Marijuana And Hair Loss

By Author: Russ Klettke
Total Articles: 14
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Marijuana and Hair Loss: "Smoke a Joint, Lose a Follicle?"

Does pot help or hinder hair growth? That's the question everyone is asking after "You gotta light?"

The recent vote on Proposition 19 in California reveals a fact about Americans: At least 14.4 million people over the age of 12 use marijuana once or more per month. While post-Prop 19 the debate may continue on a variety of fronts (When pot is illegal, does it feed organized crime and murderous drug cartels? What are the negative health effects of pot relative to other mind-altering substances, including alcohol?), one topic gets most of its attention on Internet blogs: the connection, if any, between use of marijuana and hair loss.

Does pot help or hinder hair growth? Research is unclear on such basic concerns as the effect of marijuana smoking on respiratory health -- even the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a federal U.S. agency under the National Institutes of Health, says the studies are inconclusive on this point. Very preliminary research on the ...
... effect that cannabis and its main active ingredient, THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), have on hair suggests a potential cause-effect relationship.

And yet, according to at least one researcher, the effects of marijuana smoking might actually aid retention of hair -- and offer a few other health benefits as well.

One study: Marijuana can negatively affect hair health

A study published in the journal of FASEB (Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology), "Inhibition of Human Hair Follicle Growth by Endo- and Exocannabinoids" (Telek, Biro et al., 2007), looked at hair follicles to see how they may be affected by the cannabinoid system.

First, a few definitions might help to understand this. Endocannabinoids are lipids and receptors in our bodies that are involved in several natural functions, including appetite, pain sensation, memory and mood. Endocannabinoids "mediate" the psychoactive effects of marijuana. Exocannabinoids are from outside the body and include pot and hashish, which can be smoked, vaporized or baked into food. The specific component that creates the marijuana high, THC, is "deposited at high levels in the hair shafts of human cannabis consumers," says the study report.

The laboratory study, performed on human skin sections removed in face-lift surgery, found that THC significantly inhibited hair shaft elongation in a dose-dependent fashion. This had the effect of suppressing proliferation of hair follicle keratinocytes and induced both hair matrix keratinocyte apoptosis and premature catagen development. In other words, yes, ingestion of pot by any means might have an effect on hair health and growth by stunting the growth process.

Bloggers provide anecdotal evidence to support the findings of this study. These comments, culled from a variety of Internet discussion boards, offer observations on the relationship between marijuana and hair loss:

"I notice that if I smoke, my hair loss will increase temporarily … and my scalp feels very tingly during that time. I've been trying my own experiment ... I've cut down to only smoking a couple times per month ... and I've noticed a slight improvement. I used to smoke a little every day, and during that time I lost more hair than before I started smoking ..."

"I am a barber, and I can honestly say that THC affects hair and hair loss. I do believe it is because it alters the maturity level of the papula [root] of the hair. Notice that your hair will actually become much like baby hair or immature hair. I also personally believe that THC will bring on hair loss for people who are genetically going to have it at an old age anyhow. Thus a small part of the population is not affected at all. I have clients with massive amounts of hair that I know are smokers of pot (and not just casual users). So take my personal opinion and do with it what you please, but I see hundreds of heads of hair and I have never been wrong when I ask the client about their THC use and talk about its affects on their hair and hair loss."

"The only scientific data I can conjure up is that pot is a strong anti-inflammatory (as are all cannabinoids). For this reason alone, I would suspect it will play some role in the inflammatory response associated with MPB [male pattern baldness]."

There are contrary opinions about hair loss and marijuana

Other bloggers report an opposite effect from their own experience.

"I have noticed when I smoked weed every day for two to three weeks, my hair will grow a lot faster. My hair grows really fast when I smoke every day for a few weeks -- it grows twice as fast."

"My brother smokes many joints daily and my family's always joking about his hair growth."

"I've known many, many potheads in my day. Some were bald; some were hairy. From casual observation, my conclusion is that weed doesn't make that much of a difference, one way or the other. If it has any effect, it's probably in depressing testosterone -- so that would be helpful, like a weaker version of Propecia." [Note: Propecia does not depress testosterone per se, but rather inhibits the conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone, DHT, which leads to hair loss.]

As one blogger noted, a person may have genetic hair loss, in which case marijuana or any other drug would not be the cause but might possibly have an exacerbating effect. It is possible, however, that the use of any drugs, legal or illegal, that are stressful to the body may expedite hair thinning.

Contrarian: One researcher believes pot offers a benefit to health and hair

Whether marijuana is stressful or calming overall is subject to debate. Julie Holland, M.D. is author of The Pot Book (Park Street Press, 2010), an extensively researched and comprehensive look at marijuana from scientific, medical, historical and political perspectives. In an interview with National Public Radio’s Ira Flatow, Holland compared the effects of marijuana use in cancer patients.

"What's interesting about this plant is that it's non-toxic," she said. "You know, most chemotherapeutic agents cause hair loss and nausea, and you get very sick and debilitated because not only are they killing the cancer cells, but they're also killing the healthy cells.

And it looks to be that the components of cannabis don't do that. They leave the healthy cells absolutely unaffected, and there's no toxicity. So that's important, and that really makes it a unique medicine."

Note that she does not advocate a one-for-the-other replacement of chemotherapy with marijuana, suggesting instead that the combination might be beneficial.

Holland explains that components of marijuana might have other beneficial effects. In particular, she is interested in cannabidiol, or CBD. "This is something that actually is not psychoactive," she says. "It doesn't make you high or giddy. But it helps to decrease anxiety. It may be helpful for decreasing psychosis … [I]t's an antioxidant. And the most fascinating thing that I learned that I really want everybody to understand is that there are some anti-cancer properties to cannabis, that it can trigger the cell death of cancer cells while leaving normal cells intact."

As another blogger states, "In general, substance abuse harms the body in two distinct ways: via the effect of the substance itself and via negative lifestyle changes, such as irregular eating habits and poor dietary intake." Many bloggers noted that some regular marijuana users ate poorly, also smoked cigarettes and had sedentary lifestyles, which are known contributors to poor skin and hair health.

Given the negative effects of anxiety and chemotherapy on hair, maybe marijuana needs to be considered in all its complexity: good for some things, bad for others -- and, as with many legal pharmaceuticals, it can affect different people in different ways.

Author Bio :

Russ Klettke is a freelance health and nutrition writer. Russ is also a contributing writer for HairLossDotCom, where he writes about hair loss conditions and latest news about hair loss such as marijuana and hair loss .