Smoking may play role in hair loss

Though Asian men generally have less trouble than Caucasians with the most common form of hereditary male baldness, cigarettes may erase that edge, researchers said Monday.

Smoking may destroy hair follicles, interfere with the way blood and hormones are circulated in the scalp or increase the production of estrogen, said Lin-Hui Su of the Far Eastern Memorial Hospital and Tony Hsiu-Hsi Chen of National Taiwan University in Taipei.

A look at 740 men in Taiwan with an average age of 65 found that cigarette use played an important role “in the development of moderate or severe” hair loss, the researchers said, in cases where the men smoked 20 or more cigarettes a day. The study was published in the November issue of the Archives of Dermatology.