Do Hats Cause Hair Loss?

The belief that wearing a hat promotes hair loss, like other hair loss myths, is not supported by genuine evidence. However, it is a tenacious fallacy that has persisted for decades.

We’ve discussed what causes hair loss and why it’s perfectly acceptable to wear a hat if you’re losing your hair.

We’ve also included tried-and-true, science-backed solutions for treating hair loss and protecting your hair from the consequences of male pattern baldness.

Do Hats Lead to Hair Loss?

Let’s get started. No, wearing a hat does not usually result in hair loss. In truth, no credible scientific data demonstrates that wearing a hat contributes to hair loss. Anything you put on your head, including hats, may strain on your hair roots.

Androgenetic alopecia, often known as male pattern baldness, is the most frequent kind of hair loss in males.

Male pattern baldness is caused by a mix of genetic and hormonal variables, such as susceptibility to the hormone dihydrotestosterone, or DHT.

DHT is produced by your body as a consequence of testosterone, the principal male sex hormone.

If you are genetically predisposed to DHT sensitivity, this hormone can adhere to your hair follicles and cause progressive damage, eventually preventing them from forming new hairs.

We’ve discussed this process in further depth below and in our guide on DHT and the hair loss process.

Is it true that wearing a hat causes hair loss? There are several urban legends surrounding hair loss, with people blaming anything from sun exposure to stress, sleep patterns, and hairstyle products for their receding hairlines.

Because wearing a hat has no effect on your DHT levels, there’s no reason to believe it contributes to hair loss.

So, do hats cause baldness?

In a nutshell, no. However, because wearing a hat can mess up your hair, it may highlight some indications of hair loss.

Excessive hair shedding, for example, is one of the most prevalent early indications of hair loss.

While it is typical to lose 50 to 100 hairs every day, persons who suffer from hair loss may shed substantially more.

If you’re starting to lose hair, you could discover stray hairs inside your hat when you take it off.

While it may appear that your hat is causing you to lose hair, this is only a coincidence. If stray hairs do not settle inside your hat, they will accumulate on your pillowcase, in your shower drain, or in other places.

Another reason many people equate hat-wearing with hair loss is that wearing a hat can cause your hair to seem flat and unkempt, especially if you wear it for an extended period of time.

When your hair is messed up, factors like a receding hairline or baldness around the crown (the top of your head) might become more evident, highlighting your hair loss.

This, like the previous instance, does not imply that your hat is causing hair loss. It may merely make a receding hairline or other indicators of hair loss more visible.

Hat Wearing and Hair Loss Research

Surprisingly, some study suggests that wearing a hat may lower your chance of hair loss over the course of your life.

Researchers analyzed 92 identical male twins to measure the degree of their hair loss as well as the variables that may play a role in the hair loss process in a study published in the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

The researchers discovered that some characteristics, such as smoking and the prevalence of dandruff, were linked to a greater degree of frontal hair loss (hair loss around the hairline).

They also discovered that some other characteristics, such as a higher BMI and testosterone levels, were linked to less hair loss around the hairline.

Wearing a hat was one of these variables. Contrary to popular belief, hat-wearing twins were less likely than non-hat-wearing twins to experience severe frontal hair loss.

The True Cause of Hair Loss

As we briefly explained above, dihydrotestosterone, or DHT, is the cause of male pattern baldness (the sort of hair loss that forms a bald area around your head or a receding hairline).

DHT is a male steroid hormone that your body naturally produces as a consequence of testosterone.

DHT is an important hormone that plays a significant role in the development of your male secondary sex characteristics during infancy and adolescence.

DHT, like testosterone, is responsible for the development of your genitals, the formation of your bone structure, and the stimulation of the growth of your body, facial, and pubic hair.

However, as men age, DHT becomes less of an important hormone and, for some, an inconvenience.

DHT encourages the growth of your prostate as an adult, the function of your sebaceous glands (the oil-producing glands within your skin that contribute to acne), and, in some men, male pattern baldness.

DHT, in particular, can attach to receptors in your scalp, causing your hair follicles to progressively shrink through a process known as shrinkage.

These follicles eventually cease generating new hairs, resulting in anything from slight thinning to severe hair loss that involves nearly your whole scalp.

Because not everyone is equally vulnerable to the effects of DHT, some men shed hair early in childhood while others can keep an absolutely faultless hairline far into old age.

Although male pattern baldness is the most prevalent cause of male hair loss, other factors can also contribute to hair loss.

For example, continuous stress, a severe infection, or sickness that induces a fever can all result in telogen effluvium, a kind of hair loss.

This kind of hair loss typically manifests as widespread thinning that affects your entire scalp, as opposed to the receding hairline or bald patch seen in male pattern baldness.

Telogen effluvium hair loss is typically transitory, which means you’ll regrow whatever hair you’ve lost once the underlying cause is addressed.

Certain medical conditions, such as tinea capitis (scalp fungus) and alopecia areata, can also cause hair loss.

Our guide on the many types of hair loss goes into further depth about how these types of hair loss might manifest.

Simply told, wearing a hat is not to blame for your hair loss. Instead, male pattern baldness is the most likely cause of your hair loss, which is caused by a combination of DHT’s actions and your genes.