Spiritual Roots of Hair Loss in Women: Emotional and Physical Causes You Should Not Ignore

TL;DR: Hair loss usually isn’t one thing. It’s a mix of hormones and thyroid, stress load, and your body’s deeper “root system” of safety and stability. If you’re seeing more shed or a widening part, here’s how to start supporting your system from the inside out.

✅ Physical support • ✅ Emotional steadiness • ✅ Spiritual grounding

Lots of requests for hair loss help lately. I’m going through it too. My issue is pretty easy.

Count back 3 months, extreme stress? 

Yes. 

Resolved now? 

Yes. 

No worries, it’ll start coming back. 

I literally don’t have to do anything.

Hair loss can be quite complicated though, and as much as you all see us as magic potion dispensers, you have to have the right thing for the job, not just a generic “this grows hair back” remedy. 

 Hair reflects many layers of your life at once: hormones, stress, thyroid, nutrition, immune system, and also your emotions, sense of safety, and the stories you’ve lived through.

In other words, your hair can act like a dashboard light for what is happening deeper inside.

This article is an invitation to explore both the physical and the emotional / spiritual roots of hair loss, so you can approach it with curiosity instead of panic and begin to piece together your unique picture.

A quick primer: how hair growth actually works

 You don’t need a medical degree, but a tiny bit of science helps things make sense.

Each hair on your head cycles through 3 main phases:

• Growth phase (anagen) – Hair is actively growing from the follicle.
• Resting phase (telogen) – Hair takes a break, still attached, not growing.
• Shedding phase – Old hair falls out so a new one can grow.

At any given time, most of your hair is in the growth phase. But when something shocks or depletes the system, more hairs than usual can jump into the resting/shedding phases at the same time. A few months later, you notice “sudden” shedding.

That is the basic pattern behind a lot of stress-related and post-illness hair loss. It’s not random. It’s your body reorganizing resources and asking for support.

The physical side: common contributors to hair loss in women

Let’s start with the obvious suspects. These are not the only possibilities, but they are some of the most common, especially from your 20s onward.

1. Hormones in flux

Hormones are one of the biggest levers in hair changes.

Some key scenarios for women:

• Perimenopause and menopause
  As estrogen and progesterone shift, hair can become thinner, drier, or shed more easily. At the same time, androgens (male-type hormones like testosterone and its cousin DHT) may have more influence on the follicles. In some women this shows up as:
  • Diffuse thinning over the crown.
  • Widening part.
  • More hair in the brush, less on the head.

Have you seen our Menoblend? If you’re in the Vital Essence Association, see the bottom for extra stackable suggestions. 

• Postpartum and big hormonal transitions
  During pregnancy, high estrogen often keeps hair in the growth phase. After birth, estrogen drops and a lot of those hairs move into shedding all at once. Similar patterns can show up after:
  • Coming off the pill or other hormones
  • Major weight loss
  • Big life transitions that stress the endocrine system

• Thyroid and metabolism
  Both underactive and overactive thyroid can contribute to diffuse thinning, dryness, and slow regrowth. Thyroid is tightly connected to your overall metabolism. When the body is trying to conserve energy, hair is considered “non-essential” and often the first thing to be sacrificed.

• Insulin resistance / androgen excess (PCOS patterns)
  When blood sugar and insulin sit in the “wobbly” range long term, it can tilt hormones toward higher androgens. That can look like:
  • Thinning along the hairline or crown
  • Acne, especially along jawline
  • Increased facial/body hair in some women

All of these are physical processes, but they rarely happen in a vacuum. They are often intertwined with stress, sleep, nutrition, and long-term life patterns.

2. Stress and post-viral fallout

One of the classic patterns you’ll see is:

“I had a huge stressful event / illness a couple of months ago… and now the hair is coming out.”

This is often telogen effluvium, where a stressor pushes a large number of hairs into the resting phase. A few months later, they all shed.

Common triggers:

• High emotional stress over time (Stress Less)
• Grief, shock, or trauma (Aftershock)
• Surgery or hospitalization (Recovery)
• High fevers or serious infections (Recovery)
• Post-viral periods, including after COVID (Recovery)

From the body’s perspective, it had to survive something big. Hair growth got temporarily deprioritized. The shedding you see is often the tail end of that story, not the beginning of a new catastrophe.

The encouraging part: telogen effluvium is usually temporary once the stressor resolves and the body feels safe again.

3. Nutrients, digestion, and blood

Hair is made of protein and depends on steady blood supply and micronutrients. When major nutrients are missing or not absorbed well, the hair follicles feel it.

Some common players:

• Iron / ferritin – Low iron stores are a big one for female hair thinning. You can have “normal” hemoglobin and still have ferritin too low for optimal hair.
• Protein – Chronic under-eating or low protein intake can leave hair underfed.
• Zinc, B vitamins, essential fatty acids – All matter for healthy follicles and scalp.

On top of what you eat, how you digest matters. Long-term gut issues, low stomach acid, or chronic inflammation can mean your body simply is not receiving what you are taking in. Right now we have a few Pumpkin Spice Digestive essences left.

4. Autoimmune and inflammatory conditions

Sometimes the immune system itself turns on hair follicles.

• Alopecia areata – Patchy bald spots that can appear suddenly, often round or oval. This is autoimmune in nature and may be triggered by major stress or shock in someone who is already predisposed.
• Autoimmune thyroid, lupus, and others – Can include hair changes as part of the broader picture.
• Scalp issues – Fungal infections, significant dermatitis, or psoriasis can lead to localized thinning.

These situations absolutely need qualified medical support, but even here the emotional and energetic layers are often deeply involved

The emotional layer: when hair loss hits your sense of self

Now we shift into territory your community already understands on a gut level.

Hair is not just keratin. It is:

• Identity
• Beauty, femininity, sensuality
• Youth and vitality
• How you “show up” in the world

So when hair begins to thin, there is often a very real emotional response:

• “I don’t recognize myself in the mirror.”
• “I feel older than I am.”
• “People must be judging me.”
• “What else is falling apart that I can’t see yet?”

This emotional hit can create its own second layer of stress on the body, which may feed back into the physical mechanisms that started the shedding in the first place. Pretty Face and/or Elder flower essence is what we would recommend here. 

Some emotional themes that often show up around hair:

1. Control and safety

For many women, hair loss lights up deeper questions like:

• Where in my life do I feel completely out of control?
• Where am I trying to hold everything together by sheer force of will?
• Where do I feel deeply unsafe, even if on the surface everything looks fine?

Some mind–body teachers have linked baldness and severe thinning with chronic fear and a deep need to control life because it does not feel trustworthy. Whether you take that literally or symbolically, there is a recognizable pattern in women who have lived “white-knuckled” for years. The body eventually starts waving a flag. I’d recommend the emotion-focused custom combo to get back on track with some basic safety and anti-stress let-go stuff.

2. Identity, visibility, and worth

Hair is a huge part of how we present ourselves. Losing it can surface old stories about worth and visibility:

• “If I don’t look a certain way, I’m less lovable / less professional / less feminine.”
• “People only listen to me when I look put together.”
• “If I start visibly aging, I become invisible.”

Sometimes hair loss arrives at the same time as other identity shifts:
kids leaving home, career transitions, divorce, caregiving for parents, spiritual upheavals. It is not hard to see how the body might be processing “Who am I now?” through the hair. It’s frequently joke fodder because even if hair doesn’t fall out around transitions, people still modify it in some way. “I don’t care what you’re going through, don’t cut yourself some bangs.”

3. Shock, grief, and unprocessed experiences

Acute shedding or patchy alopecia often follows a period of intense shock or grief. Even if you “kept going” on the outside, your nervous system may still be processing.

Questions to explore:

• What big losses or shocks happened in the year before my hair changed?
• Where did I have to be strong for everyone else, and never really fell apart myself?
• Is my body expressing on the outside what I never got to express emotionally?

Aftershock and Crisis Care are a couple of good options, but so is an emotion-focused custom combo. 

The spiritual and energetic view: hair as antenna, roots, and signal

For those who work in energy, prayer, or somatic practices, hair often carries even more meaning.

Hair and Your Internal “Root System”

If you think of your life like a tree, your hair sits way out on the branches, but it’s deeply affected by what’s happening down in the roots.

That “root system” shows up in things like:

• Feeling safe in your own body
• Having a sense of stability and belonging
• Knowing your basic needs are cared for
• Being able to trust life, and trust God, even when things are shifting

When those foundations are shaky, the nervous system tends to live in constant “watch out” mode. Physically, that can look like:

• An overactive stress response
• Tense muscles, including a tight scalp
• Hormonal swings and adrenal strain

From an energetic and spiritual perspective, some practitioners see chronic hair loss as a sign that the foundations of life need tending: home, finances, safety, belonging, and covenant relationships with people and with God.

 Strengthening that sense of grounded safety is not just “woo.” As stress levels come down and you feel more rooted and supported, it can have very real downstream effects on hormones, sleep, and, over time, the way your hair grows and regenerates.

Hair as strength and protection

Across many traditions, hair is associated with strength and spiritual covering.

• Think of Samson’s story and his hair as a symbol of God-given strength.
• Monks shaving their heads as a sign of surrender and humility.
• Cultures that treat hair as sacred and do not cut it during certain seasons.

Some mind–body authors describe hair as a kind of energetic antenna and shield. In that language, thinning hair could reflect a season of:

• Feeling spiritually exposed or unprotected.
• Being “worn down” by long battles.
• Allowing old identities to be stripped away so something truer can grow.

Again, you do not have to agree with every framework. But for many women, it is validating to hear that what is happening on their head may be part of a larger spiritual story.

The metaphor of letting go

Hair naturally sheds to make room for new growth. Sometimes hair loss coincides with a deep internal call to:

• Release old roles and expectations.
• Stop carrying everyone else’s burdens.
• Lay down the version of yourself that survived past seasons… so a different version can emerge.

When hair regrows after a hard period, many women say it feels like “new hair for a new life.” Even the awkward baby hairs along the hairline can become a reminder that regeneration is possible.

What different hair loss patterns may be pointing toward

The pattern of loss is not diagnostic, but it can give clues about where to look, both physically and emotionally.

Use this more as a reflective map than as a rigid rulebook.

1. Diffuse thinning all over (telogen effluvium vibe)

Physical themes:

• After a big stressor, illness, surgery, high fever, crash diet, or major hormonal shift (postpartum, severe life stress).
• Hairs fall from all over the scalp. Ponytail gets slimmer, but no crisp bald patches.

Reflection prompts:

• What happened in the 3–6 months before I noticed this?
• Where has my system been in pure survival mode?
• What would it look like to rebuild slowly instead of pushing through?

Here the body often needs time, nourishment, and nervous system soothing, because this pattern is the “aftershock” of something you already lived through.

2. Thinning on the crown or widening part

Physical themes:

• Classic pattern with shifting midlife hormones.
• Can be influenced by genetics and androgen sensitivity.
• Sometimes connected to blood / nutrient supply to the top of the scalp.

Reflection prompts:

• Crown is often symbolically linked with authority and connection to God.
• Where have I felt “de-crowned” in my life, work, or relationships?
• Have I been carrying responsibility without support for a long time?

You might frame this as a conversation between your crown (how you carry authority) and your root (how safe and supported you feel doing that).

3. Receding hairline or temples

This shows up more in men, but women can see it too, especially with androgen shifts.

Physical themes:

• Androgenic influence / genetics.
• Long-term tension in forehead and scalp.
• Hairstyling that pulls on the front hairline.

Reflection prompts:

• Temples sit at the intersection of thinking, planning, and forward movement.
• Where am I anxious about the future, or constantly “bracing” for what’s next?
• Do I live mostly in my head… and rarely in my body?

There can be an invitation here to stop living from the eyebrows up and bring awareness down into the body and heart.

4. Round bald patches (alopecia areata)

Physical themes:

• Autoimmune process focused on hair follicles.
• Often triggered by acute stress, shock, or immune disruption in someone predisposed.

Reflection prompts:

• Where am I turning against myself internally, in my thoughts or expectations?
• Did these patches show up after a specific emotional event?
• Where do I feel unprotected, unsupported, or blindsided?

For some, working gently with self-compassion, boundaries, and deep nervous system repair can be as important as anything happening topically.

5. Hair pulling, picking, or twisting (trichotillomania patterns)

Physical themes:

• Hair loss driven not by the follicle itself, but by compulsion to pull.
• Often affects scalp, lashes, or brows in uneven patches.

Reflection prompts:

• What feeling am I trying to discharge or control when my hand goes to my hair?
• Where do I feel powerless… and this gives me a tiny, secret sense of control?
• If my hair could speak, what would it say about what I’m trying to cope with?

Here, supportive counseling and trauma-aware care can be powerful. This pattern is loud and clear: “I am overwhelmed, and I need safer ways to soothe.” We’ve done well in the past with emotion-focused custom combos.

6. Breakage and thinning from styling or scalp irritation

Physical themes:

• Tight ponytails, braids, extensions, harsh chemicals, frequent heat styling.
• Chronic dandruff, fungal issues, or inflamed scalp.

Reflection prompts:

• Where am I “pulling myself together” so tightly that there’s no room to breathe?
• Do I treat my hair the way I treat myself… demanding performance instead of offering care?
• What would it look like to loosen, soften, and allow more gentleness?

Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is stop yanking on your hair and let it rest.

Beginning your own root-cause exploration

Because hair loss is multi-factor, the most honest approach is:

“Let’s get curious on several levels at once.”

A few ideas to get started:

 1. Create a timeline

On paper, map:

• Major physical events in the last 1–2 years
  Illnesses, surgeries, COVID, medications, rapid weight changes, big hormonal milestones.
• Major emotional / spiritual events
  Losses, moves, relational ruptures, caregiver seasons, burnout, spiritual crises.
• What points in this email felt true for you? 

See where the hair changes land on this map. Often a pattern emerges you couldn’t see when it was all just “life happening.”

2. Check the obvious physicals

With a trusted provider, you may want to explore things like:

• Thyroid function
• Iron / ferritin
• B12, vitamin D, possibly zinc
• Blood sugar / insulin patterns
• Any medications that list hair changes as a known side effect

Not as a fishing expedition, but as basic due diligence, especially if you have other symptoms (fatigue, cold intolerance, cycle changes, etc.).

3. Ask the quieter questions

Alongside labs and scalp photos, give space to the subtler roots.

Journal prompts:

• How safe do I feel, really, in my day-to-day life?
• Where am I constantly bracing, hustling, or waiting for the other shoe to drop?
• What part of my identity feels under renovation right now?
• If my hair loss was a messenger instead of a punishment, what might it be saying?

Sometimes the very act of asking shifts something in the nervous system from “emergency” to “listening.”  

4. Consider getting some essence help

You can decide whether to do an Emotion-Focused Custom Combo or a Physically-Focused one, take your notes to the practitioner and give them your preliminary of what you believe is contributing to hair loss. They’ll make you a bottle that will be more customized, and perhaps cheaper than you cobbling essences together on your own. 

Ways to support your system while you investigate

You can begin supporting your body and soul right away, even before you have all the answers.

Some gentle pillars, which you can adapt to your own protocols and products:

Nervous system care

• Simple, regular practices that tell your body “we are safe enough right now”:
  slow breathing, walking outside, time in nature, prayer, grounding, creative play. Stress Less flower essence, or some of the things in the Secret Stash are other options. 
• Reducing the background noise of constant stress will benefit your hormones, digestion, and hair, regardless of the specific diagnosis.

Respectful nourishment

• Make sure you are actually eating enough, and especially enough protein, throughout the day.
• Hydration, minerals, and healthy fats support both the hair and the nervous system.
• If you suspect deficiencies, work with someone who can test and guide, rather than guessing wildly with handfuls of supplements.

Hormone and thyroid awareness

• Notice cycle changes, sleep patterns, hot flashes, mood swings. These are all data points.
• Midlife hormone shifts are a transition that often asks for updated support physically and emotionally.

Scalp and hair care with intention

• Gentle scalp massage, oiling, or brushing can boost blood flow and also serve as a daily self-connection ritual.
• You can combine topical care with prayer, affirmation, or whatever language fits your faith, for example:
  “I bless my body and my hair. I’m listening. I’m willing to support you and walk this out with you.”

These small, consistent acts can change the tone of the relationship between you and your body from adversarial to cooperative.

A closing word of hope

If you’re reading this because you are losing hair, you might already be in that mix of fear, grief, and frustration. That is valid. None of this is “just vanity.” Your hair is woven into how you’ve shown up in the world for a long time.

 At the same time, it is worth remembering:

• Your body is not your enemy.
• Hair follicles are living, responsive tissue. Many forms of hair loss are at least partially reversible or improvable when the underlying stressors are addressed.
• Even in situations that do not fully reverse, women often come into a deeper, hard-won relationship with their own beauty, power, and spiritual covering that has nothing to do with hair density.

Hair loss can be a doorway into a more honest relationship with your body, your story, and your Source.

As you tend both the roots under your scalp and the roots of your life, you create the best possible conditions for regeneration, in whatever form that looks like for you.

 Your hair is part of your story, but it is not the whole story. You are still here, still worthy, still radiant, in every phase.