Have you ever noticed bald and balding people often seem to sweat more than average around their temples? Well there seems to be a connection. In fact Dr Harris-Wells of Miyohara International Trichology Clinic has claimed that sweat has a direct impact on hair growth.
How and why does sweat cause hair loss?
Sweat contains lactic acid, which breaks down the outter layers of hair causing gradual miniaturization of the hair follicles. The damage caused by the acid becomes evident at first when dry, brittle, weak hair is observed.
In addition to damaging the hair, the lactic acid in sweat may cause inflammation, which is strongly believed to have a direct impact on hair growth, due to the restriction of blood supply to the hair (and therfore nutrient supply).
Is your hair loss caused by sweat?
According to Dr Harris-Wells, it’s possible that lactic acid may cause hair loss even in people who don’t suffer from excessive sweating, but if you are someone who experiences above average persperation it’s possible that sweat has had an impact on your hair.
What is the true underlying cause of hair loss caused by sweat?
While you may be thinking you are one of the unlucky people who is losing their hair due to excessive sweating from the scalp, the important question to ask yourself is what can you do to stop it. Clearly the key to stopping hair loss caused by sweat is to reduce scalp sweat secretion levels to average or below average levels in order to recuperate lost and damaged hair. That of course begs the question…
How can I reduce my scalp sweat?
This is the all important question. If you can reduce the amount of sweat on your scalp, you can begin to reduce the damage and even start to reverse it. There are several key factors to reducing sweating, but it really comes down to tension, anxiety, nervousnous and stress.
Reduce stress, anxiety and nervousnous to reduce sweat
This is key to stopping hair loss caused by sweat. Furthermore stress is known to cause hair loss in it’s own right. Sweat caused by stress and anxiety is very common. Think about any time when you’ve had a high pressure interview or you been very stressed at work – you may have noticed you sweat more. Some people however are more succeptable to anxiety stress related sweating than others.
CalmClinic.com suggest four ways in which you can reduce sweating caused by anxiety:
Jogging
Jogging tires the muscles making them less able to work to their full capacity, produce heat and therefore cause sweating. It also releases endorphines and helps reduce stress, which will help you stay calm in stressful situations.
Deep breathing
When you starting to feel sweaty due to even very minor nervousnous or stress, just take two minutes to stop thinking and just breath deeply.
Learn more about how to reduce anxiety related sweating at calmclinic.com.
Always wash or rinse your scalp after heavy exercise
If you sweat a lot during exercise make sure you wash your hair or at least rinse your scalp to wash away sweat and lactic acid. Try to get into a habit of doing this whenever you sweat a lot.
Learn more about reducing excessive sweating
There are many self-help style books available on Amazon that can help you learn how to reduce your persperation levels. Here are just a few I found on Amazon:
End Sweating Now! Your Guide to Hyperhidrosis (Excessive Sweat)
Stop Excessive Sweating Using Nothing But Your Mind Naturally
Stop Excessive Sweating: How Does Belief Affect Excessive Sweating?
Hold Your Horses
Before you go off and do everything you can to reduce your sweat levels let’s consider the other side of the argument. Although the hypothesis that sweat (or the lactic acid it contains) causes hair loss due to it’s effect on keratin, there are no empircal studies that prove this to be the case.
Probably the very fact that a person is experiencing excessive sweating is the most important sign that they may have an underlying problem, which may be the true cause of the hair loss. Whether the underlying cause of the sweating is anxiety, stress, liver problems or poor diet; all of these things are possible causes of hair loss.
So, what course of action should you take?
If you have noticed a correlation between sweat on your temples or elsewhere on your scalp and hair loss in a similar pattern, you should firstly take hygeine steps – wash your scalp after working out, after sweating during the day, etc. Next you should look to find the underlying cause of your excessive sweating – as this underlying cause may be the true cause of your hair loss – not the sweat itself.
Next step: find the true underlying cause of your hair loss
Answer the yes or no questions in the quick flow chart to find the true root cause of your hair loss:
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