how many of these twins have exactly the same behaviors, the same things matching except one or two factors that possibly may contribute to these differences," Guyuron told WebMD.

Indeed, the researchers found that in women, the strongest predictor of hair loss was marital status. Women who had lost a spouse were more likely to have barer pates than their sisters with stable marriages. The data also suggested that smoking, a history of skin conditions and diabetes were also linked with greater hair loss.

Other contributing factors: excessive sleeping patterns and other lifestyle factors that are often associated with high stress, like having a lot of kids, having a lot of money and high blood pressure.  Read More

Posted in: Health