Studies prove that smoking cause hair loss. But the main question is, how does it occur or why hair loss is seen on regular cigarette smoking. Hair fall and smoking both are very common in the modern lifestyle.
Some major causes of baldness
Pattern hair loss or baldness is a genetic condition. But there are other reasons for hair loss too.
- Unhealthy lifestyle – which is very common nowadays
- Hormones
- Nutritional deficiency
- Various types of stress
- Hormonal fluctuations
The connection between smoking and hair loss
These are the common questions among the youth generation.
How is smoking related to hair loss?
Does smoking cause hair loss?
In a word, YES , smoking is a factor of hair loss in some people.
But cigarette is not the main reason for the hair loss. Hair loss is caused by various reasons, as I mentioned before, but smoking can be a triggering factor for hair loss.
How smoking causes hair loss?

When you smoke, there are various chemicals inhaled. Due to these chemicals, the overall blood circulation of the body decreases, which leads to peripheral and microvascular constrictions.
The nutrients level in the blood goes down as a result of this. The nicotine and carbon mono oxide present in cigarette through your blood stem reaches the lungs, which ultimately causes oxygen deficiency in the lungs.
As a result, the vital organs of your body such as the brain, kidney, liver and scalp do not receive the amount of blood they require to function well. This insufficient blood flow leads to hair fall partially.
Effects of smoking that leads to hair fall
- When your hair follicles do not receive the necessary nutrients to grow, the hair growth slows down, and the strands almost dry down.
- Smoking can lead to damage to the DNA of hair follicles which in turn looses it’s ability of new hair generation.
- Smoking leads to premature ageing, and ageing leads to hair fall. So the sign of ageing is a sign of hair fall or vice versa.
- The symptoms of hair fall are increased due to smoking. Even medications do not work under such circumstances. Smoking also takes part in thinning of hair.
- Smoking leads to the weakening of immunity in the body, leading to bacterial infection or fungal infection on the scalp. The hair follicles become weak, and they do not generate new hair on the scalp.
- Smoking causes the damage of cells which indirectly or directly is another crucial factor for hair loss.
Is smoking a significant cause of hair fall?
The simple answer to this is NO, as I mentioned earlier. Your dermatologist can pinpoint the exact reason behind your hair fall. Unhealthy lifestyles and hormonal changes are the significant causes of hair fall, but the probability of hair increases sharply if you smoke.
Smoking directly does not take part in hair fall, but one can conclude that smoking increases the likelihood of hair fall in human beings.
So stop smoking from tomorrow onwards. This will lead to the end of the tendency of hair fall seen among us, and you will lead a very healthy life ahead.
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