According to a study published in the November issue of the Archives of Dermatology journal, men have higher risks of male pattern baldness if they smoke, and the risks increase with smoking intensity.
Dr. William Rassman, medical director and founder of the New Hair Institute in Los Angeles, said smoking constricts blood vessels, which impedes the circulation of vital nutrients to the scalp.
"We've known for some time that smoking reduces circulation to the scalp, as it does to other parts of the body," Rassman said. "Is it enough to affect the micro-circulation within the hair follicle? We don't know."
The study collected data from 740 men between the ages of 40 and 91 years old.
Researchers from the Far Eastern memorial
hospital in Taiwan compared data from the
smokers to a control group of nonsmokers. Both
groups included a wide age range of men, some
with family histories of hair loss, to rule out
family history and age as risk factors for
baldness. By doing this, the researchers were
able to get a clearer idea of the risk of
smoking as a single factor.
"You try to reduce as many variables as you
can," Rassman said. "I believe that's a
reasonable way to do it."
The researchers found statistically significant
associations between hair loss and the men's
smoking statuses and smoking frequencies.
"The hair needs nourishment and oxygen, so the
blood supply is very important," Rassman said.
"Sometimes vascular changes can occur, and those
can have permanent results, but we can't measure
those kinds of changes up there."
Lee Cohen, an associate professor and the
director of clinical training in the Texas Tech
Department of Psychology, said he believes
smoking causes earlier hair loss because it
speeds up the body's aging process.
"What we do know is that smoking kind of robs
the body of oxygen," he said. "People who smoke
look older. Their hair is more brittle, they
have wrinkles, they have yellowing of the skin.
It's speeding up the aging process a little
bit."
The men who smoked the most were the most likely
to have hair loss, according to the study
results. Men who smoked 20 or more cigarettes
each day were more than twice as likely to lose
their hair as men who had never smoked. In men
who had quit smoking prior to the study, the
risk for hair loss was still higher than in men
who had never smoked.
