Hair problems occur not only in adults, but also in children. Sometimes even proper care and taking vitamins does not help to stop excessive hair loss, hair section, and even medical cosmetics do not always allow you to cope with dandruff or seborrheic plaques on the scalp. The fact is that many hair problems are closely related to the mental and emotional state of a person, regardless of his age and gender.
It is about the psychosomatic causes of hair health disorders that we will talk about in this article.
Norms and deviations
Hair is the outermost protective layer of the epidermis. They cover our entire body, just the thickest hair is present on the scalp. Regardless of its location, each hair grows root into the epidermis, and as long as the hair follicle is alive, the hair itself is alive. From time to time, the hair is renewed, reaching its extreme point of growth.
Hair loss in medicine is considered to be massive hair loss. Up to 60-100 hairs per day is a physiological norm, exceeding it is called alopecia. With hair loss, the body often signals other diseases - for example, with syphilis or radiation sickness, alopecia areata almost always develops.
Hair is very sensitive to hormonal levels, to a sufficient level of calcium and vitamins entering the body with food, as well as to the psychological state of a person, and evidence-based medicine in this matter fully agrees with psychosomatic medicine - very often hair problems (hair loss, dandruff, seborrhea) begin exactly when a person is going through difficult times associated with severe stress.
Psychosomatic causes
Psychosomatics assesses not only the combination of metabolic and hormonal processes with human physiology, it clearly traces the psychological and mental factors that can lead to baldness or a violation of the condition of hair in any part of the body.
Hair in psychosomatic medicine symbolizes protection, strength, connection with spirituality... That is why the hair of the main characters of fairy tales and myths was often attributed to almost magical properties. From the point of view of evolutionary processes, modern man has absolutely no need for hair - it no longer protects us from the cold and the sun, this is done by clothes and hats. But hair in the course of evolution did not fall out completely, which means that they are needed.
Psychosomatics considers them as a person's connection with his own spiritual component, with a sense of security and self-confidence... That is why not only women, but also men experience pronounced inconveniences of a psychological nature, suddenly finding themselves bald (for example, due to total alopecia).
Hair are sensors that react to an approaching dangerous situation, which is why the phrase is widespread among the people that fear is "hair on end." Hair loss increases anxiety, anxiety.
Psychoanalysts have been able to derive several psychological portraits of adults who are more susceptible to hair problems than others. First of all, it is people who have experienced severe and prolonged stress on the verge of psycho-shock... Such situations can be the loss of a loved one, the loss of one's own ability to work due to disability.
Also included here people who for a long time in a certain life situation were in a state of helplessness and extreme despair... A person can respond to severe stress with both excessive arousal and stupor.
In all these cases, regardless of the exact type of reaction to shock events, the person experienced the strongest shock.... In this condition, the conduction of nerve impulses is disturbed and the nervous system begins to work in the "wartime" mode: the blood supply to the main organs increases (the heart beats more often, the blood rushes to the head), and the skin, nails, hair begin to be supplied with blood, respectively, in a smaller volume ... It is this hair loss mechanism that is considered as the main one.
Another psychotype of people with hair problems - disappointed, experiencing the collapse of hopes and plans due to certain events that deprived them of hope and faith... This psychotype is most clearly manifested in the example of people who believed in one religion or another for a long time, and then suddenly became disillusioned with their God, with their faith. Almost all post-stress conditions are accompanied by hair loss. Therefore, some researchers can find a reason that is described as a violation of the connection with the divine, spiritual principle.
Third psychotype - people who cannot or do not want to be who they really are... They deny some part of themselves, more often they do not like their appearance. They do not believe and do not trust others, do not have religious convictions. Hair falls out as a sign of a lack of "fulcrum".
Fourth type of people - those who want to establish total control over everything that happens around... It is for this reason that senior managers often do so badly with their own hair (remember how many bald or balding bosses and directors you have seen in your life!).
In children and adolescents
Almost all hair problems in children develop due to fear. In childhood, belief in monsters that come at night can also be a reason for fear, but more often the problem is of a very real nature - there is violence in the child's family, threats... Even if the violence is directed not at the child, but at his mother or grandmother, who are being bullied, beaten, persecuted, the child lives in constant fear. Such children often have not only sick, thin and split ends, but also ingrown hairs, which cause quite independent inflammation, sometimes purulent.
The stronger the fear, the more likely it is that the hair will begin to "grease" too much - the sebaceous glands are activated to protect the body in a state of danger. Against the background of their excessive function, seborrhea may develop.
The child's fear may be associated with someone or something that scares him not only at home, but also in kindergarten, school. In adolescents, increased greasy hair is not only a consequence of pubertal hormonal changes, but also a sign of self-doubt, a mechanism of protection from the outside worldwho may not accept, support or share the heightened feelings of a boy or girl.
Fears in impressionable children can cause threats from their elders to "call Babayka", "send them to an orphanage" (and this is what parents say in their hearts to their disobedient children!).
Causes of structural disturbances and hairiness
Gray hair and excess hair in evidence-based medicine are often associated with heredity. This cannot be denied, but there are cases when very young people turn gray, while their parents are not gray at all.
Loss of pigment in hair is often attributed to metabolic traits, hormonal changes. In adults and young adults, early gray hair is usually associated with prolonged stress associated with fear... So, men and women who have debts that cannot be paid off earlier turn gray, before the coloring pigment in their hair is deprived of people who work under the command of a despotic boss or live with a home tyrant.
Increased hairiness can develop in people not only when the hormonal background is male-type (androgenic), but also in those who feel so insecure that they do not want to communicate with the outside world at all. With an abundance of hair, a person seems to be “hiding”, disguising himself, trying to “scare away” others.
Dry hair
Brittle hair is an unpleasant picture, while it is quite common among both children and adults. Most often, fragility is attributed to a lack of calcium, unbalanced nutrition, overdrying of hair (with a hairdryer, sunlight). In fact, even with proper nutrition and care, fragility of the hairline sometimes develops, when the hair does not fall out entirely, but only part of it falls off.
The psychosomatic tables of diseases compiled by renowned researchers such as Liz Burbo, Louise Hay, say that brittle hair is a signal that a person has lost touch with the spiritual and focused on the material.
The psychoanalytic point of view is somewhat different: a person is too suspicious and dramatizes the "villainy" of the people around him, and therefore his body at a subconscious level begins to "disarm", get rid of excess calcium.
Please note that along with brittle hair to one degree or another, the patient also has brittle nails.
How to be treated?
First you need to visit a doctor who is called a trichologist. This is a hair specialist. He will help establish an accurate diagnosis and indicate the magnitude of the problem. Then it is recommended to follow its instructions, medicine today has various methods of treating hair roots.
Along with traditional treatment, psychotherapy sessions will not be superfluous, because without getting rid of the same fear, it will definitely not work to solve the problem with hair only with the help of shampoo or medical masks. The problem will come back every time a person is in a stressful situation.
Psychosomatic recommendations are quite extensive and depend on the cause.
If a person is too domineering, he should trust others more and give up total control. After the experience of grief and severe shock, adults and children need a consultation with a clinical psychologist, because the way out can be different. For children who are afraid of everything, individual and play lessons with a child psychologist are provided.
