Around 53% of men and 37% of women will experience significant hair loss in their lifetime, the National Council on Aging reveals. If you’ve started to notice more hair on your brush or in your shower, you may be wondering if your workouts are to blame. The good news is strength training itself usually isn’t the problem. But it can potentially play a role in hair loss if your workouts are intense and you’re not eating or recovering properly. These habits place extra stress on the body and keep cortisol levels high, and this can contribute to hair loss over time. Fortunately, if you eat enough protein, recover well and don’t push your body too far, you can build strength and keep your hair healthy at the same time.
Protect your hair with protein
It’s recommended that you eat about 1.6-2.2g of protein (0.06-0.08oz) per kg of body weight every day while strength training in order to support muscle repair and growth. Your body constantly breaks down and repairs muscle tissue after your workouts so your protein demands are a bit higher than someone who doesn’t regularly train. Protein notably also helps strengthen your hair as well as your muscles. Hair is mostly made of a protein called keratin and so you need to eat enough protein to support new hair growth. But hair growth is rarely your body’s priority when you haven’t been eating enough protein or calories. This can actually trigger telogen effluvium, a type of hair loss that causes sudden and noticeable shedding. The issue isn't strength training itself, but the combination of demanding workouts and insufficient fuel to help you recover. So you really do need to hit your protein targets in order to provide the amino acids and energy your body needs to produce keratin and support healthy hair growth.
Don’t skip recovery
You can also help your hair by recovering properly after your workouts. It’s during recovery that your levels of cortisol (a stress hormone) return to normal. Cortisol can be useful temporarily, but if it stays high then it may suppress the signals that tell your hair follicles to grow. One of the main ways you can recover is to get enough sleep. Around seven to nine hours every night as this is when cortisol drops and muscle repair happens. Also don't train fasted if you're already in a caloric deficit as this gives your body double the cortisol hit, so to speak. Eating your protein within a couple of hours of your workout ending can also be beneficial. This gives your body the raw materials it needs to repair.
Lifestyle changes alone should hopefully be enough to help your hair in most cases, but for some people (and particularly men) extra support may be needed. Men are more susceptible to hair loss than women, and high cortisol may further increase sensitivity to DHT, which is the hormone responsible for genetic hair loss. If this is the case for you, DHT blockers can block DHT in the body and they’ve been proven to improve men’s hair count after just twelve weeks. But the right hair loss treatment for men will really depend on the underlying cause of the hair loss and what exactly your hair needs to recover and grow stronger.
Don’t overdo it
Excessive training can contribute to hair shedding because prolonged physical stress can impact the hair growth cycle and cause more follicles to stop growing temporarily and shed instead. You can still train hard, just don’t over do it and increase your training intensity gradually. Make one change at a time. For example, either increase your weight or increase your repetitions. Don’t increase both at once. This’ll give your body time to adapt and prevent excessive stress that could affect recovery, and, in turn, your hair. Also, pay attention if your workouts are making you super tired or you notice you’re taking longer to recover after. These are likely signs your body is under too much stress and needs more time to rest and recover.
Don’t let your workouts get in the way of healthy hair. Take care to give your body the nutrition and recovery it needs and you’ll achieve all your goals.