Can X-Rays Cause Hair Loss?

Sir does xrays causes telogen effluvium, or accelerates hair fall in patients with male pattern baldness?

X-ray is a type of electromagnetic radiation that is all around us. It falls between the ultraviolet light and gamma rays in the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. A certain amount of X-rays is all around us so your question depends on the amount of x-ray radiation one receives or the location of where the x-ray is being received.

I would guess that you would need a ridiculous amount of x-rays delivered to your scalp to start worrying about hair loss. At that point hair loss would probably be the last of your concerns as you are dying from radiation poisoning. (I’m being facetious.) Cancer patients receiving radiation to their brain can develop local hair loss (but that’s not x-rays).

A simple chest x-ray, CT scan, or airport security should be insignificant in terms of hair loss.

This is probably the first time I write, please follow up with your physicist.

Of interesting note: “Reported in Scientific American, This Week in World War I: January 30, 1915”

X-rays were used for medical operations within a couple of months after they were discovered by Wilhelm Roentgen in late 1895.