Gut Health and Hair Loss: Exploring the Link

You’ve probably heard of the gut-brain connection or even the gut-skin axis, but did you know there’s also a link between gut health and hair loss?

As it turns out, poor gut health can lead to an array of issues that can contribute to hair loss, including nutrient deficiencies, chronic inflammation, autoimmune responses, and hormonal imbalances. So if you’re experiencing increased shedding, it’s possible gut health may play a role.

Here, we’ll cover the basics of gut health, go into detail on what we know about how gut health affects hair loss, plus offer simple tweaks you can make to improve your overall gut health.

You can think of the gut microbiome as a community of bacteria and other microorganisms (like fungi and viruses) that live in the digestive tract. When you have enough “good bacteria” to fight off the bad bacteria, everything in the community is balanced, and the body hums along.

But that bad bacteria? It likes to party. Bad bacteria feed on things like sugar, highly processed foods, artificial sweeteners, red meat, and alcohol. Eating and drinking too much of these things can overtake the beneficial bacteria, meaning there aren’t enough microbial enzymes to break down food and absorb nutrients.

Imbalances in the gut microbiome (known as gut dysbiosis) can disrupt the body's delicate equilibrium. This can lead to issues like nutrient deficiencies and inflammation, affecting hair growth and health.

Things like eating a healthy diet (including fermented foods, like kimchi or kombucha) and getting enough sleep can help support a healthy microbiome. We’ll discuss how to support gut health from the outside in, but first, we’ll cover how the gut impacts hair health.

Your hair may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of gut health, but research shows that there is a link between the microbiome and various types of alopecia.

While most of the microbiome is in the gut, the skin (and, therefore, the scalp) also has its own microbiome, and the skin microbiome can be influenced by the gut. For example, researchers have found a link between the scalp microbiome and dandruff.

The link between gut health and hair loss involves several factors. We’ll break each one down.

Gut Health Can Impact Nutrient Absorption

Flashback to high school science for a minute. The duodenum (the part of the gut that connects the stomach to the small intestine) plays a crucial role in the absorption of nutrients. These include vitamins A, C, D, E, K, and biotin, as well as minerals like iron, zinc, and selenium — many of which are essential vitamins for hair health.

Poor gut health can cause malabsorption and lead to deficiencies in these nutrients, contributing to hair loss. Over time, poor gut health can lead to conditions like inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which can prevent proper nutrient absorption.

Poor Gut Health Can Trigger An Autoimmune Response

When the gut microbiota becomes imbalanced, it can cause the intestines to become more permeable. Sometimes, this permeability can lead to “leaky gut” syndrome, a condition where substances that should stay in the gut leak out into other areas of the body. This can cause a cascade of negative effects in the body, including potentially triggering immune responses and certain autoimmune conditions.

In fact, research on mice indicates that a certain gut microbe, E. gallinarum, can trigger autoimmune disease if it moves through the gut barrier into tissue. But what does this have to do with hair loss?

Certain types of alopecia — including alopecia areata (categorized by patchy hair loss on the scalp and sometimes facial hair) and alopecia universalis (hair loss all over the body) — are actually autoimmune diseases. In these diseases, the immune system attacks the hair follicles, thinking they’re foreign intruders.

Learn more about this connection in our guide to autoimmune diseases that cause hair loss.

Gut Health Can Affect Hormonal Balance

Research on women shows that gut health can affect hormones in a number of ways and potentially contribute to the development of insulin resistance, hyperandrogenism, chronic inflammation, and metabolic syndrome.

Male pattern baldness is largely caused by genetic sensitivity to the male hormone DHT. And it turns out that the gut flora (also called gut microbiota) is also correlated with testosterone levels. In a study on male patients with type 2 diabetes, two types of gut bacteria were found to be much higher in a group of patients with testosterone deficiency.

It’s not entirely clear what this means for hair loss just yet, but recent research has established a link between specific gut microbiota and androgenic alopecia. Interestingly, some bacteria have been identified as a risk factor for developing male pattern baldness, and others seem to have a protective effect against it.

Poor Gut Health Can Trigger Chronic Inflammation

While inflammation is beneficial to a degree (it’s the body’s way of fighting off injury or infection), chronic inflammation — wherein the body stays inflamed for several months or even years — can cause a number of issues in the body, including hair loss.

Gut health can affect inflammation in the body, with some foods having a pro-inflammatory effect (think fried foods and sugary beverages like soda) and others, like green leafy vegetables and certain fruits, fighting inflammation.

Persistent inflammation in the body can damage hair follicles. Eventually, it can lead to a condition called cicatricial alopecia, or scarring alopecia, which is a type of permanent hair loss.

The good news? You can easily improve your gut health by making a few small diet and lifestyle tweaks. Here’s how.

Manage Stress

We all know that stress isn’t great for our overall health, but research on rodents has shown that stress can quickly alter the composition of gut bacteria. High stress levels also may trigger inflammation and alter the hair growth cycle, shifting hair from the anagen phase (where it grows) to the resting or telogen phase.

Stress management techniques like yoga, breathing exercises, or something as simple as going for a walk can make a big difference towards reducing stress and, as a result, gut dysfunction.

Limit Antibiotic Use

Antibiotics work by wiping out bacterial infections. Unfortunately, they wipe the good bacteria out with the bad. Research also shows that regularly taking antibiotics, as well as antacids and NSAIDs, can lead to inflammation in the gut.

While sometimes an antibiotic is completely necessary, it’s helpful to take a probiotic and eat fermented foods throughout to help keep good bacteria in check.

Cut Back On Artificial Sweeteners

Research suggests that certain artificial sweeteners — including saccharin, sucralose, and aspartame — alter the composition of gut microbiota and potentially cause inflammation.

The severity of these effects seems to be dose-dependent though, and there’s not much evidence that the occasional use of artificial sweeteners causes disruptions to the microbiome.

Still, limiting artificial sweeteners is a good starting point when it comes to maintaining gut health.

Try Fermented Foods

Fermented foods contain probiotics that help support a healthy gut microbiome. For example, research has found kimchi to have anti-diabetic and anti-obesity effects. Other fermented foods to try include:

• Yogurt

• Kombucha

• Miso

• Kefir

• Sourdough

• Certain cheeses

• Sauerkraut

Additionally, while probiotics support good bacteria in the gut, that bacteria needs food. Prebiotics, which are generally high-fiber foods like bananas, oats, flax, whole grains, and garlic, feed that good bacteria.

Take a Probiotic

Beyond just fermented foods, research conducted on mice found that incorporating a probiotic supplement, specifically one containing lactobacillus paracasei (often found in fermented dairy products), helped promote hair growth. It did so by creating additional blood vessels, which allowed more nutrients to reach the scalp.

The research also found that lactobacillus paracasei, when paired with the plant ingredient Lycopus lucidus Turcz, had a “cytoprotective effect” on hair follicle cells, meaning it increased cellular resistance to outside damage, like oxidative stress.

Prioritize Sleep

If you need another reason to take a nap, add this one to your list: Research shows that sleep deprivation leads to changes in gut microbiome composition (though certain studies do not find this correlation). Some evidence also suggests that the gut microbiome can influence sleep quality.

While maintaining gut health is important for hair health, you can’t just take a probiotic and expect to never deal with male pattern baldness or other types of hair loss again.

If you’re noticing hair thinning, you may need to consider one of the following hair loss treatment options alongside your other holistic efforts:

• Finasteride: Finasteride is an FDA-approved treatment for male pattern baldness. Many years of research have proven its effectiveness in slowing hair loss due to androgenic alopecia. This medication is a DHT blocker, meaning it blocks the body’s ability to convert testosterone to another male hormone, DHT, which, in excess quantities, can cause hair loss.

• Minoxidil: Another treatment for hair loss is topical minoxidil solution or minoxidil foam. This vasodilator is believed to increase blood flow to hair follicles, encouraging hair growth. Oral minoxidil is not FDA-approved specifically for hair loss, but it is sometimes prescribed off-label and can be a good alternative to topical minoxidil, especially for those who have trouble keeping up with twice-daily topical application.

TL;DR? We got you. Here’s what to remember about the link between gut health and hair loss:

• Poor gut health can lead to nutrient deficiencies and chronic inflammation, both of which can impact heath hair growth. An imbalanced gut microbiome can also trigger autoimmune responses and hormonal imbalances, both of which are linked to various forms of hair loss, including alopecia areata and male pattern baldness.

• Researchers are still exploring the link between androgenic alopecia and gut health specifically. That said, we know maintaining a balanced gut microbiome helps with the absorption of essential nutrients for hair health (like biotin, zinc, and vitamin A). It also helps prevent certain conditions like inflammatory bowel disease that hinder nutrient absorption.

• Managing stress, limiting antibiotics and artificial sweeteners, incorporating fermented foods as well as probiotics, and prioritizing sleep can support gut health. However, while these measures can improve overall gut health and potentially benefit hair health, they should complement proven hair loss treatments like finasteride and minoxidil for effective results when it comes to hair regrowth.

If you’re looking to chat with an expert about hair loss and treatment options, you can connect with a healthcare professional online.