If you’ve scrolled social media at all over the past few years, you’ve probably come across content warning of the dangers of high cortisol levels in your body.

Countless influencers claim that the hormone causes poor sleep,depression and even a range of beauty issues, from wrinkles to puffy faces and thinning hair.

While it would be useful to have a single culprit for all of our beauty woes, is cortisol really to blame?

We asked some leading dermatologists and hair restoration experts to explain what cortisol is and why it has such a bad reputation when it comes to beauty woes.

What is cortisol?

According to Dr. Tanya Kormeili, a board-certified dermatologist with the Derm and Rejuvenation Institute in Santa Monica, California, “Cortisol is a hugely necessary steroid hormone without which we would all be dead.”

Although too much cortisol can be harmful in rare cases, for most people, cortisol is not the enemy it’s made out to be, she explained.

How much of our looks can we control if so many elements are affected by stress?

Cortisol is a steroid hormone produced by the adrenal glands, explained Dr. Michelle Draznin, a board-certified dermatologist with Kaiser Permanente. It’s commonly known as “the stress hormone” because our bodies produce extra cortisol to trigger the body’s fight-or-flight response when we are under acute stress, explained Dr. Corrie Alford, a board-certified dermatologist with MetroDerm in Atlanta, Georgia. When that happens, “cortisol increases blood pressure, heart rate and muscle tension,” Alford said.

However, cortisol does a lot more than help us escape a pride of lions. It’s critical for maintaining appropriate organ function and regulating blood pressure, glucose levels, immune response and the sleep-wake cycle, according to Alford.

There’s a difference between short-term spikes and chronically excessive cortisol levels

Because cortisol naturally rises and falls in sync with the rhythm of our days, for most people, periodic........

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