Hair is a symbol of youth, beauty and vitality and when we start losing excessive amounts of hair it can become very stressful and lower our self-esteem. A deeply stressful event, such as a viral infection or malnutrition can lead to the thinning of hair, but thankfully this can be reversed in certain cases. Hair loss is often blamed on genetics. In my case both of my grandfathers were bald and my father had a comb over at my current age.