Hello everyone! As seen in the previous post, I was focusing on air pollutionwith regards to daily usage and exposure to daily household items, henceforth for this new blog post, I will be sharing the more issues with regards to air pollutants on human skin and hair.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90432711/air-pollution-might-be-why-youre-going-bald
How Air Pollution is damaging hairs everyday?
Air pollutants such as particulate matter has been linked to respiratory problems and outdoor air pollution claiming many lives each year. Although there is little or no study on the effect of particulate matter exposure on human skin and hair, a recent study have shown that most common air pollutants lead to hair loss (Zoppi, 2019). The sources of particulate matter is enormous, ranging from petrol and diesel fumes from motor vehicles as well as the burning of fuels like coal, oil and biomass. A separate study carried out by hair transplant surgeon Rajendrasingh Rajput discovered that pollution can cause increased sensitivity in the scalp, leading to itching, dandruff, excess oils, and painful hair roots (Zoppi, 2019). This meant that, exposure to common air pollutants created from burning fossil fuels, where the human scalp were exposed to, could significantly reduce the growth and hair retention.
For example, when walking along the streets, the hair can pick up metal deposits like copper and iron and other particle matter. These pollutants make hair drier, duller and more difficult to manage.
Another separate study shows that there are changes in hair properties in an environment containing a high concentration of airborne pollutants such as PM 2.5 /10 (Qu, Niu, Kroon, & Foltis, 2018). The study was stimulated by cigarette smoke in a closed chamber that is similar to air pollution, containing primary air pollutants, liquid droplets and particulate matter. The study shows that although the act of cleaning of the hair using water and shampoo, could reduce the physical damaged to hair, the harmful compounds in air pollutants can continue to penetrate into hair stem and roots (Qu, Niu, Kroon, & Foltis, 2018). This further accumulates over time causing damage to the hair cuticle and protein breakdown, responsible to promote hair growth.
To conclude, air pollution generally have an effect on human hair and its growth. More research and experiments need to be done in order to investigate further on how and what extent hair can be damaged by exposure to air pollution.
Thank you for reading everyone!
For the next blog post, I will be doing a short write up on second-hand smoke and its consequences.
References:
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20191008/Air-pollution-may-be-causing-your-hair-to-fall-out.aspx
Qu, X., Niu, L., Kroon, B., & Foltis, L. (2018). Pollution Damage and Protection of Asian Hair. Cosmetics, 5(1), 17. doi:10.3390/cosmetics5010017