HUFFINGTON POST: Our Hair Can Reveal How Stressed Coronavirus Has Made Us, Scientists Think

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"Cary Cooper, professor of organisational psychology at Alliance Manchester Business School, part of the University of Manchester, told HuffPost UK measuring cortisol through hair is a way to avoid invasive procedures such as taking blood samples.

He has welcomed the research study as he believes it is important to investigate the mental health impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

But he’d also like to see the specific sources of people’s coronavirus stress investigated, so solutions can be found to prevent them affecting other people.

There will be all sorts of reasons why people are experiencing stress during this pandemic such as people being socially isolated, people working remotely, the fear of job security, financial worries, family pressures and homeschooling children.

“To figure out a solution, you would need to know the specific sources of the stress so that you can try to correct it.

“I think it is great that experts and psychologists are researching the mental health impact of this virus.

“I would suggest the researchers collect data as well as to what the participants think might be causing the stress and use a mental health scale to measure it.

“Cortisol is one potential indicator of stress levels and using it in conjunction with psychometric tests is a good way of looking at stress.”