UNDERSTANDING HOW OUR HAIR GROWS

Do you know that it’s natural for our hair to fall out? In fact, we shed about 80 to 100 hair strands per day. Yes, each day! That’s 240 to 300 hair strands a month. Seriously, that’s a lot of hair!

Then why aren’t we going bald, you might ask? Well, that totally depends on your age. Usually most of us will suffer from hair loss when we get older, especially individuals who suffer from androgenetic alopecia, a genetic condition that can cause hair loss.

While we’re young our hair follicles are very busy producing hair, so there’s no reason to go bald. The 240 – 300 strands are nothing compared to millions of healthy growing hair on your head. So, why the hair fall? Because our hair grows in cycles.

Yes, each hair follicle grows in cycles. One cycle consist of 3 stages: Anagen phase, catagen phase and telogen phase.

Anagen Phase

Also called the growth phase, this stage starts at the papilla and it is here where you will find active hair growth. The longer the hair stays in this stage, the faster and longer it will grow. Usually, this stage last from two to six years. At any given time, about 85% of our hair is in anagen phase.

Categen Phase

The next stage is the categen phase or the transitional phase. In this stage, the hair follicle shrinks and detaches from hair papilla, cutting off the hair strand from its blood supply, which stops hair growth. This stage last about one to two weeks.

Telogen Phase

The last stage is telogen phase or resting phase. During this stage, hair does not grow but stays attached to the hair follicle. Approximately, 10 – 15% of all hair is in this stage at one time and could last for 1 to 4 months.

When the cycle starts over, new hair growth from anagen phase will push out the old attached hair.