Smoking damages your skin, your heart, and leads to cancer in your lungs… so it should be no surprise that smoking is also a factor in some forms of hair loss. The myriads of ways that smoking affects the body are seemingly endless – it removes elasticity in the skin, it can lead to skin discoloration, it stains your teeth, and gives you bad breath.
WebMD put together a full list of ways that smoking impacts your looks. If you look at the picture on hair loss, you will likely notice right away that hair loss related to smoking looks a lot like male or female pattern baldness – the genetic form of alopecia.
Does Smoking Cause Hair Loss?
The reason the pattern of smoking-related hair loss looks so familiar is that it does not necessarily cause the hair loss by itself. Instead, it accelerates the aging process, making it likely that if you were going to develop androgenic alopecia then you would get it much sooner. In fact, this study shows that smoking, combined with genetics, can cause premature graying or even early onset of androgenic alopecia.
But that is not the only way that smoking can cause hair loss. According to Healthline, “Smoking tobacco can potentially damage your hair follicles and increase your risk of developing hair loss.”
Approximately one percent of the chemicals in a cigarette are considered cancer causing. Which would not seem so bad if it weren’t for the fact that there are 7,000 different chemicals in cigarettes, according to this 2018 study.
Those same chemicals can do things like narrow your blood vessels – making it harder for vitamins and nutrients to feed your hair follicles and support hair growth. Some chemicals, like Nicotine, can cause a multitude of problems including oxidative stress and poor blood flow. This 2022 study says that because of its vasoconstricting properties, nicotine can not only cause hair loss, it can prevent you from healing properly after a hair transplant (possibly even causing hair grafts to die).
Will Hair Loss From Smoking Grow Back?
Maybe. If your smoking has simply accelerated something that your DNA intended to happen anyway, smoking cessation is unlikely to help the hair grow back.
As with most androgenic alopecia, a hair transplant is likely to be one of the best options for restoring your hair. But if you are still smoking, our doctors will advise caution because continuing to smoke, vape, or being around someone doing either of those, can make it harder for your hair transplant to take. After all, we do not want to advise someone to take corrective action that is not going to work.
On the other hand, if the hair loss is from nicotine or another chemical’s effect on the skin or hair follicles, you are much more likely to regrow the hair once you stop smoking. Think of smoking as a self-pollution that you apply to your hair. The hair cannot recover until you get rid of the pollution.
Precision Hair Restoration Has Solutions for Smoking-Induced Hair Loss
If you are ready to stop the impact that smoking is having on your hair and the rest of your body, Precision Hair Restoration can help. We understand that breaking a habit is difficult, but our trained staff can help you see what a different quitting will make for your hair health. To get started on improving your hair condition, contact us today.
