Can Smoking Cause Hair Loss?

When‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‍‍‌ the negatives of smoking come up to you, lung and heart diseases are what you associate with the most. However, smoking can harm your hair as well.

According to scientific studies, smoking plays a very significant role in hair loss that is not only fast but also in premature hair graying.

While hereditary factors continue to be the major cause of baldness (Androgenetic Alopecia), smoking, on the other hand, is like a powerful rocket fuel that can make the environment for hair growth so weak that genetic hair loss can become aggravated and can show up even earlier. In such cases, treatments like PRP can be of great help!

The Science: How Cigarettes Attack Hair Follicles

Smoking hampers hair growth through two large, intimate, and interrelated mechanisms:

1. Constriction and Lack of Nutrients

Among other things in a cigarette, nicotine and carbon monoxide are to blame for a lot of harm to your circulatory system.

Vasoconstriction: Nicotine is the culprit of the blood vessels, especially the smallest ones (capillaries) which are responsible for the supply of the scalp, constriction (tightening) as it causes them to narrow and reduce the blood flow.

Oxygen Deprivation: Carbon monoxide binds very firmly with the heme part of the hemoglobin molecule. That is the reason why oxygen is displaced very easily from the blood by carbon monoxide. Indeed, carbon monoxide reduces the blood's capability of oxygen carrying.

The hair follicles are the most metabolically active structures of the body and are the ones that get the least amount of oxygen because of the releasing of less blood from the middle arteries that are carrying oxygen and nutrients, these are the indispensable building vitamins for hair. The goal of the hair follicles in the hair growth cycle gets interrupted due to the devastation of the follicles caused by this famine and hair loss is a probable result of it.

2. DNA Damage and Oxidative Stress

One of the thousands of toxic chemicals that are found in cigarette smoke are harmful to the cells of the body, including the cells of the scalp.

Free Radicals: One of the most terrible effects of smoking is the production of structures known as free radicals in smokers tissues. Free radicals cause a process called "oxidative stress." One of the most tragic results of this stress is that the DNA in hair follicles is damaged.

Accelerated Aging: This damage can accelerate the hair follicle the same that accelerates the aging process of an organism, leading to premature miniature (thinning) and maybe also causing a premature pushing of hair into the resting phase (Telogen Effluvium).

Smoking’s Effect on Hormones

The smoke from a cigarette can also cause changes in hormone levels that in their turn lead to hair loss. Some studies show that smoking stimulates the production of male hormones (androgens) which are responsible for the protein loss in the scalp and the subsequent occurrence of pattern baldness in both males and females.

The Good Side: Is It Possible to Reverse It?

Yes! First, if you are a smoker and your hair is falling more than usual, then smoking is the culprit (either directly or indirectly). Obviously, giving up smoking can thus not only stop the thinning process but also bring about a total reversal of the whole event. Once stop smoking is achieved, the oxidative stress that has been loosening circulation to the scalp will be fortunate to have a change for the better as circulation to the scalp will be getting back to normal. This act will not reverse genetic hair loss in a miraculous way, but it certainly opens up the route to seeing less hair fall again.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that smoking causes hair loss because it limits the supply of oxygen and nutrients and at the same time introduces a whole lot of destructive agents in the area of the hair follicle. If you are worried about the loss of hair volume, quitting smoking should be ranked as the top lifestyle change of your ‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‍‍‌life.