Why Your Hair Thrives With a Healthy Gut Microbiome

Health & Wellness

4 Min Read

By Nutrafol Team2025-06-23

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You may already know that your digestive system is full of beneficial microbes—or a mixture of small organisms like bacteria and fungi collectively known as the gut microbiome—that play a role in local tasks like digestion and nutrient absorption. But what you might not realize is that your gut microbiome has impacts so widespread throughout your body, its influence actually reaches all the way up to your hair follicles.^1-4

The gut microbiome and hair follicles are intimately connected. We’ve consistently seen that research with probiotics shows positive effects on hair growth. Research suggests that a healthy, balanced microbiome can benefit your scalp and hair, while gut imbalances can lead to hair concerns.^1-5

An optimal gut microbiome is full of diverse, beneficial microbes, while a troublesome one will have less diversity and less beneficial flora. Favorable organisms, like those from the Lactobacillus family, can exist in mutually beneficial harmony with our bodies, helping to balance out our internal systems in ways like attenuating overactive responses to physical stressors in the body. Meanwhile, in the case of imbalanced microbe populations in our gut, we tend to see an increase in things like physical stress in the gut environment and, with it, the appearance of other concerns that may start in the gut, but can also show up in other ways—like hair thinning.¹

Research suggests positive shifts in the gut microbiome may connect to improvements in metabolic health, blood flow to the scalp, and hormones—all things with substantial impacts on hair and scalp health. Even the influence of DHT, a hormone that plays a big role in hair shedding and thinning, may be influenced by the effects of some microbe strains.²

Increasing good gut bacteria may lead to significant improvements in hair thickness and overall hair and scalp health. Good bacteria can support scalp and overall health by increasing our production of materials that help maintain important functions like our scalp’s moisture balance and skin barrier, and balance oil production. A healthier scalp creates an environment where hair can thrive.^1,3,4

For better or worse, your daily habits directly impact the makeup, diversity, and function of your gut microbiome.⁶ Do you want your gut microbiome to support your hair goals? Read on for a few tips on supporting the gut-hair connection.

3 Biggest Gut Microbiome Disruptors

Your food choices can carry a lot of weight—and can impact your gut microbiome in as little as one day. Suboptimal food choices can lead to less diversity in the gut microbiome, leading to dysbiosis, and affect the gut lining.⁶ Some microbiome disruptors to keep in mind include:

Too much sugar: High-sugar foods may taste good, but too much and you’ll find yourself inadvertently feeding undesirable gut bacteria, reducing beneficial microbes, and impacting your gut diversity.⁶ It’s a recipe for an imbalanced gut.
Processed foods: Too many processed foods damage the protective intestinal barrier in the gut, harming the microbiome’s balance, and setting the stage for more physical stress in the gut environment.⁶
An unbalanced diet: Diets that skew too high in fat and protein and lack important nutrients like fiber affect gut diversity by starving beneficial microbes and creating an environment where undesirable microbes can flourish.⁶

How to Support Your Gut Microbiome for Healthier Hair

The good news is, there’s a lot you can do to support your gut microbiome, allowing it to help you along your hair growth journey. Many of these directly introduce beneficial organisms to your gut microbiome, encourage the growth of good strains, or make the gut environment more hospitable for beneficial microbes to thrive. This support helps stabilize the microbes you want and stifle the growth of less beneficial strains.

Here are some ways to show your microbiome some extra love:

Amp up your fiber intake: Fiber is crucial for supporting a healthy, diverse gut microbiome, and can easily be found in a wide range of foods. You can get more fiber simply by eating more vegetables, fruits, nuts, and legumes.⁶
Embrace fermented and probiotic foods: Fermented foods, such as kimchi, can deliver beneficial bacteria directly to the gut. Fermented foods have a number of positive effects, like helping increase gut diversity and decreasing indicators of injury or stress in the body. Researchers have found that getting a daily supportive serving of fermented foods is linked to positive changes in hair count and thickness after just a few months.^1,7 Other fermented foods include miso, natto, yogurt, and sauerkraut.
Stick to whole foods: Diets like the Mediterranean diet, which is rich in fruits, vegetables, whole-grain cereals, poultry, and fish, support diversity and abundance in the gut.⁶
Incorporate gut-supportive supplements: Consider supplements that contain microbiome-supportive ingredients, like probiotics, which may play a role in supporting diversity in the gut. For gut microbiome support, you can incorporate a high-quality pre- and probiotic supplement to support a balanced gut microbiome and promote nutrient absorption.

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1. Carrington AE, Maloh J, Nong Y, Agbai ON, Bodemer AA, Sivamani RK. The Gut and Skin Microbiome in Alopecia: Associations and Interventions. J Clin Aesthet Dermatol. 2023;16(10):59-64.

2. Park DW, Lee HS, Shim MS, Yum KJ, Seo JT. Do Kimchi and Cheonggukjang Probiotics as a Functional Food Improve Androgenetic Alopecia? A Clinical Pilot Study. World J Mens Health. 2020;38(1):95-102. doi:10.5534/wjmh.180119

3. Yin, C.-S., Minh Nguyen, T. T., Yi, E.-J., Zheng, S., Bellere, A. D., Zheng, Q., Jin, X., Kim, M., Park, S., Oh, S., & Yi, T.-H. (2024). Efficacy of probiotics in hair growth and Dandruff Control: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Heliyon, 10(9). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e29539

4. Peng, Yu & Teng, Xiaoyue & Liu, Tingzhu & Li, Yuhan & Ni, Jiayi & Xue, Siliang & Wang, Juan. (2022). Effect of an oral probiotic formula on scalp and facial skin condition, glucose, and lipid metabolism. Functional Foods in Health and Disease. 12. 394. 10.31989/ffhd.v12i7.944

5. Feng, Y. (2023). Exploring clues pointing toward the existence of a brain-gut microbiota-hair follicle axis. Current Research in Translational Medicine, 72(1), 103408–103408. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retram.2023.103408

6. Zhang P. Influence of Foods and Nutrition on the Gut Microbiome and Implications for Intestinal Health. Int J Mol Sci. 2022;23(17):9588. Published 2022 Aug 24. doi:10.3390/ijms23179588

7. Lee, W., Kwon, M.-S., Yun, Y.-R., Choi, H., Jung, M.-J., Hwang, H., Shin, M.-J., Park, J.-H., Kim, D.-R., Yoon Chang, J., Young Moon, S., Jae Lee, H., Kim, T.-W., Woong Whon, T., & Wook Hong, S. (2024). Effects of kimchi consumption on body fat and intestinal microbiota in overweight participants: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, single-center clinical trial. Journal of Functional Foods, 121, 106401. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jff.2024.106401