How much of hair is growing at one time


Hair is dynamic. All of the hair on your head is at one of three stages: growing, resting, or packing up and leaving. At any given time, as long as you're in good health, most of your hair is growing. Each hair grows for about two to seven years, and nearly 90 percent of your hair will be in this growth stage.

Your health and your genes determine how much time your hair spends growing. The more time each hair has to grow, the longer your hair will be. Most people have hair that can grow long enough to reach down to the middle of their backs. They just don't realize it. Hair often doesn't seem to grow when it's being damaged and breaking off at the same rate it grows.

While a few people can grow hair long enough to step on, there are others who have hair that's genetically programmed to reach only a little past their shoulders before each hair's life span ends.

During the resting stage, your hair prepares for the end of its time on your scalp. Only about 12 percent of your hair is in this holding pattern at a time. After three to eight weeks of resting, your hair has said its goodbyes and is now ready to go. After a hair falls out, the follicle rests for about twelve to sixteen weeks before building another hair and starting the process all over again.

Each follicle is capable of about twenty of these cycles before it runs out of steam and stops producing. We shed about 100 to 150 hairs a day. Provided that you're in good health, this equals about 700 to nearly 1,050 hairs lost a week. This means that if you comb your hair once a week, there will be a mat the size of a tiny animal left in your comb. This is totally normal.

It's important to know the average life span of a hair, because you need a marker to determine when your hair is healthy enough to have most likely reached its maximum length. This means it's grown its entire life with so little damage that it didn't break off before it could grow as long as it was genetically programmed to.

Hair that has grown to an average maximum length lives about six years. This is about thirtysix inches, or lower-back length, depending on how fast it grows. If you can't get your hair to grow to its maximum length, it means that in some way your hair is still being damaged.

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Note: This article was sent to us by: Amanda K. Rogers at 08162010

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