Does smoking cause hair loss?

I’ll start by saying I smoke. In fact I’m smoking right now. I know people who have smoked for years and have no signs of hair loss. I also know people who have never smoked and are none the less totally bald. That said…

Yes, smoking does cause hair loss.

Smoking causes hair loss in two ways:

• It reduces circulation to the extremities
• It pollutes the blood, which impacts the liver

It may also have some minor clogging effect on the scalps pores when combined with sebum.

You should quite smoking. But not because it causes hair loss. The impact smoking has on hair loss is almost insignificant in comparison to the impact hormonal imbalance and stress have. So if you’re looking for the primary cause of your hair loss, smoking is almost certainly not the one.

Recently a study found that people living in highly polluted areas experience a greater rate of hair loss. This is likely to do with the same reasons as smoking – so the impact of polluting the lungs with chemicals and smoke is measurable in terms of hair loss.

You should try to quit as it will benefit your health greatly, especially your long term health. But don’t expect your hair to grow back when you quit. You’ll need to do more than that. For example, you’ll need to re-activate your dormant hair follicles if you have already experienced some hair loss.

If you’d like to see some horrifying pictures check out this page on smoking and circulation.

Once again, thanks for your question and feel free to comment on my blog posts.