In March 2021, a team of researchers from the Harvard Stem Cell
Institute published a discovery in the journal Nature that has
changed our understanding of stress-related hair loss.
Chronic stress doesn't just exhaust you mentally.
It biologically blocks your hair from regrowing.
The mechanism discovered by Harvard:
When you experience prolonged stress, your adrenal glands
produce excess cortisol. This cortisol prevents dermal papilla
cells from secreting a molecule called GAS6 — the molecule that
normally activates your follicular stem cells and triggers regrowth.
Without GAS6 → your follicles remain in the resting phase.
In the resting phase → hair falls out.
And nothing regrows.
The good news discovered by Harvard: this process
is reversible. When the researchers removed the source
of cortisol in mice, the stem cells immediately
began to regenerate hair.
This is exactly why the Velvara Hair Ritual
combines mechanical massage and LED therapy every evening:
to directly stimulate these follicles to awaken them
from their dormancy — despite the stresses of daily life.
You can't always control your cortisol.
But you can control your 10 minutes in the evening.
No magic. Just biology.
📚 Source: Choi S. et al., Harvard Stem Cell Institute
Nature, March 2021
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33790465