From cigarettes to bald spots

Smoking leads to hair loss: fact or fake?

Everyone is talking about cigarettes and their harmful effects. Again and again, new frightening warnings find their way onto cigarette packets, including "Smoking leads to premature hair loss"? In fact, the latest research results suggest that there could be another motivation to keep your hands off the cigarette...

Programmed cell death - smoking damages the hair follicles

Even healthy cells have a limited lifespan. To prevent the number of cells in the body from growing immeasurably and degenerated cells from being broken down, every cell in the body has a kind of "self-destruction program", which at a certain point causes the cell to first shrink and then gradually die.

Smoking appears to be a factor that activates this program in the cell before the natural time and thus massively shortens its lifespan. In animal experiments, this effect has already been demonstrated in hair follicles exposed to cigarette smoke.

Changes in the hormone balance could be another reason

Nicotine has an estrogen-inhibiting effect. The hormone that stimulates hair growth in women, among other things, causes the exact opposite if the level in the body is too low: hair loss. Many women come into contact with this problem around the time of pregnancy, when oestrogen levels initially rise and then fall again after giving birth; later in life, the menopause leads to fluctuations in hormone levels.

However, in addition to these natural processes, other factors such as smoking can also have a negative impact on oestrogen levels and promote diffuse or hormonal hair loss in women.

Smoking intensifies the effect of androgenetic alopecia

Genetic hair loss is the most common cause of hair loss in both men and women. In short, hypersensitivity of the hair follicles to a breakdown product of the male hormone testosterone causes long-term atrophy of the follicle and eventually causes it to die, making further hair growth at this point impossible.

The probability of being affected by this form of hair loss is almost doubled by smoking. If you smoke more than one pack a day, you can even assume an increased probability of 130%. So it's not just about smoking alone, it's also about the quantity.

Diagnosis of hair loss requires a precise medical history

Hair loss is a broad field that is being studied more and more scientifically. Understandably so, as the loss of scalp hair leads to high emotional pressure and loss of self-esteem for most people. However, hair loss can also be caused by a combination of different factors, which is why it is important to take a close look at the diagnosis.

People often focus too much on the purely medical facts, ignoring the fact that our lifestyle and, of course, our psyche also have an influence on our hair. According to these findings, smoking definitely seems to be a factor in hair loss that should not be ignored, which is why the risk of - supposed - nicotine consumption should not be underestimated.

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