The Relationship Between Hair Loss and Smoking

Smoking and Thinning Hair

Most individuals are aware that smoking raises your risk of lung cancer and respiratory diseases. Smoking, however, has harmful consequences on your entire body, not just your lungs.

According to a 2018 study, tobacco smoke contains more than 7,000 compounds, 69 of which are known to be carcinogenic. These substances can enter your bloodstream from your lungs when you breathe them in. They can travel from your blood to other areas of your body, harming several facets of your health.

Increased risk of hair loss is one of smoking’s less well-known negative consequences. Smoking is linked to hair loss for reasons that aren’t entirely apparent, but many are believed to play a part.

Read on as we delve deeper into the several ways that smoking may result in hair loss.

Smoking and Thinning Hair

Your chance of having hair loss may increase if you smoke tobacco since it has the ability to harm your hair follicles.

In a 2020 study, male smokers and nonsmokers between the ages of 20 and 35 were compared for the prevalence of early-onset androgenetic alopecia. Male-pattern baldness and female-pattern baldness are other names for androgenetic alopecia.

Only 200 of 500 non-smokers showed evidence of hair loss, compared to 425 out of 500 smokers who had some degree of hair loss.

Deep recession along the hairline is a sign of grade 3 hair loss on the Hamilton-Norwood scale. At grade four, your vertex begins to bald.

Researchers discovered that grade 3 hair loss affected 47% of smokers, and grade 3 hair loss affected 24% of smokers. Only 10% of non-smokers completed grades three or four.

The researchers came to the conclusion that nicotine and associated substances may hasten hair loss, but further study is required to support this notion.

In addition to oxidative stress and decreased blood flow to your hair follicles, smoking may also cause hair loss.

Stress From Oxidation

Your body produces more free radicals when you smoke. Free radicals are chemicals that readily interact with other molecules in the body and have the ability to harm your cells’ DNA.

When your body produces too many free radicals, oxidative stress takes place. All of the following exposures have the potential to result in oxidative stress:

• Tobacco smoke
• Pollution
• Radiation
• Ultraviolet rays

Researchers suggested in an earlier 2003 study that the harmful compounds in cigarette smoke might cause harm to the DNA of cells in your hair follicles. Impaired hair growth could potentially result from damage to these cells’ DNA.

According to a review of recent studies published in 2018, cells in the hair follicles of balding scalps are especially vulnerable to oxidative stress.

Less Blood Reaching Your Hair Follicles

The chemicals in cigarettes can harm your heart and circulatory systems. According to the FDA, smoking also increases the risk of getting illnesses like:

• Blood clots
• Heart attacks
• Stroke

Your hair follicles are nourished by blood vessels, which also enable the delivery of nutrients and waste removal. Hair loss or damage to your hair may result from impaired blood flow to your scalp.

Smoking Can Also Result in Hair Loss in Other Ways

Smoking can cause further bodily modifications that exacerbate hair loss. Some of the suggested factors are as follows:

• Encouraging the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, signaling proteins that encourage inflammation.
• Scarring of hair follicles due to elevated cytokine levels.
• Altering the amounts of enzymes that regulate tissue remodeling in the hair growth cycle.
• Low estrogen levels are caused by enhancing the hydroxylation of the hormone estradiol and inhibiting the enzyme aromatase.

Other Ways That Smoking Cigarettes Can Harm Your Hair

Smoking may harm the health of your hair in a variety of other ways in addition to causing hair loss.

• Gray hair that appears early. According to a 2013 study, smoking cigarettes is strongly associated with the appearance of gray hair before the age of 30.
• Hair transplants that fail. A 2018 assessment of the literature revealed that smokers are more likely to experience difficulties after hair transplants, such as the degeneration of scalp skin tissue.
• Could possibly make hair more fragile. Brittle hair may result from reduced blood flow to your hair follicles, which may interfere with collagen formation.
• Perhaps dries out hair. In general, hair oil production starts to decline between the ages of 45 and 50, according to a 2018 assessment of the literature. Smoking’s oxidative stress may cause your hair to age more quickly and become dry at a younger age.

Vaping: Does It Lead To Hair Loss?

The consequences of vaping on one’s health are now mostly unclear. Researchers are still striving to understand all of the impacts that vaping products have on your body because the market for them is still relatively new.

According to a 2018 study, there is strong evidence that vaping may lead to DNA oxidative stress and damage. Theoretically, oxidative stress and DNA damage could be linked to hair loss; however, further studies are required to fully comprehend the consequences of vaping on your hair.

Is Hair Loss Brought on by Smoking Reversible?

Some of the harm smoking has done to your body may be repaired when you stop smoking. For instance, if you abstain from smoking for 15 years, your chance of suffering a heart attack or stroke is the same as it would be for someone who has never smoked.

It’s unclear if smoking-related hair loss may be reversed. If thinning hair is the result of a medical issue, some persons with thinning hair can have noticeable hair regrowth.

You’re not likely to see a lot of hair growth if you have male- or female-pattern hair loss. Applying Rogaine (minoxidil) can enable you to have a modest degree of regrowth.

Methods to Stop Smoking

Although giving up smoking is challenging, it can improve many aspects of your health. A physician can assist you in developing a quitting strategy that will increase your chances of success.

You might find the following advice on quitting smoking to be useful.

• Theory of nicotine replacement. To gradually reduce their nicotine intake, some people find it useful to utilize nicotine patches, gum, or inhalers. They lessen withdrawal symptoms by gradually cutting back on nicotine.
• Prescription drugs. You can reduce cravings and withdrawal symptoms with the aid of Chantix, Zyban, and other prescription medications. These drugs might be combined with the nicotine replacement approach.
• Substitute treatments. You might be able to break behaviors you built around smoking with the aid of some alternative therapies. Hypnosis, acupuncture, and medicines are a few choices.
• Support treatments. You could discover that interventions like counseling or support groups make quitting less difficult.
• Avoid areas where people smoke. You might be able to resist temptation by avoiding situations where people are smoking.
• Removing applications. Numerous apps are available to aid in quitting smoking.
• Quit abruptly. You could have more severe withdrawal symptoms when quitting smoking abruptly than when quitting gradually. It might, however, make quitting your nicotine habit easier for you.

Takeaway

Chemicals from cigarette smoke can enter your bloodstream when you breathe it in through your lungs. These chemicals are transported by your blood to various body regions where they may have a detrimental effect on a variety of aspects of your health.

Smoking is believed to contribute to hair loss in a variety of ways, including by decreasing blood flow to the scalp and harming the DNA of your hair follicles. You might see some hair regrowth after quitting smoking, and it will also be good for your health in many other ways.