Does Smoking Cause Hair Loss? Its Impacts on Hair Health

Table Of Content

• The length of time spent vaping can be much longer than smoking a standard cigarette.
• The Truth About White Lung Pneumonia
• The Science of Health E-Newsletter
• Talk with your kids about the dangers of vaping, but also look for warning signs including:
• Can Vaping Cause Hair Loss and Reduce Future Hair Growth?

Vapes, or e-cigarettes, were invented in 1963 by Herbert Gilbert, a Pennsylvanian scrap metal dealer, who came up with the idea as a way to combat the harmful effects of tobacco [1]. What this meant was that instead of the combustion of tobacco through lighting a traditional cigarette, vapes heat the tobacco as a liquid [2]. However, it is a well-established fact that smoking causes hair loss, primarily through the inhalation of nicotine [2]. Vaping devices also contain nicotine, albeit in lower doses than traditional cigarettes. However, their nicotine yield varies with brand formulation and user behaviour [10]. Health organizations embraced and promoted this type of product as an alternative to traditional smoking [9] because they contain far fewer than the 7000 toxins found in cigarettes [8] and also lower doses of nicotine.

The length of time spent vaping can be much longer than smoking a standard cigarette.

According to the American Academy of Dermatology, it’s completely normal to shed anywhere between 50 to 100 strands of hair per day. However, if you’ve noticed more strands falling out of your head than normal, you may be experiencing alopecia, the medical term for hair loss. Common diagnoses include androgenetic alopecia, alopecia areata, telogen effluvium, and lymphocytic scarring alopecia, Agbai tells USA TODAY.

The Truth About White Lung Pneumonia

Ultimately, these internal deficiencies manifest externally on the skin, hair, and mouth. Things like iron, biotin, and protein are like special food for your hair, and if you don’t get enough, it can get weaker and fall out. This is when you gradually lose your hair over time because it runs in your family. A single JUULpod, which dominates the e-cigarette market, contains between 39.3 to 48.3 milligrams of nicotine. Nicotine mediates what Doctor Puja Uppal, board-certified family medicine physician, refers to as "systemic inflammation."

The Science of Health E-Newsletter

Keeping your scalp's health in check is paramount, and being mindful of the chemicals you're exposing it to can make a world of difference. Besides, nicotine can exacerbate stress levels, leading to higher production of the hormone cortisol. Excess cortisol is another known factor that can contribute to hair shedding and decreased density.

A lot of the negativity towards cigarettes often gets thrown towards the non-nicotine chemicals inside and the burning matter that you are inhaling. However, it is important to remember that vaping is a relatively new phenomenon, and we simply have not had the time and studies to fully understand what the long-term consequences may be with excessive or ongoing use. And, they were often touted as the less harmful substitution for combustible cigarettes. The Belgravia Centre is a world-renowned group of a hair loss clinic in Central London, UK. If you are worried about hair loss you can arrange a free consultation with a hair loss expert or complete our Online Consultation from anywhere in the world for home-use treatment. In addition, it contains multiple plant growth factors developed through stem cell technology to nurture and promote hair growth.

Over time, the inflammation causes these parts to no longer function properly. As a result, other parts of the body that rely on the circulatory system receive decreased amounts of oxygen and other nutrients, which hinders their functioning as well. While there may be some general health benefits or aid in eventually quitting that come from making the switch from combustion cigarettes to vaping, it should not be seen as a consequence-free swap.

Quitting Vaping

Vegetable glycerin, is another chemical in vaping liquids that causes respiratory distress and can also affect the way the liver functionsas found in a recent study. Many other chemicals were never intended to be inhaled in vape liquids, which can damage cells in our bodies. From flavorings to known carcinogens, a substance capable of causing cancer, vapes have more dangerous chemicals than what was originally advertised. In other words, you don’t even need to be the one vaping for your hair to be affected.

Vaping and hearing loss - what's the connection? - Healthy Hearing

Vaping and hearing loss - what's the connection?.

Posted: Mon, 15 Apr 2019 07:00:00 GMT [source]

As such, its management should include strategies to prevent it from developing in the first place. Knowing that e-cigarettes could potentially lead to this type of heart failure is important (in) drawing up preventive interventions,” he explained. Nicotine, which is contained within vapes, affects teens differently to adults, as their brains are more sensitive to it.

New Study May Explain Effect of E-Cigarettes on Hair Loss

Why Formaldehyde in Hair Straightening Products Is Dangerous - Verywell Health

Why Formaldehyde in Hair Straightening Products Is Dangerous.

Posted: Fri, 27 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Furthermore, there was a decrease in density of hair follicle mostly present in dystrophic anagen phase. Smoking has generally been considered inimical to hair growth and its role in hair loss has long been debated. This article reviews the literature to analyze the role of smoking in hair loss, possible mechanism of how smoking affects hair, and the available evidence for such an association. When you breathe in tobacco smoke, chemicals can travel from your lungs into your blood. Your blood carries these chemicals to other parts of your body where they can negatively impact many aspects of your health. “Lasers, microneedling, peels, and skincare can all be used to reverse and improve the effects of smoking,” says Jason Emer, MD, a West Hollywood-based board certified dermatologist.

Moreover, a product like the Scandinavian Biolabs Hair Growth Routine can help promote healthy hair growth by providing essential nutrients and plant growth factors supporting hair follicles. A person who vapes often thinks there are fewer health risk factors because the vaping industry first advertised their products as made with “food grade” chemicals. What the vaping industry does not inform vapers is that these chemicals were never intended to be inhaled. Numerous dangerous chemicals in vape liquids can cause long-term health problems. Almost every vape uses propylene glycol or vegetable glycerin as the base ingredient.

In this article, we'll examine how vaping and hair loss are connected and help you decide about your vaping habits. These are formulated with hair-loving ingredients like saw palmetto, biotin, niacinamide, zinc and caffeine to create a healthy environment for your hair follicles. These factors are significant when it comes to thinning hair, but like with any health concern, there can be a lot more factors responsible for hair loss than a genetic lottery. Since there are currently no studies that have looked into the role vaping might play in triggering or accelerating hair loss, there is little evidence as to whether and to what extent vaping can cause your hair to thin. A study on restoring hair with preauricular flaps revealed more complications in smokers than nonsmokers, suggesting that nicotine-induced constriction increases the risk of poor healing after surgery.

The difference in nicotine levels between these products is significant, and impacts the lives of the people who use them. One study found that people who JUUL had eight times more nicotine in their bloodstream than people who smoked cigarettes. Thus, it is possible that vaping could lead to even more hair loss than smoking cigarettes.

These lead to atherosclerosis, a risk factor for many cardiovascular diseases including heart failure,” Bene-Alhasan added. “A recent meta-analysis in NEJM found that vaping increased (the) risk of cardiovascular disease among others. Animal studies have also found changes in the heart leading to reduced contractility and relaxation after exposure to e-cigarettes. If you’re experiencing elevated levels of the hormone dihydrotestosterone (DHT), your body will respond by shrinking your hair follicles and reducing the length of the hair growth cycle, according to Cleveland Clinic.

"Comprehensive vaping regulations and targeted public health interventions are needed to mitigate the potential harms of e-cigarette use among adolescents," she said. "This study confirms previous work using the same dataset that e-cigarette users are exposed to some heavy metals," said Shahab, who was not involved in the new study. Their analysis found that lead levels in urine were 40 percent higher among intermittent vapers and 30 percent higher among frequent vapers, compared with occasional vapers. Uranium levels were twice as high among frequent vapers, compared with occasional vapers.

While there isn’t a direct link between the two, vape liquids contain a certain ingredient that can potentially cause hair loss, which is nicotine. This substance creates a bodily reaction that reduces the amount of blood flow to vital areas, such as the scalp and hair follicles. The end result can be hair loss if there is a low amount of blood pressure in these areas.