Does caffeine make your hair grow?
It's the big hitter, of all the non-medical substances we have looked at, this one is definitely the most well known. But does caffeine work to re-grow your hair?
Role of caffeine in hair loss
This is the 4th of our series of analysis of over the counter, non-prescription hair growth products. Investigating trends on social media that promise to get your locks back to their teenage selves. As always, we back up our blog with journal papers.
This time we look at caffeine, that well known pharmacological active that most of us ingest daily in our teas, coffee and chocolate – but if we put it on our scalps – does it make our hair grow? Read on to find out.
Caffeine the plant :
Caffeine is a stimulant substance present in over 30 plants including coffee, tea leaves, kola nuts, yerba mate, guarana plants and cacao pods. The effects of caffeine as a stimulant are well known, helping you wake up in the morning but also causing amongst other things, heart palpitations, tremors and anxiety if taken in excess.
But caffeine isn’t just for our morning wake up, used in modern medicine, caffeine can be highly effective, for example in the treatment and prevention of lung disease in premature infants.
Caffeine history and myth:
One of the oldest ‘drugs’ in use, caffeine is deeply built into culture and mythology throughout the world. It is difficult to find the exact origin of who or when caffeine containing substances were first used. Archaeologists have found evidence of caffeine use dating to around 8000 to 1000 BC where the leaves and stems of the caffeine containing yaupon holly were used by Native Americans to brew a tea called asi or the "black drink”. Coffee can be traced back to around 7000 BC in Mesopotamia. While on the tea front, myth has it that the Chinese emperor Shennong inadvertently discovered tea in 3000 BCE . Initially called Jo, Java or Jitter juice and later know as coffee it came to our shores in the UK at the end of the 16th century while the first recorded commercialisation of coffee in the UK is the mid 17th century where coffee was sold to the public at a coffeehouse in 1650 in Oxford. The building is now known as the Grand Café. The actual substance caffeine however, was first isolated by a young physician called Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge who purified the white crystalline substance in 1819. So, we were drinking it and using its plants for medicinal purposes hundreds of years before the substance was isolated – but who thought to put it on our hair?
First a bit about hair growth and loss including and male / female pattern androgenic alopecia.
How does hair grow?
In brief, each hair follicle on the scalp produces a hair strand which grows for about 2-6 years (the longer it grows the longer your hair). After growth it goes into its resting phase for several months, then falls out. The cycle then starts all over again.
What do we mean by androgenic alopecia?
Commonly known as male or female pattern hair loss, androgenic alopecia is the commonest cause of hair loss in both sexes. It is estimated that approximately 80% of men and 55% of women will experience this type of hair loss by the age of 80. (1,2)
In both sexes the hair loss follows a typical pattern, in males beginning over both temples then receding to form the characteristic M shaped ultimately leading to total baldness in some cases. In females, the hair loss pattern involves thinning of the hair, often seen as a wider parting. This often starts around the time of the menopause.
Androgens play a part in this hair loss, over stimulation of the hair follicle by androgens leads to exhaustion and ultimately miniaturisation of the follicle followed by hair loss. In androgenic alopecia there is a genetic variant on the AR (androgen receptor) gene causing excess stimulation of the hair follicle.
Theoretically caffeine reduces hair loss in several ways
- like Rosemary oil and Pumpkin Seed oil it naturally counteracts the effects of dihydrotestosterone (DHT), a hormone that influences your genes to suppress hair growth in the hair follicle.
- Lowers TGF- beta2 protein levels and increases IGF-1 hair growth regulators to stimulate hair growth.
- Helps prevent damage and breakage to your hair by protecting the outer root sheath.
So, what is the evidence behind Caffeine Shampoos?
It all started in 2007 when a trial showed caffeine to help stimulate hair follicles in a petri dish (1). This then triggered several trials involving people rather than test tubes showing that caffeine did indeed help thicken and strengthen hair along with reduce hair loss (2,3,4). One of these trials compared topical caffeine with the prescription only medication Minoxidil (in this country sold under the name Regaine). It showed that caffeine appeared to work as well as the minoxidil (4). Another trial involved females showing that after caffeine use less hair was lost in the hair pull test (5) .
The above trials were for people who suffer from male or female androgenic alopecia. However, one trial showed caffeine to work in females suffering from telogen effluvium, a type of hair loss secondary to trauma, stress or emotional shock.
The latest trial was done in Sept 24- again backing up evidence for caffeine (7) in a shampoo – this time with the protein adenosine also in the shampoo.
There are other types of hair loss that haven’t been studied, these include traction alopecia, hair loss secondary to medications, poor nutritional status or other health problems such as thyroid disorders, autoimmune disorders and depression.
What is the catch?
If all these trials are showing the benefit of caffeine either as a topical solution or in shampoo why then is caffeine shampoo not a licensed drug, nor mentioned either on the NHS website or the British Dermatology Association website as something to try in cases of male and female androgenic alopecia? And why in 2018 did the UK Advertising Standards Authority rule that the caffeine shampoo Alpecin must no longer advertise that it can "help to reduce hair loss" as there was no adequate evidence to support the claim?
Well, in my opinion, caffeine has shown lots of potential both in petri dishes and on people, but it hasn’t been through the rigorous trials to get a drug licensed, it hasn’t been proven beyond doubt that it works. To have a medicine licensed in the UK it has to go through rigorous trials. The Medicines Health Care and Products Regulatory Agency or MHRA for short firstly needs to see evidence that the medicine works well enough and is safe enough to be used for a specific condition in a specific group of patients. Also, the manufacturer has to prove that they can manufacture the medicine to the required quality. While we have promising trials showing that caffeine both in lotions and shampoos helps hair in the field of hair loss, I can only imagine that there is not a strong enough body of evidence to pass the MHRA criteria. The licensed medications for hair loss on the UK market are topical minoxidil and oral finasteride or dutasteride.
Conclusion
So it’s a bit disappointing, the shampoos are out there, there have been some promising trials - but not promising enough. In short there does not seem to be the body of evidence to say this will definitely work.
On the flip side – it is unlikely to do you any harm* and might be a good first place to start before you go down the route of stronger – but proven – licensed medications.
Remember however, on stopping your caffeine shampoo – like stopping minoxidil , any improvement to your hair will stop, and your hair loss will revert back to what it was. Meaning, if you feel that your caffeine shampoo has helped, then you need to keep on using it to maintain your hair, but it is stated that with prolonged use of caffeine it loses its efficacy – a catch 22.
So, you don’t want to use proven licensed medication but would like a six-month boost for some stronger thicker hair before say a big social event – then yes – nothing to lose. A long-term option for treatment of hair loss – I think sadly not.
References. :
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17214716/
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1517/14656561003752730
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4989388/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29055953/ - MINOXIDIL VIS CAFFEINE topical solution
- https://www.minervamedica.it/en/journals/Ital-J-Dermatol-Venereol/article.php?cod=R23Y2020N04A0492 – hair pull test in females
- https://scientificeditorial.com/index.php/JAC/article/view/Efficacy-of-a-Cosmetic-Caffeine-Shampoo-in-Androgenetic-Alopecia - caffeine in hair loss males works as a stimulator of hair growth
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38764299– caffeine with adenosine in shampoo.
* side effects can include mild skin irritation, hair discolouration and rarely allergic reaction to the shampoo.