You may come across a claim like this: “scalp inflammation disrupts the hair cycle, and chewing moves the temporalis muscle, which improves blood flow and calms the inflammation.”
This article used to present that claim as established fact. After checking the sources it cited, we found no research showing that chewing improves hair. We rewrote it in August 2026.
What this article used to say
It said, roughly:
When the scalp hardens, blood flow drops, and the tissue becomes oxygen-deprived, IL-6 is released in large amounts as a defense response. IL-6 is a signal that forcibly switches off the anagen (growth) phase and pushes hair matrix cells into the catagen (regression) phase.
It cited E12 as the basis for this.
E12 is a study in which nine healthy men received scalp massage for 24 weeks. It reported that hair became thicker, and that IL-6 expression fell in dermal papilla cells that had been mechanically stretched.
In other words, the drop in IL-6 was observed in a cell-culture experiment where physical stretching was applied. The study did not establish a causal chain of “oxygen deprivation raises IL-6” or “IL-6 switches off the growth phase.”
What is known
- Inflammatory cytokines can be involved in hair follicle condition (a general understanding in hair biology)
- In a small study where the scalp was massaged with a device, hair became thicker (E12; nine healthy men, 24 weeks, with the untreated contralateral scalp as the control)
- In the same study, IL-6 expression fell in mechanically stretched cultured cells
What is not known
- Whether chewing changes scalp inflammation. Same as above
- A study tracking chewing frequency against changes in hair. We could not confirm one exists
E13 is a hair biology reference, but it does not discuss chewing or the temporalis muscle. This article previously drew its chewing claim from that source. That was a citation error.
How this claim was likely built
Laid out, the structure looks like this:
- Scalp massage made hair thicker (there is a study)
- The temporalis muscle sits close to the scalp and moves when you chew (an anatomical fact)
- Therefore chewing massages the scalp and thickens hair (there is no basis for this step)
Step 3 is the leap. Nobody has confirmed whether four minutes of device-applied scalp stimulation and the movement of the temporalis muscle during chewing are equivalent stimuli.
Two studies from the Lotte Central Institute do exist, published in Japanese-language journals: scalp blood flow during gum chewing rose by 44.0% at the vertex and 47.1% at the front in 20 healthy adults (Jpn Pharmacol Ther 2022), and a cross-sectional survey of 27 institute researchers found thicker vertex hair among those who chewed gum longer (Anti-Aging Medicine 2021). Both measure momentary blood flow or a snapshot association. Lotte itself states that no research has yet demonstrated an effect of gum chewing on hair.
If you are concerned about your hair
Thinning hair and hair loss involve multiple factors: hormones, aging, nutritional status, scalp conditions, and more. Please do not treat this as something to fix by changing how you chew.
The reliable path is to consult a dermatologist or a clinic that treats AGA/FAGA. This site introduces research related to chewing and is not reviewed by medical professionals.
This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for diagnosis or treatment.
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