For information about what Alopecia Areata is and the effects that it has on each individual, read my most previous post (Idea #2). Throughout my research I have found many times that stress is believed to be directly related to occurrences of Alopecia and its severity. Regular hair growth happens in a cycle, which starts with the growing phase. The growing phase is what about ninety percent of hairs on a persons head (Usually between 120,000 and 150,000 total per head) are doing at one time. In this phase each hair is growing an average of 1/2 inch each month, and can last from two to three years. After this period of time the hair will go into the resting stage, which lasts for about three to four months, and then the hair will fall out and be replaced with a new growth. Each hair is on the same cycle but at different points in it, which is the reasoning behind being able to lose up to 100 hairs per day and still maintaining a full head of hair. Stress can influence this cycle in a damaging way. If stress is severe enough to change the body's regular physiological functions, the result can cause an unusual amount of hairs to switch into the resting phase at the same time, and at the end of this resting phase they will all fall out at once. For people with alopecia, the hair follicles are being attacked by the immune system already, so hair loss is inevitable, and when physiological stress is added to the situation, which in most cases of the disease it has a large impact, it creates more loss. The problem with alopecia, is that if the follicles become permanently damaged they will not be able to repeat the growing phase after losing the hair. For the majority of people, the follicles do not become permanently damages, but hair growth is not possible until the immune system lets up on attacking, and the stress levels lighten up.