If you are one of the 13.2% of the UK population who smoke electronic cigarettes [1], you may be wondering if vaping can cause hair loss. While there is currently no simple answer to that question, vaping may indeed contribute to your hair falling out.
Smoking has numerous detrimental effects on your health [2], but hair loss often gets lost among its more serious risks. Few people know that nicotine can trigger conditions such as androgenetic alopecia or alopecia areata [3][4]. And since most vaping products contain nicotine, they may produce similar effects to some extent [5]. However, since vaping products are relatively new, their health effects are only beginning to be studied [6].
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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.
However, it is a well-established fact that smoking causes hair loss, primarily through the inhalation of nicotine [2]. Many vaping devices also contain nicotine, albeit in lower doses than traditional cigarettes. However, their nicotine yield varies with brand formulation and user behaviour [10].
This means that even though more research is needed to confirm this, nicotine vaping may play a role in hair thinning. While it’s unlikely to have the same harmful effect as traditional smoking, as it contains fewer toxic chemicals, this habit may cause some hair loss.
Vaping that contains nicotine may make your hair fall out through some of the same mechanisms as traditional smoking. The most common of these are:
Your hair follicles need to receive oxygen and nutrients from your blood to grow thick, healthy hair. However, nicotine makes your blood vessels constrict, reducing blood flow [12]. This can diminish the amount of nourishment reaching the roots of your hair, making your strands thinner or preventing some of your follicles from producing new strands.
Nicotine is already known to produce and maintain a state of microinflammation around your hair follicles [3]. Moreover, a 2022 literature review [13] reveals that other toxic substances which can be found in the e-liquid of many vaping products can also produce oxidative stress and inflammation in your body. This can damage your follicles and disrupt your hair growth cycle, resulting in hair thinning.
Commonly known as male pattern baldness or female pattern baldness, androgenetic alopecia occurs when too much of your testosterone is converted into a different hormone called dihydrotestosterone (DHT). DHT binds to androgen receptors in your hair, which makes them shrink and stop producing hair [14].
A study performed on 3427 men revealed that smokers had 15% higher levels of testosterone than non-smokers [15], which made them more susceptible to producing too much DHT. Moreover, a different study found that male pattern baldness is far more prevalent among smokers and that this habit accelerates hair loss in those experiencing this condition [16].
While nicotine is not the only toxin in traditional cigarettes which could have caused these effects, it definitely played a role in their occurrence. And since vaping products contain nicotine, while more research is needed, it can be inferred that they may also trigger or accelerate androgenetic alopecia.
Moreover, clinical trials have found that smokers have an almost double risk of developing alopecia areata in comparison to non-smokers, as nicotine increases inflammation around hair follicles. This effect appears to increase proportionally with the amount of cigarettes smoked [17]. While it is uncertain how this translates to vaping, there is a chance that it could also increase your likelihood of developing alopecia areata to some extent.
Since nicotine is the main substance in e-cigarettes that are proven to cause hair loss, nicotine-free vaping products should, theoretically, be significantly less likely to cause hair thinning than both traditional cigarettes and electronic ones that contain this substance. However, a report commissioned by Public Health England shows that 87% of UK residents who vaped reported using e-liquids that contained nicotine [1].
Moreover, this does not mean that there is nothing in nicotine-free e-liquid that could potentially harm your hair. Most of these products contain flavouring chemicals, which have been found to produce inflammation and oxidative stress in your body [23]. This could also affect the health of your hair follicles. So, further research is needed before any kind of vaping product can be deemed safe for hair loss.
There is consensus among researchers and health organisations that while vaping can still have some harmful side effects, it is generally safer than traditional cigarettes [18]. Although more research is needed, this is likely to also apply to the risk of hair loss.
E-cigarettes contain lower doses of nicotine than traditional ones and don’t contain carbon monoxide which reduces the amount of oxygen to reach your hair follicles. This means their impact on hair thinning and damage may be smaller. They also do not contain many of the other harmful substances inhaled by cigarette smokers, such as hydrogen cyanide, which can prevent your cells from utilising the oxygen that reaches them. [12].
Vaping devices heat a solution that contains nicotine, propylene glycol or vegetable glycerine and flavouring agents, releasing a vapour which the user inhales [8][7].
E-cigarettes were originally marketed as a smoking cessation aid. Health organisations 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.
However, since vaping is so recent and so many types of devices and fluids have already emerged, there was insufficient time to adequately study its potentially harmful effects. Recent studies are starting to reveal that while still likely healthier than traditional smoking, vaping may still cause some damage to your respiratory, cardiovascular, immunologic, nervous and endocrine systems [5][10].
Furthermore, there is preliminary evidence that e-cigarettes may increase the risk of some forms of cancer[11], and they can also cause fetal malformations and developmental issues in children and adolescents [10]. If the role played by vaping in increasing the risk of developing life-threatening conditions is still not fully clear, its effects on hair shedding remain yet to be studied.
It is difficult to answer this question in the absence of relevant studies to determine the relationship between vaping and hair loss. And the fact that different e-liquids contain varying amounts of nicotine only increases the challenge.
On the one hand, it is safe to assume, based on current information, that vaping products which do not contain nicotine are less likely to cause hair loss than nicotine products.
On the other hand, it has been recently proven that electronic cigarettes are significantly more efficient than nicotine replacement therapy in promoting smoking cessation [19] [20]. So, while vaping may have some harmful effects on your hair, if it helps you quit smoking, it may still prove to be the superior option for your hair loss in the long run.
The good news is that if vaping may cause hair loss through similar mechanisms as traditional smoking, quitting this habit would also mean your hair would indeed grow back after a while.
When it comes to traditional cigarettes, it only takes 48 hours to flush out the additional carbon monoxide associated with smoking and between 2-12 weeks for your blood flow to return to normal. This means your hair follicles would already be receiving more nutrients and be under less oxidative stress in a few days to a few weeks [21].
Since vaping involves lower quantities of nicotine and other harmful chemicals [10][22], quitting may not have such a strong effect on your hair as you would get from smoking cessation. But it is still likely that you may see some improvement in your hair health.
However, it is a good idea to see a trichologist and make sure that your hair loss is not the result of a condition, such as androgenetic alopecia, traction alopecia, or common scalp problems.
While waiting for science to look into the relationship between vaping and hair loss, there are some things you can do to prevent unnecessary hair shedding:
If you worry that vaping may contribute to your hair loss, the best course of action would be to quit nicotine-based products altogether. However, it is best to see a trichologist from the first signs of hair thinning and balding, so they can rule out progressive types of alopecia. They will provide an accurate diagnosis and may, in accordance, recommend one of the following evidence-based treatments and therapies:
If your hair loss does not respond to non-surgical hair restoration treatments, you may still be a good candidate for a hair transplant. Hair restoration surgery is very simple, virtually painless and highly effective: the best clinics in the UK have a 97-100% success rate. A hair transplant is permanent and, thus, a good investment to make in your appearance and sense of self-confidence.
If you are interested in this procedure, book a free hair transplant consultation today with one of our world-class surgeons and they will walk you through the entire process. However, please be aware that you will need to stop vaping at least 3-6 weeks before and after hair restoration surgery, as any kind of smoking can impact your hair transplant results.
If you are wondering whether vaping can cause hair loss, you may be interested to learn the answers to these frequently asked questions:
At this time, no studies have been conducted to show how frequently it may be safe to vape without affecting your hair. Based on the existing information regarding nicotine and hair loss, it is unlikely that non-habitual vaping will make your hair fall out. However, more research is needed before a hair-safe vaping frequency can be defined.
Vaping nicotine products habitually can increase oxidative stress that can damage your hair, also impacting its appearance. Oxidative stress can increase the rate of your hair ageing, it can contribute to scalp problems such as dandruff [24] and it can even make you go grey faster [25].
If over 3 months have passed since you stopped vaping and you are still experiencing hair loss, you should see a hair doctor. You may be experiencing a type of alopecia that is unrelated to vaping (although nicotine can also trigger or accelerate the development of androgenetic alopecia and alopecia areata).
If this is the case, you need to receive the appropriate diagnosis and treatment as soon as possible to be sure your condition doesn’t progress.
If you are reluctant to give up vaping but would like to limit the possibility of developing hair loss, it is best to use nicotine-free e-liquid.
If this is not an acceptable option for you, be sure to eat a well-balanced diet and use hair growth oils rich in antioxidants. You can also ask a trichologist whether you could benefit from Minoxidil, as it can improve blood flow to your hair follicles.
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