It’s no secret that having a good time and let go now and then is good for the soul. However, indulging in nights of fun and alcohol can be harmful to your wellbeing. Alcohol affects nearly every part of your body, and when consumed in excess, it has a detrimental impact on your entire body. While liver damage is one of the most well-known side effects of alcohol consumption, hair loss is also a common side effect. Hair loss can be caused by drinking alcohol for a variety of causes, ranging from hormonal imbalance to inadequate diet. To stay safe, hair strands depend on how hydrated and nourished your body is. Alcohol dehydrates your body, leaving your hair dry, brittle, and vulnerable to breakage.
What Does the Science Say?
However, no evidence drinking alcohol causes hair loss. However, excessive alcohol intake can cause nutritional deficiencies, which can contribute to hair loss. To stay hydrated, nourished, and healthy, your hair needs specific nutrients. Alcohol consumption causes a deficiency of these nutrients. Alcohol can cause hair loss by messing with how your body absorbs and uses food/nutrients naturally, or by preventing your body from having enough nutrients due to a poor diet.
How Does Alcohol Effect Your Body to Cause Hair Loss?
There are many processes taking place in your body, many of which require water as a vital component. As the amount of water available in the body decreases, some changes occur. The various effects of alcohol poisoning on your body are shown below (alcohol is a toxin that your body tries to flush out as it would any other foreign substance).
Malnutrition and Nutrient Deficiency
Zinc, copper, and protein are essential nutrients for proper and healthy hair development. Hair falls out or breaks due to a lack of these nutrients. People who drink too much alcohol don’t eat enough food or eat bad diets that are deficient in the nutrients that the body and hair need. Alcohol also affects the lining of your stomach and causes the digestive tract to produce more acid. The stomach lining is damaged, which prevents the body from processing nutrients.
Dehydration of The Body
Do you know how after a few drinks you get the urge to pee a lot? That’s what diuretics do, and one of them is alcohol. Although dehydration causes a hangover, it also has an impact on the health of your skin. Hydration is also crucial for healthy hair development. Dry skin, itchy scalp, and damaged scalp are all symptoms of chronic alcohol consumption. The hair follicles become malnourished when the scalp is dry and weakened. This causes brittle, dry hair, slow hair development, and ultimately hair thinning or loss.
Inadequate and Poor-Quality Sleep
One of the most common side effects of alcohol is drowsiness. As a result of this impact, many people assume that drinking alcohol can help them sleep better. While alcohol can help you fall asleep faster, it is unlikely that you will get a good night’s sleep while under its influence. You will have poor-quality, disrupted sleep, which will cause tension in your body and mind. Telogen effluvium is a form of hair loss caused by high levels of stress on the body. When the body is under a lot of stress, the hair follicles go into a resting stage too soon, and then they fall out entirely.
Hormonal Imbalances and Hormonal Changes
Hair loss is often caused by hormonal changes caused by alcohol. Excessive alcohol intake can raise estrogen levels in women and testosterone levels in men. Both estrogen and testosterone are sex hormones found in the human body. Excessive alcohol intake has been related to higher levels of these sex hormones in the body, according to research. Androgenetic alopecia, or female and male pattern hair loss, is thought to be caused by these hormones.
Increase in Blood Sugar Level
Alcoholic drinks typically contain a high amount of sugar and other ingredients, which causes blood sugar levels to rise. A high blood sugar level causes a rise in insulin and androgens, which bind to hair follicles. Hair finally falls out as a result of this. As a consequence, pattern hair loss has been related to elevated sugar levels caused by alcohol.
