Amanda Knox Suffers Hair Loss After Murder Conviction

Convicted murderer Amanda Knox is suffering stress-related hair loss, according to the Daily Mirror. Reports claim the girl known as "Foxy Knoxy" asked a prison hairdresser to give her a short bob because she was so distressed about her thinning hair.

The 22-year-old American exchange student is in jail in Perugia, Italy, where she is serving 26 years for murdering her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, two years ago.

Knox's mother, Edda Mellas, said her daughter was shocked when her hair started falling out.

"She had lovely long hair," said her mother, Edda Mellas. "Now it is all cut off."

Intense stress often causes a large amount of adrenaline to be released into the body which then transmits a signal to the hair follicles, telling them to rest. Ten percent of hair is resting at any one time but stress can increase this amount significantly and result in an uneven hair growth pattern that leads to thinning hair or extreme hair loss. If Knox is indeed suffering hair loss, it could well be induced by stress.

Prior to her conviction, Knox's lawyer pressed that there was not enough evidence that could attribute the case aganist her "beyond any doubt" and urged the jury to "clear this girl".

"There are still many doubts in this trial, and there's a young girl waiting to be judged," defense lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova said before the verdict was given.

Throughout the 11-moth trial, Dalla Vedova portrayed Knox as a "clean-faced young girl, swept away by a tsunami", but it appears this image did not penetrate the jury.

On December 4, 2009, Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were found guilty of murder and sexual assault and together must pay €5million to the victim's family. In addition, Knox must pay €40,000 to a man whom she falsely accused of the killing.

Knox's father, Curt Knox, said her family found it difficult to accept the verdict and that an appeal would ensue.

"It appears clear to us that the attacks on Amanda's character in much of the media and by the prosecution had a significant impact on the judges and jurors and apparently overshadowed the lack of evidence in the prosecution's case against her," he said.

Knox's apparent subsequent hair loss may be hard to rectify. Medical hair loss treatments will help restore the hair growth cycle to its optimum condition, but it is important when treating stress-related hair loss to resolve the issue that is causing the stress.

With Knox's appeal likely to last longer than the original trial, it seems unlikely that her stress levels will be reduced and her hair growth will get back to normal any time soon.

For more information about hair loss, contact The Belgravia Centre, the UK's leading hair loss clinic. Call on 020 7730 6666, send an email, or complete an online diagnostic form for access to expert advice and an individualised mail-order hair loss treatment programme.

More Information:
Hair Loss in Women
Hair Loss in Women Doubles Due to Stress
Hair Loss Success Stories

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