Can a person's "terminal length" change after each shedding?

[Ivey14]

***Deleted***

 

[Nonie]

I think the growth cycle doesn't change but I believe with improved haircare you can maximize your growth cycle so that retention is better because you understand your hair better so that you see better results.

Another way to look at it is at whatever time you begin to pay attention to your hair and to take good care of it, you're already partway into your growth cycle. So there are hairs that have been abused and not given the necessary TLC they need. So only the new growth for the remaining of the cycle will benefit from the improved care so you may not see your full potential. But if you keep up the good practice all the new hairs that sprouted after you started the new habits will grow to their optimum length, which is likely to be longer than what you'd seen before.

Does that make sense?

 

[ladylibra]

I ask because (for example) after waxing/plucking my eyebrows over and over, I notice that each time it grows back in, it's slightly thicker and longer than the last time I plucked? Nothing too dramatic, but enough to show a difference. Can this apply to the hairs on our heads?

You know, slightly off-topic but I've always wondered about this old wives' tale about the hair growing in thicker and longer each time. I tend to slack on shaving my legs but after like a month or 2 I notice I just have that half-inch of hair fuzz on my leg, whereas my SO has long curly leg hairs that are probably over 1.5-2 inches if I were to stretch them out and measure.

My eyebrows also don't continue to grow back thicker and longer. If I let them fill all the way back in, they look exactly like they did in my high school senior pics (before I started shaping them). I'm not quite brave enough to find out if this applies to my armpits I'd rather keep those shaved.

It does lead me to wonder if I'm not a bit of an oddity? It seems a lot of women complain that their hair always grows back thicker and longer when they shave/wax/pluck, but mine doesn't...

 

[Neith]

There are only two ways it could grow longer that I can think of at the moment...


1. Like Nonie said... it's possible that a person hasn't been growing it out long enough to see a full cycle of growing/shedding.

Depends on the person, but on average it's 4 - 6 years I believe.

When you start a new cycle from scratch, then you would be able to see your true full growth potential.


2. Maximum hair growth depends on nature AND nurture. Genes have a lot to do with it, but you can have the fastest growing hair in the world and still be stuck and not able to reach your true terminal length.

An improvement in diet, lifestyle, regimen, etc.. can help you grow/retain more hair.

 

[Nonie]

On LL's OT, I believe that when you wax or pluck the hair grows back thinner, or appears to do so. When you shave, the hair appears thicker. Methinks it's because instead of having a tapering end, new hair has got a blunt end that appears wide when you shave and that also feels rough. Waxing/plucking leads to new hairs that seem thinner and feel softer, but that could be because they don't have the blunt end created by shaving but have a pointy thinner end.

That's what I think anyway.

 

[Ivey14]

***Deleted***

 

[bedazzled]

Maybe there are some things we take in (other than msm) that can lengthen the anagen phase without us knowing since science is not static and it continues to evolve/change.

 

[fyb87]

You know, slightly off-topic but I've always wondered about this old wives' tale about the hair growing in thicker and longer each time. I tend to slack on shaving my legs but after like a month or 2 I notice I just have that half-inch of hair fuzz on my leg, whereas my SO has long curly leg hairs that are probably over 1.5-2 inches if I were to stretch them out and measure.

My eyebrows also don't continue to grow back thicker and longer. If I let them fill all the way back in, they look exactly like they did in my high school senior pics (before I started shaping them). I'm not quite brave enough to find out if this applies to my armpits I'd rather keep those shaved.

It does lead me to wonder if I'm not a bit of an oddity? It seems a lot of women complain that their hair always grows back thicker and longer when they shave/wax/pluck, but mine doesn't...

On LL's OT, I believe that when you wax or pluck the hair grows back thinner, or appears to do so. When you shave, the hair appears thicker. Methinks it's because instead of having a tapering end, new hair has got a blunt end that appears wide when you shave and that also feels rough. Waxing/plucking leads to new hairs that seem thinner and feel softer, but that could be because they don't have the blunt end created by shaving but have a pointy thinner end.

That's what I think anyway.

I can shave, wax, or thread and my hair never feels thicker when it grows back. I have fine hair and it stays fine. But, like LL I wouldn't know for sure about the underarm thing. I always shave those!!