Hair is an Extension of the Nervous System

Exploring the ancient wisdom and science behind a component of our body's somatosensory system.

Have you ever wondered why people going through a major life change or trauma have a tendency to cut off their hair?

Chopping it off after a breakup, a job loss, or a period of grief?

Cutting bangs during a high stress situation - when cutting your own hair is the last thing you should be doing?

Our hair is both a reflection of our internal health, as well as an antenna for our external environment.

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It’s somewhat common knowledge (at least, among those who are well versed in health topics) that hair is a reflection of physical health. The quality of our hair is a reflection of our internal state - our hydration, our vitamin and mineral status, our current hormonal makeup. Many people, especially women, lose hair after a virus, after having a baby, and from other factors that increase and prolong stress. Even hair color is an indication of our physical health - copper deficiency (among other factors) can result in prematurely graying hair. 

While you may know that hair is a reflection of physical health, what you may not know is that hair is also an extension of the nervous system - a sensory input, gathering information and stimuli from the environment and bringing that information into our bodies like a fiber optic cable. The hair on our head - and all over our bodies - directly communicates information to our brains, through the connection between hair follicles and nerve endings.

This is evidenced by recent research into the “brain-skin connection.” Hair follicles have been found to not only bring in information, but in response to that information, they actually produce neurohormones, neurotrophins and neuropeptides, and operate as “miniorgans” that regulate not only their own growth and pigmentation, but also function in the regulation of mitochondrial energy and immune status.

How can hair - a part of our body that is often thought of as an output and isn’t even technically alive - do all of this?

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A little primer on the nervous system: the nervous system is the electrical and chemical command center of the body, constantly sending messages to support functions throughout the body. The human nervous system is comprised of the brain, the spine, and a complex network of nerves that permeate your entire body, including every organ.

The nervous system has two main parts, and several further delineations:

1. Central Nervous System - the brain and the spine

2. Peripheral Nervous System - all the nerves that branch out from the brain and spine

   1. Autonomic Nervous System - unconsciously regulates systems in the body including heart rate, respiratory rate, and digestion

      1. Parasympathetic Nervous System - operates when the body is at rest

      2. Sympathetic Nervous System - tells the body when to switch into fight or flight

   2. Somatic Nervous System - the conscious response to external stimuli

While historically the autonomic nervous system has been understood to be divided into two systems, Polyvagal Theory divides it into three systems:

1. Ventral Vagal - the social engagement system responsible for social bonding; feelings of harmonious connection with others and environment; feeling safe in body; joy, peace, mindful, open and curious to present moment

2. Sympathetic - the mobilization system responsible for fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses to danger; emotions of rage, anger, irritation, frustration,

   fear, terror, panic, restless, anxious and worried

3. Dorsal Vagal - the immobilization system responsible for fainting, freeze, shutdown, dissociation, surrendering into death, energy conserved for

   vital organs

There are both sensory and autonomic nerves found in every hair follicle, plugging every strand of hair directly into your nervous system.

Simply put, your hair brings information into your body that helps tell it when the environment is dangerous and it’s time to switch into fight or flight, or freeze or fawn.

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This phenomenon has long been recognized by cultures around the world, from indigenous Americans to the yogis of India, and is even documented in the Bible.

Traditional yogis often grow their hair long - as do those practicing many faiths. It is believed that long hair is an antenna connecting to the crown chakra and the pineal gland. In Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda writes, “The spinal cord is like an upturned tree, with man’s hair as its roots, and afferent and efferent nerves as branches.”

The Biblical account of Samson, who lost his legendary strength when Delilah betrayed him and cut off his hair, seems to echo this universal truth as well. 

“Finally, Samson shared his secret with her. “My hair has never been cut,” he confessed, “for I was dedicated to God as a Nazirite from birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as anyone else.””

Judges‬ ‭16‬:‭17‬ ‭

While the American medical system has only recently taken an interest in studying the “brain-skin connection,” the U.S. military actually studied this over 50 years ago.

During the Vietnam War, the U.S. military recruited Native Americans for their impressive tracking abilities, developed and refined in their culture over several centuries. However, once enlisted and given the standard-issue buzz cut, the native trackers no longer had tracking skills exceeding those of the non-native recruits. 

The indigenous recruits claimed the buzz cut had stripped them of their abilities.

The Army decided to do an experiment to determine if Native Americans were right about hair providing a sixth sense. They recruited two native soldiers for the experiment and gave one a buzz cut, and let the other keep his hair long. They sent them out overnight in a training facility on a military base to see how long it would take their peer recruits to track them. 

The soldier with the buzz cut was captured quickly and waited back at the camp. 

The soldier with long hair evaded capture all night. He even went to sleep - twice! - and still was able to sense when the “enemy” soldiers were nearby and wake up in time to evade them. 

Hair length and style has held wisdom in the stories we tell for millennia. From the myths and legends of Rapunzel and Samson, to the cultural mores of China and Japan - societies the world over have long revered the power of hair. 

Did we really need a military study to prove indigenous cultures right?

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I have altered my hair under duress many times in my life. 

Having long hair and being able to sense danger in the world can be overwhelming when your nervous system is on high alert. 

When I was 7, experiencing extreme dysphoria from a health crisis, I cut off my hair and changed my name. 

All throughout high school, dealing with yet another prolonged mystery health crisis - compounded by my mother and father divorcing both of my stepparents at the same time, moving and switching schools, and ultimately graduating high school in a wheelchair - I changed my hair more times than I can count. Dying it red, dying it black, bleaching it out, chopping it off - changing my hair changed the way I looked (and the sensory information I was taking in) but it did not address the lack of belonging and trauma I was experiencing.

In college, I regularly cut my own hair and bangs, almost always during some high stress time - like the night before a final I should have been studying for.

The connection between hair and the nervous system isn’t just limited to the hair on our heads - we possess these fiber optic messaging devices all over our bodies. 

In 2012, while living in a shoebox apartment in New York City and numbing myself daily to deal with the sensory overwhelm, I calculated how much time and money I spent shaving my legs every year and immediately stopped. When I moved back to San Francisco after a few years, I stopped shaving my armpits too. Was I sticking it to the man, saving thousands of dollars on personal care products, or increasing the sensory information I was taking in from an unhealthy environment?

When I got sick in 2020, I had a grown out lob - a professional haircut from the height of my corporate America days, that required upkeep every 6-8 weeks and had been largely neglected for the two years since I gave birth to my first child. As I tried to balance a high-pressure, high-powered career with a family and travel adventures that made it all worth it - I put personal care last. I just didn’t have enough hours in the day.

I lost a lot of hair after my first baby. I lost even more the first time I had Covid. Not only did I lose hair, but to my total surprise, my big toenails died. You see, when we are completely depleted of nutrients, the hair and the nails are the first things to go. My body didn’t have enough of the nutritional building blocks to recover from a virus and keep going, so it jettisoned my toenails and a bunch of my hair. 

As my health issues continued, I was struggling to wash and maintain my hair as it grew longer and longer and became more unruly. I noticed so many women in chronic illness circles cut their hair short. Purportedly, the short hair trend was because they could no longer manage the upkeep. Or was it because their nervous systems were overloaded from the medical system that was continually failing them?

I debated cutting my hair off so it was easier to maintain as my health continued to spiral out of control with no answers. But instead, something led me to research the connection between health and hair.

And what I learned inspired me to let it grow.

For years as I was healing, I kept my hair as long as it would grow. As my hair grew longer, my intuition grew stronger, and I learned everything I could about the true root causes of chronic illness and how to heal whatever I could. Eventually my hair got down past my waist and it became too heavy and overwhelmingly difficult to wash and style. Facing a hot, Arizona summer, I chopped it off and was able to donate two braids of hair, resulting in a fun length for summer.

My hair is a healthy, medium length now, and my intuition has never been sharper.