Sweat and Hair Loss: Is Sweat Bad for Your Hair?

Did you ever consider that there is a connection between sweat and hair loss? Well, contrary to what you may believe, too much sweat can indeed damage your hair and make a person prone to hair loss. In fact, if you pay attention to those people that tend to sweat a lot, they are either bald already or on the way to becoming bald. The cause to this can be genetics, but it can also be too much sweat. While you should not panic if you sweat now and then, especially when working out, as it is a normal process unrolled by our organism, you should also know that the lactic acid contained by the sweat, more precisely a larger quantity of sweat, will end up affecting your hair and triggering hair loss.

How can lactic acid, a substance naturally released by our organism, cause hair loss? While lactic acid is good in some instances, it is very bad if it meets hair in excessive quantities. Gradually breaking down the hair’s outer layer, which, in time, leads to the hair follicles to shrink and become much less productive. The lactic acid in the sweat will make the hair look and feel brittle, dry, and weak. It is also believed that lactic acid is responsible for inflammations, which also negatively impacts the growth of hair because when inflammation occurs, the hair stops receiving a sufficient quantity of its much-needed blood supplies, which carry oxygen and nutrients. As said by Maja Tisma, CEO of ShampooTruth, even people that don’t have excessive sweat but to tend to sweat a bit more than usual, may feel the negative effects of sweat on their hair. How much impact sweat has on your hair depends very much on how much you expose your hair to the lactic acid contained by sweat, which means how often and how much you tend to sweat.

In order to reduce the damaging effects of sweat on your hair, there is only one solution. You will need to reduce the amount of sweat produced by your scalp. Of course, by now, you probably wonder how to do that. Putting aside that sweat is producing during physical effort and exercising it is also produced by our body when we are stressed, anxious, tensed, or nervous. If you know you are one of those persons that easily end up being stressed, tensed, and all the previously mentioned negative states, you need to reduce their presence in your daily life if you want to reduce the amount of sweat produced by your body. Once you stop being so stress, nervous, or anxious, you will also stop sweating that much. Not to mention that stress is known for leading to hair loss, so if it is combined with sweat as well, the unwanted results are almost guaranteed.

Luckily, there are ways to reduce stress and, at the same time, reduce the unwanted sweating. To start with, you should seriously consider jogging. Believe it or not, jogging will work out your muscles and make them too tired to produce heat and sweating, of course, while also stimulating your body to release endorphins, which will reduce stress levels. You may think that jogging will make you sweat a little as well, but that’s nothing compared to the numerous stressful situations in which you sweat more. You should also start performing breathing exercises, like deep breathing. Do you feel that a stressful situation is making you sweat? Stop, relax, and start breathing slowly and deeply, chasing stress away from your mind.

Getting back to sweating caused by exercising, do not get the wrong idea that you should stop exercising, so that you won’t sweat and lose your hair. Exercising is perfectly healthy for your body, just do remember to wash and rinse thoroughly your scalp after each exercising session. This habit is extremely useful especially when you sweat a lot, allowing you to remove lactic acid from your hair and preventing it from producing any damages. Also, try using high-quality shampoos that are adequate for frequent use, in case you know that you exercise quite often and you’ll have to wash your hair in the same manner.

Again, stopping from performing your usual activities just because they make you sweat is not a wise choice. It is believed that excessive sweating is related to hair loss, but solid evidence lack when it comes to making sweating the primary culprit of hair fall. People that do sweat excessively may have a problem that they are not aware of. A poor diet, living with high-stress levels, constant anxiety, even liver problems, they all make the body sweat too much. Also, of these causes can lead to hair loss if they aren’t properly addressed. So make sure your diet contains healthy and diverse food and that you do your best to keep stress, anxiety, and tension under control. In case you notice that hair is getting thinner and rarer in areas where you usually sweat a lot, such as on the temples or in any other parts of your scalp, the first thing you should do is to make sure you follow a strict hygiene program. This means to always wash your scalp after working out or if you know you sweated during the day. Next, you should see what is causing your excessive sweating, because the cause that triggered too much sweating may cause your hair loss as well, and not the sweat alone. So talking to a doctor and going through some medical checks will help.

Sweating is normal and natural, as it is a method used by our body to get rid of toxins. But, when sweat is abundant, it may start to create problems, such as hair loss. It is good to remember that while lactic acid in sweat is damaging hair, it is less likely for the sweat to be the only cause behind hair loss. There are higher chances for your hair loss to be caused by whatever may be causing excessive sweating.

Maja Tisma is the co-founder and editor of ShampooTruth.com. She works as a professional graphic designer and blogger, but she has a big passion for beauty & health.