Hair Facts
- Hair length is determined by the length of the anagen hair cycle and can produce hair length's up to 40" to 50" depending on the individual.
Due to a shorter anagen phase due to the effects of Estrogen, men are rarly able to grow hair this long and thick
- Hair grows at an average rate of 6" per year. Shoulder length hair will take on average three years to grow.
- A newborn baby has the most working scalp hair follicles as he or she will have in their lifetime. Most babies will have over 800 follicles per square centimeter. The number of working follicles falls as you age and drops to 500 sq/cm by age 30 and 300 or less by age 40. The loss slows for most after age 40 unless the hairs are affected by male pattern baldness.
- Hair loss is a given for almost everyone. The aggressiveness and the age of onset may vary. More than 45% of women will suffer some hairloss by the time they reach menopause. And more than 70% men will have some type of male pattern hair loss by age 60.
- Men normally must lose 50% of their hair before their hair loss is noticeable. Unfortunately current treatments other than hair transplants work best on the most recent loss and the longer you wait the less the chance that you will be able to restart hair follicles that have shutdown.
- A persons hair turns gray because pigment cells known as melanin in the hair follicles stop working properly. This can be caused by age, stress or illness.
- Hair follicles cycle through growth and resting phases and that cycles repeats as many as 25 times in a persons lifetime.
- You can't repair damage to hair like split ends, chemical damage or heat damage.
- The number of hair follicles and hair shaft thickness varies from person to person and both of these features determine how full your hair looks.
- The average number of scalp hair follicles is around 100,000 but can vary with blondes having up to 140,000 and redheads having as little as 80,000 hair follicles. The persons number of hair follicles never changes from the time they are born. Some hair follicles may die for various reasons and stop producing viable hair but the count remains the same.
- Hair growth cycles will change as you age. The anagen (growing phase) becomes shorter with age. Women (and men with long hair) will notice a decline in their maximum hair length as they get older. A woman that is in her teens that has waist length hair may only be able to achieve shoulder length hair in her sixties due to the shorter anagen phase.
MEDICAL DISCLAIMER
The contents of this website comes from personal experiences and observations, meant only for educational purposes and not intended to replace medical advice, consultations, or treatment of any kind. Please see your professional health care provider to discuss topics on this site.
Copyright, 2006-2012. All rights reserved.
