Does Alcohol help beards grow?
For eons, beard enthusiasts have tried many ways to grow their beards. From various beard growing oils to new methods of shaving; mostly these efforts end in with little success. Recently, there’s been alot of research claiming that alcohol can be one of the major catalysts inducing beard growth. We thought we would look at the science, and see if there’s any truth to these claims.
Beard Growth Factors
Lets recap on the main 3 factors that determine facial hair growth.
The hormones, like testosterone and dihydrotestosterone (DHT), which determine your facial growth hair, especially, your beard growth.
A well balanced and nutritious diet.
Genetic factors that predispose you to growing an epic beard. Viking ancestry, anyone?
So, how does alcohol increase beard growth?
When you drink alcohol is your testosterone levels increase dramatically, it also causes a strong and comparatively long oestrogen increase. Oestrogen will cause Androgen exertion, due to its quality of literally displacing (driving) Androgens (Testosterone, DHT, metabolites like 3-a diol) from muscle tissues, resulting in a temporarily increased Androgen concentration at the skin, where Androgen receptors responsible for beard growth are located. So, according to the science of biochemistry, an initial intake of alcohol is helpful for beard growth.
But the quantities here are important. If alcohol is consumed in moderate amounts, your facial hair can exponentially grow, as your testosterone levels in the blood increases. As testosterone level spike was necessary for growing facial hair, this can prove to be one of the effective ways of doing it. Keep in mind the quantity of alcohol is important here. Don’t drink excessively, and try to keep to an average of one standard drink per day, max (Think social drinking as the goal).
Overindulging will result in the opposite effect that you want. Excessive consumption of alcohol can lead to a reduction in testosterone levels and even affect your facial hair growth negatively. Alcohol consumption can also impact your ability to absorb nutrients from food. Once your body faces a deficiency of a group of proteins it leads to poor hair growth, nails and degenerates the quality of the skin you have. Not only that, but alcohol also affects iron, zinc and copper levels in your body which are extremely essential for facial hair growth.
So… Too much is bad, then?
In short, yes.
When you drink a lot, you are consuming empty calories. Most alcoholic beverages provide no nutritional benefit. Because most of your calories are coming in the form of an alcoholic beverage, it is unlikely that you will be able to maintain a healthy diet alongside it. To maintain hair on your head and your face, you need an appropriate amount of minerals, fats, carbs, and vitamins. Without that, your hair growth could slow to a crawl, and you could even start to loose hair!
Alcohol causes loss of hair since it reduces the absorption of essential nutrients and vitamins. So, even if you eat healthy, nutritious foods, the excessive alcohol consumption will interfere with the absorption of these nutrients. You won’t get as much of the health benefits from food you eat!
The best tip for beard growth is this; everyone’s metabolizes food/drink differently, so try cutting down alcohol consumption in stages and measuring beard growth for yourself in fortnightly intervals. Once you hit a good amount of growth, keep going with that dietary approach and see if you can maintain consistent growth.
