Reaching goal length and Hair's Life Cycle

[silvergirl]

I just think it's weird to think hair has a length that it will stop growing. . . like i will NEVER stop having new growth, so it is obviously coming out of my scalp. it's not like my roots know whether or not my hair is SL or classic length

think about your eyelashes. arm hair , leg hair, and such they all have a terminal length they do shed and regrow to that certain length after a certain period of time then repeat the cycle. same thing happens to the hair on your hair, except on a longer time scale.

 

[_belle]

It's not length, that's the thing - it's TIME. It's like your follicle has a lil egg timer - it starts when it sheds the old hair (which is caused by a NEW hair pushing it out) and once it beeps - that hair is done, and gets pushed out by another new one. Even if you shaved your head the day before - it's done.

but I would think that all of the follicles don't have the same timer, so even as strands 1 and 452 fall out, would the other hundred thousand still grow?

 

[_belle]

think about your eyelashes. arm hair , leg hair, and such they all have a terminal length they do shed and regrow to that certain length then repeat the cycle. same thing happens to the hair on your hair, except on a longer scale.

oh true. well I hope my head's terminal length is my butt then.

 

[JustKiya]

but I would think that all of the follicles don't have the same timer, so even as strands 1 and 452 fall out, would the other hundred thousand still grow?

They aren't all working on the same timer, no. Animals are like that, where large groups of follicles work in unison (which is why they have seasonal molting/shedding). On humans, each follice starts it's timer at a different point of time, but each timer still gets set for the same AMOUNT of time. So - if hair 1 and 452 started at the same time, they should fall at the same time - thus the idea that you shed 50-100 hairs a day - that means that 50-100 follicles on your head are on the same 'schedule'. The other roughly 120K follicles though, are on different schedules, and if they are in the growing point, the other follicles resting/shedding doesn't impact them at all.

 

[daniemoy]

i think that is the point of LHCF. not for everyone to grow hair to their ankles, but for everyone to try and reach mini-goals in the hopes that we will discover our terminal length is something much longer than we would've ever thought otherwise.

I agree!!!!!!

 

[ladylibra]

Thats what I was thinking. I just can't accept that somone's terminal length would be to their shoulder.

why not? there are women who can easily grow their hair to Rapunzel-length, but they are a minority. everything is a bell curve, and someone has to be the outliers.

 

[locabouthair]

why not? there are women who can easily grow their hair to Rapunzel-length, but they are a minority. everything is a bell curve, and someone has to be the outliers.

i see what you're saying but im trying to keep hope alive I'm that I make it to APL

 

[ladylibra]

i see what you're saying but im trying to keep hope alive I'm that I make it to APL

definitely keep hope alive! the majority of people in the bell curve fall in the bell part... chances are high that you will at least make BSL/MBL. i shared that story because many of us get discouraged thinking as black women we're only able to grow our hair "so long" but women of other races can grow to great lengths easily.

*i no longer talk to my old roommate... wish i did because i would LOVE to actually find out her growth rate, and find out if her ends were breaking off for some reason or not... all kinds of things that i've learned from being on hairboards that i would've liked to try and see if maybe her hair could've grown longer...

 

[amwcah]

well.. hair grows (on average) 6inches per year. with a life cycle anywhere from 2yrs to 7 yrs (maybe even more).

so based on that the average, a person "should" be able to grow there hair to at least brastrap length. and thats on the small end of the scale. of course there will be some ppl may be less than that. but i think brastrap length hair should be an attainable goal for most ppl of any race.

Thank you for sharing! I knew about the 6" per year, but not the 2-7yrs life cycle span for hair. I hope mine is 7 years.

 

[lipyt]

They aren't all working on the same timer, no. Animals are like that, where large groups of follicles work in unison (which is why they have seasonal molting/shedding). On humans, each follice starts it's timer at a different point of time, but each timer still gets set for the same AMOUNT of time. So - if hair 1 and 452 started at the same time, they should fall at the same time - thus the idea that you shed 50-100 hairs a day - that means that 50-100 follicles on your head are on the same 'schedule'. The other roughly 120K follicles though, are on different schedules, and if they are in the growing point, the other follicles resting/shedding doesn't impact them at all.

this is soo interesting! The only way to find out your terminal hair time would be to follow like a gray hair that sticks out against dark hair...i guess. I cut off all of my hair for a BC 3 years ago and my hair is still getting longer so atleast I know my hair time is longer than 2 years! yay! please let it be 7 years!!

 

[lipyt]

think about your eyelashes. arm hair , leg hair, and such they all have a terminal length they do shed and regrow to that certain length after a certain period of time then repeat the cycle. same thing happens to the hair on your hair, except on a longer time scale.

that makes total sense. I wonder if some one has the opposite problem: Hair follicles that don't know when to stop growing...I guess those 2 brothers who have long hair covering their faces from Mexico who work in the circus have that problem.