How Fluctuating Hormones Can Affect Skin & Hair

Pharmacopia was founded on the belief that body care products—including body washes, body bars, body lotions, lip balms, shampoos, and conditioners—should not have ingredients that could potentially affect health. This is just common sense in our minds!

Using the most natural, plant-based ingredients on skin (which can absorb so much) helps support the body’s natural processes, rather than disrupting them as many chemical ingredients can do today. Enter our better-for-you, natural body care. It’s body care that you can trust with your health—and that delivers results you can see and feel: silky, soft skin and radiant, shiny hair.

So what’s the deal with hormones then? Hormones play an important role in the health of our bodies and our skin. These chemical messengers signal to cells—in the organs, muscles, skin, and other tissues—what to do and exactly when to do it. They’re part of our endocrine system, comprising various organs like the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and thyroid gland.

But what happens if these hormones are out of balance? This can happen from natural changes like your monthly cycle or perimenopause or menopause. These out-of-balance hormones can affect the entire body—and trigger noticeable changes in the skin, scalp, and hair.

Out-of-balance hormones in your body can also occur from chemicals in the environment called endocrine disruptors. These chemicals block, mimic, or interfere with the body’s hormones, which are part of the body’s endocrine system. The best way to deal with this is to prevent exposure to them, as much as possible, which we discuss below.

How Hormones Can Affect Skin & Hair

First, let’s look at the most common hormones and how they can affect skin, scalp, and hair—and what happens when they’re out of balance.

Estrogen helps maintain the thickness of skin, the production of collagen, and moisture levels in the skin. Fluctuating hormone levels (as during perimenopause or menopause) can cause skin to become drier, thinner, and less elastic.

Cortisol (aka the stress hormone) helps to regulate the body’s response to stress. It also helps regulate inflammation in the body and in the skin. That’s why an imbalance in cortisol can trigger inflammation, which can make skin conditions like acne and eczema worse. Inflammation can also trigger a dry, itchy scalp.

Progesterone helps maintain the skin’s oil production and sebum levels, helping keep skin properly hydrated and healthy. An imbalance in it can lead to oily skin and breakouts.

Testosterone is primarily produced in men though women have it too. This hormone helps stimulate the production of sebum, too. Any imbalance in testosterone can cause oily skin and acne.

Thyroid hormones play various roles in the body. When it comes to hair, they help to control the rate at which hair follicles grow and fall out. Thyroid hormones also help regulate healthy skin and sebum production. When these hormones go haywire—as can happen with an underactive or overactive thyroid—everything in the body is affected, including the skin and hair.

What You Can Do

There are several things you can do to help counteract the effects of fluctuating or imbalanced hormones on skin and hair. These include:

1. Avoid harsh cleansers and shampoos. Chemical-based ingredients can irritate skin, including that on the scalp, particularly skin that’s coping with hormonal fluctuations. Instead, our plant-based ingredients—found in our Body Washes, Body Bars, and Shampoos—are gentlest enough for the most sensitive skin. That’s because ingredients like chamomile, aloe vera, coconut oil, and green tea extract help clean without stripping the skin and scalp of oils.

2. Stay hydrated. Being sure you drink enough clean water is important to overall health, including that of the skin and scalp (and hair). Eight, 8-ounce glasses of water daily is what’s recommended. Herbal teas and fresh, hydrating fruits and vegetables like watermelon, cucumbers, and celery also count toward your daily goal.

3. Take steps to include relaxation in your day. Even the little things you do, like walking outdoors, deep breathing, and stopping for a moment of gratitude, can help reduce stress in your life, which can thereby help reduce circulating cortisol levels.

What can also help: incorporating—into your daily life—essential oils like bergamot, lemongrass, and mint (and many more!), as found in our better-for-you body care products. When inhaled, these scents travel from the nose to the brain, where they can help to boost mood and reduce stress levels. For some easy ways to incorporate our aromatic Pharmacopia products into your de-stressing routine, see our Home Spa Hacks blog.

4. Condition. Condition. Condition. Using plant-based oils and ingredients is one of the most effective ways to hydrate hair strands reacting to hormonal changes.

Argan oil not only hydrates hair and scalp with its nutrients and hydrating fatty acids, it can also help reduce irritation on the scalp. Find it in our Argan Oil Conditioner.

Jojoba oil resembles the hair oils produced by the scalp, helping to hydrate both the scalp and hair strands. You can find it in our hydrating Citrus and Verbena Conditioners.

Shea butter is also found in both of these conditioners. This nutrient-rich plant fat seals moisture in the strands and helps reduce dryness and split ends. It’s also chock-full of antioxidants, which can help reduce inflammation on the scalp.

And for those times when hormonal fluctuations demand a more intense conditioning, apply a small amount of our conditioners to locks and use as a leave-in hair conditioning treatment.

5. Avoid hot water. As tempting as it is to take a long, hot shower, it’s best to lower the temps—and cut down your time under the spray. That’s because hot showers can rob the skin of moisture. Shorter showers in more tepid temps can help prevent moisture loss. What’s more, doing a final rinse in cool water can result in smoother, shinier hair that’s less prone to frizz. That’s because it closes the hair cuticle (the outermost layer of hair), trapping moisture and nutrients.

What can also help: gently dab dry (don’t rub, which can be too harsh for dry skin) and apply your favorite better-for-you Pharmacopia Body Lotion while skin is still damp. Our Body Lotions contain hydrating plant-based ingredients like shea butter and jojoba oil, as well as skin-soothing aloe vera.

6. Take steps to minimize exposure to endocrine disruptors. Two ways: use phthalate-free personal care products like all of our Pharmacopia products. (Phthalates are chemical stabilizers used to create a certain consistency in products.)

Also avoid parabens when you can. These chemical preservatives have names that end in “paraben” on product labels: ethylparaben, butylparaben, methylparaben, propylparaben, isobutylparaben, and isopropylparaben. All Pharmacopia products are proudly paraben-free and have been since we were founded in 1999. (For more tips on avoiding endocrine disruptors, see our blog on it here.)

One of the things we love about using plant-based ingredients is that they can support the body in beauty and health. No matter what you’re going through in your body, know that when you use Pharmacopia products, you can take comfort in knowing that you’re doing your body good.