Smoking and balding

There is also some direct evidence that smoking is linked to the balding process. A study of 600 patients attending a general surgical outpatient clinic found that 35% of the smokers were balding, compared with only 21% of non-smokers.

Smokers show many signs of ageing – for example, they're more likely to have grey hair and facial wrinkles than non-smokers of the same age. It's possible, therefore, that baldness is another part of the ageing process accelerated by smoking.