8 Things Your Hair Says About Your Health

By Melanie Haiken, Caring.com senior editor

When it comes to our hair, most of us worry most about what to do with it: how short to cut it, how to style it, whether to color it once it begins to go gray. But experts say that our hair says a lot more about us than how closely we follow the latest styles. In fact, the health of our hair and scalp can be a major tip-off to a wide variety of health conditions.

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“We used to think hair was just dead protein, but now we understand that a whole host of internal conditions affect the health of our hair,” says dermatologist Victoria Barbosa, MD, who runs Millennium Park Dermatology in Chicago. “Our hair responds to stress, both the physical stressors of disease and underlying health issues, and psychological stress.” Here, eight red flags that tell you it’s time to pay more attention to the health of your hair — and to your overall health in general.

8 Things Your Hair Says About Your Health originally appeared on Caring.com.

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Angel C.

5:30AM PST on Feb 13, 2012

Interesting, thanks.

send a green star

Irma P.

11:47PM PST on Dec 2, 2011

Our hair is our crowning glory, but it can either give us confidence or otherwise depending on its health condition.

Holly L.

8:39AM PST on Nov 15, 2011

I have so much hair that I molt --! Thanks much for this article!

Chris J.

6:44AM PDT on Oct 27, 2011

my hair clogs up the vaccume cleaner, but I have tons of curly hair. Giving up sugar seems to have helped .

Tina H.

4:19PM PDT on Oct 25, 2011

I was under a lot of stress there for a while and my hair was starting to fall out, it was awful, but now it's doing better, less stress and I am back on a good multi vitamin, and my vitamin D. Great article