Unilever scientists have shed new light on the relationship between psychological stress and the health of skin and hair.
While stress has been linked to conditions such as acne, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis and hair loss, the biological mechanisms underpinning this connection remain little understood.
Now a new study, Mapping the Stress-Skin Axis: Difficulties, Strategies & Prospects Ahead – published in the journal The Innovation Life and presented at IMCAS World Congress 2026 in Paris, France – indicates how stress and the skin are connected at a biological level.
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Scientists at the consumer goods giant have shown how chronic psychological stress biologically weakens the skin barrier, alters skin lipids, reshapes the skin microbiome, drives systemic chronic inflammation and leaves measurable signals in hair.
“This new research provides some of the strongest biological evidence to date that proves that chronic psychological stress does not just change how skin and hair look – it changes how they function at a molecular level,” Jason Harcup, Chief R&D Officer of Beauty & Wellbeing at Unilever, told Cosmetics Business.
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