Does oxygen have an effect of growth?

[CORBINS]

This is just a thought that I've been having about oxygen to our scalp. I've noticed that when I wear braids in my hair, it grows faster. When wear my hair out of braids, it grows slower.
I've also noticed that women with naturally straight hair like Indians for example have the fastest hair growth. Could it be that the straighter your hair, the more oxygen it recieves which results in greater hair growth? It seems like the curlier a person's hair is, the slower it grows. I have a friend who has been wearing dreads in her hair, she switched after it grew long enough to do dreads. Her hair is almost shoulder length. Anyhow, when she started wearing the dreads her hair growth rate increased. Not that she is doing anything different to her hair. She actually messed with it less when it wasn't in dreads! I don't know, I was just thinking about it. Does anyone else have any input on this subject?

 

[Guest]

I don't think that your hair grows faster in braids, but that you notice the grow more when you take them down than if you were just looking at lenght everyday.

I don't know about the oxygen thing though it makes sense.

 

[CORBINS]

I did think of that. It just made sense to me that since oxygen is important to every other part of our body, then maybe it's important to our scalp. Seeing as applying too much grease actually stunts hair growth.

 

[Nonie]

In my opinion, oxygen is important not so much in the sense of your scalp coming into contact with air, but in the sense that if your blood supplies your follicles with sufficient oxygen, meaning you are getting enough iron to make hemoglobin in your red blood cells which carries oxygen to cells including follicles (and if your circulation is good), then your hair will grow.

Straighter hair does seem to grow faster and longer because it doesn't break as easily as curly hair. For one, it doesn't get caught in the comb as easily as curly hair, so no unnatural tagging; and secondly, the fact that sebum (your natural oils) can reach further up the strand when your hair is straight than when it's curly, means straighter hair gets better nourished by our natural oils than curly hair. We all know that dry hair breaks easily so that may explain why straight hair isn't as dry/dull as curly hair and hence why it stays longer on the head.

Braids and dreds are ways to keep your hair from being manipulated, and the less you manipulate your hair, the less you wear the cuticle down and the less your hair is bound to weaken or break. That also explains why homeless people that never comb their hair sport manes that defy anything we know about growing long hair.

 

[CORBINS]

I found an oil, I lost the website after I copied and pasted, but it says exactly what you said (Nonie)

Fast Growth Hair Oil




$10.99 | Add to Cart

Fast Growth Hair Oil stimulates circulation in the scalp, brings oxygen to the follicles and assist in unclogging pores caused by plastic resins found in many shampoos and conditioners. This product also contains powerful herbal ingredients formulated to assist in growing and thickening the hair.

 

[Islandgirl]

[ QUOTE ]
nonie said:
In my opinion, oxygen is important not so much in the sense of your scalp coming into contact with air, but in the sense that if your blood supplies your follicles with sufficient oxygen, meaning you are getting enough iron to make hemoglobin in your red blood cells which carries oxygen to cells including follicles (and if your circulation is good), then your hair will grow.

Straighter hair does seem to grow faster and longer because it doesn't break as easily as curly hair. For one, it doesn't get caught in the comb as easily as curly hair, so no unnatural tagging; and secondly, the fact that sebum (your natural oils) can reach further up the strand when your hair is straight than when it's curly, means straighter hair gets better nourished by our natural oils than curly hair. We all know that dry hair breaks easily so that may explain why straight hair isn't as dry/dull as curly hair and hence why it stays longer on the head.

Braids and dreds are ways to keep your hair from being manipulated, and the less you manipulate your hair, the less you wear the cuticle down and the less your hair is bound to weaken or break. That also explains why homeless people that never comb their hair sport manes that defy anything we know about growing long hair.

[/ QUOTE ]

I totally agree with everything you stated.

 

[debyjay]

I agree with Nonie also, I got about 5 inches of new growth in 6 months whilst wearing braids from January to June of this year. I plan on braiding up again next January.

 

[CORBINS]

Thanks everyone. I just thought that since our hair was so thick that it limited the amount of oxygen to our scalps, thereby slowing the growth process. I know that braids help grow hair because of the lack of manipulation, I just thought that since more oxygen could get to the scalp that it assisted with the growth process.

 

[Guest]

[ QUOTE ]
debyjay said:
I agree with Nonie also, I got about 5 inches of new growth in 6 months whilst wearing braids from January to June of this year. I plan on braiding up again next January.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's about 3/4 an inch a month. That's about right. The average is between 1/2 - 3/4.

Still the braids are just protecting the hair, not growing it, hair grows regardless. Right.

 

[Isis]

Now, putting aside the braids, increasing the oxygen may have an effect on hair growth. There are oxygen machines out there which are supposed to be very healing to our bodies in many ways. Someone gave me a brochure once about it but I can't find it at the moment. Adding more oxygen to our cells is said to get rid of many illnesses and disease. So you may be on to something regarding hair growth and oxygen.