Does Caffeine Cause Hair Loss?
We are walking through a digital experience of an Instagram reel and split-screen responses arguing whether caffeine causes hair loss.
The primary video opens with a fair-skinned person with short brown hair, wearing a dark top in what looks like a supermarket aisle, with shelves of goods behind them. The reel’s text says ‘REAL CAUSE OF HAIR LOSS’. We see a bag of coffee to their right, encircled in red. We then see a cartoon formula of caffeine, the text now proclaiming ‘IT’S CAFFEINE.’ The screen splits, with the fair-skinned person above, holding the coffee, and an image below of a pale fair-skinned woman with frizzy hair in a bunched, comical style, holding what looks like a handgun, presumably to represent the ‘hair loss’ that is referenced.
The screen shifts to a woman with shaved hair and an olive green top, saying, ‘Canadians are big coffee drinkers, and since this is a claim which could affect a lot of people, I thought that it would be a good idea to fact check it to make sure that it’s true.’ We see the woman standing in front of a stainless steel coffee maker, holding a yellow cup, as she speaks.
We then see the same woman seated in a chair in front of a lavender wall and table with a laptop on it, saying, ‘So let’s start by trying to find where the creator may have gotten the information.’ The video returns to the reel and then goes to the creator’s bio, which reveals he is a ‘Certified Health Coach’ with ‘403 posts’ and ‘394k followers’. There are links to a juice maker and health coaching services.
We return to the woman fact-checker, holding a mobile phone, saying, ‘Neither the video, the caption, nor the creator’s bio state any sort of link to where the information may have come from. The only links displayed on his profile at all were to his own personal website where he was advertising health coaching sessions.’
We then see a screen capture of the linked website, which has health coaching information. ‘We could stop here, but we still don’t know whether the claim is true, so let’s keep digging!’
We next see the woman sitting at the desk, saying, ‘This time, I’ll try another direction, and check other sources for main causes of hair loss.’ The camera view turns to the laptop screen as she types into a Google search bar ‘coffee hair loss.’ Websites such as ‘Mayo Clinic,’ ‘Cleveland Clinic,’ and ‘UCLA Health’ appear. ‘None mention caffeine, and the most common causes seem to be heredity, hormonal changes, stress, and medication related.’ She’s back to speaking in front of the lavender wall, saying, ‘Some of the sources I found even suggest that topical application of caffeine can be beneficial for hair growth in females. However, more research and data collection is still needed.’
She continues to say, ‘To make sure that the information I found is true, we need to verify the sources. I started by reading through their Wikipedia pages and then looking at other sources discussing their credibility.’ She is now on a gray couch in front of a plant as she speaks.
Then, with a plant in the background, she says, ‘All three – Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, and UCLA Health – are reliable medical resources from the US.’ ‘Next time you find yourself online searching for health advice, remember it’s important to make sure the source has authority and expertise on the subject matter.