"Dead Time" (Periods of NO growth)

[Enyo]

Hey, Ladies. If there is a similar thread out there, please let me know.

I know that a bad routine/change in routine can really influence how much growth we get/retain. But I'm curious. My hair is actually in amazing condition, but it has not grown in 3 months! I'm worried. I really hope this is not the end of my hair journey. BSL isn't very much. I want to be satisfied with it, but I can't. Please vote! The more answers I get the more it helps. Not just for me, but for anyone who is dealing with dead time.

 

[Goombay_Summer]

Bump, Bump

I'm curious as well and I'm assuming that you might have entered into a (telogen) rest phase which can last up to three months. I figure once you've passed this phase then the anagen phase will begin again.

 

[arosieworld]

hmmm really? I never even knew this happens? My growth might slow but it never stops. Are you hiding it? My mother is slightly crazy but she says everything grows better in the dark so you should wear wigs or scarfs all the time (she also thinks the same for nails and dark polish so grain of salt).
Bumpity bump...

 

[AlliCat]

Are you sure you're not confusing growth with retention?
Maybe you're growing but not retaining the length. So that might be why it feels like you're stuck at BSL

 

[*CherryPie*]

ALL of her strands can't be in the resting phase at the same time.

OP, are you taking any medications that could be causing hair problems? If you are taking prescription meds, talk to your pharmacist and ask about the side effects.

Sometimes the side effects of meds can change up on you.

Bump, Bump

I'm curious as well and I'm assuming that you might haven't entered into a (telegen) rest phase which can last up to three months. I figure once you've passed this phase then the anagen phase will begin again.

 

[LittleLuxe]

Yay! CherryPie got it!

I had come across this info a few weeks ago. It doesn't necessarilly mean you are having complications from your medication or etc. if you have started a growth aid you may notice your hair shedding and an apparent lack of growth.

You may not even have started a growth aid but are seeing your hair apparently not growing. It simply means in the life cycle of your hair follicles they have shifted from the growig phase to the resting phase which will make it seem like no growth is happening whereas the follicle is beginning to re-arrange itself before it will grow bigger better and badder than before.

If you are very concerned you could see a dermatologist or you could try an at-home technique such as garlic.

 

[NikkiGirl]

hmmm really? I never even knew this happens? My growth might slow but it never stops. Are you hiding it? My mother is slightly crazy but she says everything grows better in the dark so you should wear wigs or scarfs all the time (she also thinks the same for nails and dark polish so grain of salt).
Bumpity bump...

This is so funny. But if I break a nail I put on a dark polish and forget about it for as long as I can wear the dark set and I swear it just seems to grow back faster when I don't pay attention to it. So the same concept may work for hair.

 

[Enyo]

Are you sure you're not confusing growth with retention?

I thought about that. But my hair is really springy and soft. Stronger than it's ever been, really. Generally when I lose length it's because it's dry and brittle. And my hair has been in much worse condition and retained plenty of length.

ALL of her strands can't be in the resting phase at the same time.

OP, are you taking any medications that could be causing hair problems? If you are taking prescription meds, talk to your pharmacist and ask about the side effects.

Sometimes the side effects of meds can change up on you.

Yes. In fact, a couple of my drugs do affect hair, but generally in the form of shedding. And it rarely does that anymore since I started taking MSM daily. I've been on meds for years and my hair has grown fairly consistently. I've had a few set backs - mainly when I'm too depressed to care about my hair. But I've been keeping up with it for about 6 months straight.

You may not even have started a growth aid but are seeing your hair apparently not growing. It simply means in the life cycle of your hair follicles they have shifted from the growig phase to the resting phase which will make it seem like no growth is happening whereas the follicle is beginning to re-arrange itself before it will grow bigger better and badder than before.

Thank you. That sounds logical. I will try and keep that in mind.

 

[teacherjess]

When I first started paying attention to my hair, I thought I was having periods of no growth. Then I learned about that phenomenon called "shrinkage" and realized that as my hair was growing (NG), my relaxed ends weren't getting any longer...if anything looking shorter. I voted always having a little bit of growth, even if I may not be retaining all of it.

 

[FutureMD]

It is highly unlikely that all of the hair on your head could be in the resting phase at the same time. The percentage of your hair that is in that particular phase at any given time is relatively small. Issue is either retention OR possibly your medication might make a somewhat larger percentage of your hair to be "at rest" but if you'd need to talk to your doctor and possibly see a dermatologist to confirm that you have a problem (and tell you how much of your hair could be at rest for medical reasons and what would constitute a problem). Even during something as harsh as chemo, the issue is that the drugs attack your still GROWING and rapidly DIVIDING cells. So a chemo patient's real issue is that they can't retain that the new hair that grows on the head until the treatment ends.
Maybe it's possible that some medications affect the duration of the growth phase of your hair....the hair on your head has a long one and the hair on your body has a much shorter one which is why that hair, which is always growing, will never grow to obscene lengths. It also varies from person to person, which can account to the amount of length you can eventually have (even with your hair constantly growing, as that hair gets old and damaged, it's more likely to break off before it gets super long, even with lots of babying, when compared to someone who has a longer growth phase) OR the time that it takes to add it. At the end of the growth phase, the hair is eventually shed, and so you WANT to see a hair follicle in the hair that comes out as your wash, comb, or brush your hair.
But seriously, if you have a real medical issue, and you think this is a real problem, get off the boards and go ask a doctor. There is no point in speculating about something that is either just nature or a real medical problem.

 

[Tiye]

I've never had any dead time that I can remember. I think your hair is probably breaking off as fast as it comes in - not all breakage is dramatic. Sometimes it's subtle.

 

[Mz.MoMo5235]

i voted 1-3mos... but in all honestly, i think it was a retention issue rather than a growth issue lol

 

[BostonMaria]

I think I'm having a retention issue. Can't be a growth one because the greys keep popping up like weeds!

 

[Enyo]

Is there anyway to see if it's a retention problem? I don't see how it could be being that at one point my hair was so unkept that I got dreads that had to be cut out. It still grew a lot during that period, so...

 

[Junebug D]

Maybe it's just growing extra slowly? Mine currently is. I am 3 months post relaxer and I look all of 3 weeks post. If you are natural, it can be a lot harder to tell where, when, and how much growth you are acually getting.

 

[dachsies_rule!]

Is there anyway to see if it's a retention problem? I don't see how it could be being that at one point my hair was so unkept that I got dreads that had to be cut out. It still grew a lot during that period, so...

You could put a rinse or semi-perm dye on your hair to see if any NG pops up over the next month.

 

[bklyncurly]

Maybe it's just growing extra slowly? Mine currently is. I am 3 months post relaxer and I look all of 3 weeks post. If you are natural, it can be a lot harder to tell where, when, and how much growth you are acually getting.

Exactly! I can tell how much growth I have by how full and long my curly ponytail is getting - that's it But, my hair does grow slower in the summer and faster in the fall/winter (much faster actually); which is odd based on everything I've read about hair growing faster in the summer when it's more humid.

Anyway, maybe it's just growing slowly. Like others have stated, unless it's a medical condition, you probably have some growth.

 

[me-T]

i just got over 2 months of dead time

 

[Enyo]

You could put a rinse or semi-perm dye on your hair to see if any NG pops up over the next month.

Great idea, Dachsies. I'm going to try that. Maybe some Henna.

 

[Thiends]

I bet it has grown. Hair always grows. However, if you mean that it has grown very little, then I 100% know what you mean. My hair just came out of a three-month period of very little growth. I probably got 1/4" of new growth each month. I seem to be coming out of the slump though. My new growth has sprouted quite a bit in the past three weeks.

Based on the growth pattern, I can tell that my hair was responding to a period in which I was particularly hard on myself. I was not sleeping well or eating well, and I was working entirely too hard.

 

[DrC]

I THINK I've had dead time before, but it was from 6 different medications I was prescribed due a respiratory infection. My hair was shedding like crazy, so I would just wear it back into a bun and not mess with it. Talk about 2 months of torture.

 

[Enyo]

How do you know if your hair is breaking? How do you track that?

 

[notlookingback06]

Hey, Ladies. If there is a similar thread out there, please let me know.

I know that a bad routine/change in routine can really influence how much growth we get/retain. But I'm curious. My hair is actually in amazing condition, but it has not grown in 3 months! I'm worried. I really hope this is not the end of my hair journey. BSL isn't very much. I want to be satisfied with it, but I can't. Please vote! The more answers I get the more it helps. Not just for me, but for anyone who is dealing with dead time.

Interesting question; I believe that my hair is ALWAYS growing, however, at times it grows more slowly than other times. Like another poster said, I can definitely gauge my new growth by the number of new grey hairs! LOL! Which by the way, it's time to color these bad boys....erplexed

Best wishes Enyo!

 

[dachsies_rule!]

How do you know if your hair is breaking? How do you track that?

I check the hairs in my comb, if i have alot that don't have a root at the end i know my hair is breaking off.

 

[Enyo]

I've been thinking about what you guys have said, and judging by my nails and body hair, my hair should be growing. I am desperately trying to figure out where the breakage is coming from if that's the case. When I brush my hair or comb it in the shower, I get very few hairs coming out - especially since I upped my biotin and MSM.