Throughout your life, you will probably hear all sorts of myths about caffeine and its effect on your body and mind. The truth is, that caffeine can benefit you in various ways—as long as you drink healthy daily amounts.
Among all the benefits of caffeine, there is a belief that caffeine can cure baldness and promote hair growth. If you’d like to know if this is true, keep reading the rest of our article below. Applying caffeine topically can promote new hair growth and lessen hair loss, but no, drinking caffeine can’t cure baldness.
What is Caffeine?
Caffeine comes from the leaves and fruits of plants such as coffee plants, cacao trees, cola trees, guarana, and yerba mate. It is a stimulant that affects your nervous system and brain. Many soft drinks and energy drinks, as well as tea, cocoa, and coffee, contain caffeine, and their amounts can vary.
When you consume caffeine, the activity in your brain and nervous system will increase while also increasing the adrenaline and cortisol in your body. Smaller doses of caffeine can make you feel focused, refreshed, and ready for a new challenge, while higher dosages can cause sleeping issues and make you anxious.
As caffeine is a stimulant, your body can quickly become used to it and develop tolerance, making you need to increase your intake for the same effect.
Positive Impacts of Caffeine on our Bodies
First, let’s talk about the positive impacts of caffeine on our bodies. When you consume caffeine in moderate amounts, the effects will be positive, so having a cup of coffee or a soft drink now and then can actually help you. Here are some of the benefits of caffeine:
- Improves mood
- Increases alertness
- Increases concentration
- Can boost weight loss
- Can slow down the mental decline that comes with age
- Helps your liver
- May lower the risk of cancer
- Promotes hair growth
Negative Impacts of Caffeine on our Bodies
On the other hand, if you consume caffeine in high doses, the negative impact on your body could be substantial. Although not everyone will experience the bad side effects of caffeine, it’s good to know what can happen when you intake a lot of caffeine. Here is a list of negative impacts caffeine can have on people:
- Irritability
- Shakes
- Diarrhea
- Heartburn
- Dizziness
- Worsened anxiety/depression
- Insomnia
- Headaches
- Night sweats and hot flashes during menopause
Caffeine Impact on Hair Follicles
Hair loss is a normal process, and many outdoor effects such as humidity, sunlight, UV rays, dust, and pollution can increase hair loss. Also, physical or emotional stress, hormones, and nutrition can affect the growth of your hair, cause depigmentation, and even lead to baldness.
As many people want to keep their hair as healthy as possible, they can turn to various methods to promote growth and keep their hair in good shape. That’s where caffeine comes into the picture. You’ve probably seen shampoos and conditioners with caffeine extract that are supposed to boost your hair growth and reduce the possibility of baldness, but are they really effective?
Scientists in Indonesia researched the effect of caffeine on hair follicles. The final results show that shampoos with caffeine can prevent 7.17% of hair loss in 3 months and 13.45% in 6 months. When you wash your hair with caffeinated shampoo, it will penetrate the follicles and promote hair growth.
Another study from 2007 on caffeine’s effect on the proliferation of human hair follicles in vitro shows that caffeine leads to a significant stimulation of hair follicles and their growth. That’s why caffeine is an excellent way to fight androgenetic alopecia.
The Medical Faculty from Germany also did a study on the topic. Their results show that caffeine positively impacts hair follicles in both males and females, making the hair root longer and promoting keratin production inside the follicles.
Will Caffeine Help my Hair Grow?
Caffeine can help your hair grow, although instead of drinking it, you’ll need to turn to caffeinated shampoos, conditioners, serums, or pills. Drinking coffee wouldn’t be useful as you would need to drink over 50 cups to see the results! That could lead to severe health issues as you would exceed the recommended daily intake of caffeine.
Caffeinated shampoos, serums, conditioners, and pills can be helpful tools in fighting hair loss, although you’ll need to mix caffeine with other treatments to gain the best effect. The topical application of products containing caffeine can be effective if you apply them regularly.
You could also use caffeine scrubs that you’ll apply to your scalp, as that is the best way for your hair follicles to soak in all the needed caffeine to make your hair longer and thicker.
Will Caffeine Cure Baldness?
Caffeine reduces the creation of DHT, which is an enzyme responsible for the loss of hair. Unfortunately, applying a caffeinated topical solution cannot cure baldness, but it can promote hair growth and lower the effects of hair loss.
However, you need to remember that drinking coffee won’t be enough to promote the growth of new hair follicles and that you’ll need to topically apply caffeine onto the follicles so that they can soak it in. For better results, you could mix caffeinated shampoos with other substances that promote hair growth.
In Conclusion
Caffeine cannot cure baldness, but it can lower the effects of DHT, and promote hair growth, meaning you’ll grow more hair instead of losing it. However, if you’d like to stop losing any hair, you’ll need to turn to various treatments instead of just applying caffeine to your scalp and hair.
Featured Image Credit: Nappy, Pexels
