Alcohol and hair loss/greying
 

Hello everyone,

I'm a long time lurker of these forums and infrequent poster, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on this issue please.

I've been abusing alcohol for a long time (15 years) and in recent years my hair has gone almost completely grey/white and has started falling out to what I think is a noticeable degree. I'm female, 39 years old and this greying/hair loss pattern doesn't run in my family at all.

I spoke to my Dr about this and asked could this be due to alcohol; she said yes but in my arrogance (and desire to keep drinking) I'm thinking 'Sure what does she know?!' so I was wondering if anyone here has any experience of this happening. I suppose I'm kind of hoping that people will tell me that YES, this is because of drinking, and also hoping that I can hear that if I stop drinking I can stop this loss.

It sounds very vain but I'm hoping that maybe vanity can give me cause to stop drinking because nothing else has.

Thanks for any input.
Anna

I can't relate to the hair loss but I'm 28 years old and I have so many grey hairs! My hair is naturally dark brown so I've had to lighten it to try and blend them but I am very grey for my age. I do think a little bit of it is genetic but most of it I think has been accelerated by alcohol use. Someone I went to school with had a mini meltdown on Facebook recently about finding her first grey hair and here I am with a million! It's depressing.

A friend of mine went through a spell where her hair was thinning massively and started using a special conditioner which helped. Our hair is so closely linked with our diet though so eating a balanced diet/supplementing for any nutritional deficiencies will work wonders

Many factors can cause early greying of hair, excessive alcohol/coffee/tea/fatty and oily foods/stress/sinus problems/smoking. Alcohol won’t be helping your cause any. xx

I have been a very heavy drinker for over 30 years. I am a female and do not have a single gray or white hair. However my hair has thinned significantly. I really only noticed that difference going thru menopause. I think its mostly genetics and hormonal changes.

I just noticed today that I seem to have some grey on the sides of my head. I'm a 33 year old male. I was a drinker for about 15 years, the last two insanely heavy.

I have very little hair so have shaved it for the last 20 odd years. I also get a lot of grey. Baldness doesn't run in my family.
My wife is 38 and has had loads of grey hairs for years. She goes through stages of thinning out and bald spots but the hair always seems to return. She doesn't drink but is a very stressful woman.
It doesn't make sense to me that alcohol would be a direct link. Some people just seem to be blessed with good hair and others not so much.

Alcohol is to blame for many things in my life but I don't think I can blame my lack of hair on it. Though drinking certainly won't make it grow back.

There was a great thread in the Women's forum about losing your beauty to alcohol. Is it vanity? Sure, but hey, whatever works to get you to stop drinking.

Everyone is different and just because some people go unaffected does not mean your hair will not. I can recall many people saying that their hair always felt brittle while drinking. This of course makes sense because alcohol only dehydrates a person.

Want more vanity tips? Quitting alcohol does wonders for your skin, reduces the bags under your eyes, loses weight and improves your sleep which compounds those benefits.

Anna,

You’ll find plenty of folks, including myself, that saw a dramatic improvement in appearance after quitting. My own hair was dry as a chip and brittle, but is now obnoxiously healthy. I did have a loss of the outer third of my eyebrows, which can be an indicator of thyroid troubles. My blood work checked out, but between that and other indicators of hormone troubles, along with the litany of other reasons to quit, I did.

Happy to say that my ‘brows are back. Along with clear skin, weight loss, and looking better generally than I did 10 years ago. I’m approaching menopause, so nothing stays the same, but many ailments I blamed on my 40’s have vanished. Along with that is an immeasurable peace of mind.

You’ll find lots of great resources here to educate yourself about the many reasons why and ways that people seek sobriety. I certainly identify with your wanting a good, firm, external reason to force you to choose. I struggled with finding a “reason” to quit for a long time. I ended up discovering that quitting gives me back the life I didn’t know I was missing, and the rewards of sobriety continue to reveal themselves.

Best wishes,
-bora

Interesting link regarding alcohol and hair loss:

https://www.the-alcoholism-guide.org...hair-loss.html

Tons of information on line about hair loss/graying and alcoholism.

My personal experience is that hard drinking definitely causes hair to fall out. My addiction has morphed and changed over the years. The finals throws I became a hard bender drinker...drinking myself almost to death over a few days then staying sober for long stretches. No doubt, I would have a huge hair fall out after these benders. Haven't had one in a long time, hair is nice and thick.

I did start graying young but that's a family thing. I actually had no idea that boozing could cause graying but apparently it can! Who knew?

Restoring vitamin/mineral balance is key, especially the b vites. B1, 12, folate, Biotin. Talk to your dr about supplementation.

My hair wouldn't grow while I was actively abusing alcohol. It was dull with no shine or luster and I would "trim" it when drinking and that would only make it look even more horrible. I swear one of many factors that keeps me sober is that I look so much more attractive. My hair, my skin, , my eyes, my posture, my body, etc. The list goes on.

Thanks everyone for your responses, they're really helpful. It does seem like in many cases there's a link and I'm glad to hear that people experienced positive changes after quitting. Stops me from thinking there's no point and I may as well just keep drinking anyway!

Thanks for the links and thread mention, I will check those out.

I love the support on this forum. Thanks and best wishes to you all :grouphug:

My hair thinned some the last year I was drinking. It has been 2 1/2 years and it is just now returning to the way it was before. The dryness in my skin is exponentially better than when I was drinking.

Hair greying reversal after 1 year
 

I am 60 years old, drinking everyday since a teen. Very heavily from about 3 years ago, and I faced many, many health and social problems.
I stopped drinking 13 months ago, and things started to change, slowly at first - it was no overnight.
My hair was white/grey on sides and back, greying on top.
My beard/tash were previously white and grey, with some dark patches.
In my 30's they were red/ginger.
3 weeks ago I regrew the beard and there is quite a bit of ginger color in it this time, so (some) color has come back.
I asked my son and he said he noticed that my hair was no longer grey, that is has turned back to brown.
So there it is first-hand evidence that hair color can return after 1 year of abstaining from alcohol abuse.

Welcome revup :)
Congrats on 13 months :)

D

My hair loss came and went in sobriety--seemed to be from stress (self-created, too!).

Could just be genetics. I had few white/silver hairs, now that I'm shy of 60, I am now getting brand new whites/silvers.

Relax, focus on not drinking and creating a balanced life in sobriety.

I'm glad you posted this because my hair is definitely thinner on top and I thought it was my age (47). My hair is dull and like straw which it always is after a drinking spell and always recovers. Luckily I have a ton of hair so the thinning isn't that noticeable and I can pull the clusters of greys out! Hopefully our hair will recover xx

Oh boy! This was HUGE for me. I had a ton of hair for decades - and that is a recent profile pic so you can see what it's like now....but when I quit drinking at 39 (3 yr and change ago) my hair was thin and awful and my scalp was a disaster. I am certain that alcohol and as a byproduct, nutrition, were the primary causes. I've become close friends with my stylist and colorist and now I'm pretty much their model for follicular resurrection. Getting sober and healthy was the thing.

I'm sure part of my genetics helped in that fight since my parents have tons of hair and I always did, but it's something I have always been protective of, except when I cared about mostly nothing at the end of my drinking. Good products have helped and all, but IMO it's been sober time. And now those two talented folks helping me out ;)

Pop to a hairdresser and check it’s not alopecia 👍