Most people don’t associate the glass of water they had with dinner and the amount of hair lost in the morning shower… but it might be time to start. Healthy hair requires hydration. If you don’t drink enough water, you are staying dehydrated.
Can You Lose Hair from Lack of Water?
Yes, dehydration can cause damage to the skin which leads to damage to the hair follicles. This can sometimes be corrected by rehydrating, but not always.
- Healthy hair requires a healthy scalp.
Most of us understand, at least to some extent, that hair grows out of our skin. What many don’t know is that your skin is the body’s largest organ and yet, it is one of the first to lose water when there isn’t enough to go around.
When you understand the anatomy of hair, you understand that a hair follicle can be greatly impacted by the health of the scalp around it. Each hair follicle is set several layers deep into the scalp. When the scalp becomes dehydrated, so does the hair follicle. That makes it harder for the nutrients to reach the root of the hair and your hair, now starving, can stop growing. Once it goes into telogen phase, it’s just a matter of time until it falls out.
- Drinking water helps eliminate stress.
WebMD puts it this way: stress can cause dehydration and dehydration can cause stress. Stress can cause hair loss.
In fact, according to the Mayo Clinic, high levels of stress can cause your body to mistakenly think it is time for you hair to start resting and falling out, the telogen phase. Without more water to help the body reset, the hair doesn’t grow back.
- Drinking water combats dehydration
When your body is dehydrated, it is harder to break down food in the vitamins and minerals you need, and it is harder for your blood to deliver those nutrients to your hair follicles.
If you are mildly dehydrated, you are thirstier, peeing and sweating less, and often experience dry mouth. As your dehydration gets worse, so does the impact it has on your body. With severe dehydration, you can experience a number of symptoms including low blood pressure. When your blood pressure is low, your body has a harder time getting healthy nutrients and even oxygen to your hair to help it grow.
How Do you Know If You’re Chronically Dehydrated?
When you routinely do not drink enough water for your body, you risk becoming chronically dehydrated. This condition can lead to muscle cramps, headaches, brain fog, and even liver and kidney damage. That’s because your liver and kidney rely on water to flush toxins from your body.
According to MedicalNewsToday, signs that you might be chronically dehydrated include:
- Headaches
- Being unable to focus or concentrate
- Passing darker urine than usual
- Tiredness or fatigue
- Muscle weakness
- Cramps
- Constipation
- Dry, flaky skin
- Altered kidney, heart, or digestive function
Many of those things can impact your hair growth, including inadequate nutrition due to constipation or digestive issues and the buildup of toxins from kidney damage. So, for healthy hair, make sure you stay hydrated.
Precision Hair Restoration Are the Hair Restoration Experts
Here at Precision Hair Restoration, we can help you figure out what is causing your hair loss. Whether you need hair replacement surgery or lifestyle and dietary changes, Precision Hair Restoration can help. Contact us today for your consultation.
