HAIR GROWTH CYCLE

 

• It is not a very well known fact that on a day every person sheds at least 50-100 hair from his/her head.You need not worry too much about it, because our bodies are accustomed to such a process.Also, the health of our body depends on such shedding.
  
  
• Surprised? Read on to know more about how hair is born and how it is shed.We can call the entire process - the hair cycle.
  
  
• One interesting fact about hair is that on an average a healthy person's hair can grow only 7 inches per year.That is, per day the average hair growth is 0.35 - 0.45``.Does this mean that we have more reasons to worry about hair growth as we shed at least 50 - 100 hair per day? The answer for this question is given below.
  
  
• Unlike other mammals the growth of hair in us humans is neither seasonal nor cyclic.A random number of hair is in different levels of growth at any given time.
  
  
• That is when certain number of hair are ready to be shed out, some different number of hair are ready to be born, while some other are half way between these two stages.Therefore the birth and death (for our understanding) of our hair cannot be called as hair growth cycle.But the term hair growth cycle refers to the rise and fall of a hair from the same place.
  
  
• Basically our hair is said to be in three stages of growth.These three stages are: anagen, catagen and telogen.
  

• Anagen
  
  Anagen is a stage, in which the hair is the more active when compared to the other two stages.
  As the cells in the root of the hair divide rapidly, the new hair formed pushes it out.
  At this stage the hair is called club hair.
  During this stage the hair grows at a rapid speed of 1cm per every 28 days.
  This hair can stay in this phase of growth for around 3- 6 years depending upon the body type of the person.
  If this phase of growth is less, people find it difficult to grow their hair beyond a certain limit. If this phase of hair growth is more (say 6 years) the hair can grow longer.
  This also explains why people have more or small amount of hair on their body.
  


• Catagen
  
  The catagen stage can be called as transitional stage.
  Almost three percent off all the hair on a person's body are in this phase at any given point of time.
  This is the shortest phase in the hair growth cycle, which lasts around 2-3 weeks.
  In this stage as the growth stops, the outer root of the sheath shrinks attaching itself to the root of the hair.
  Thus formed is generally called a club hair.
  


• Telogen


The resting stage of a hair is called Telogen.
Around 10-15% of the hair on our heads is in this phase in which hair does not grow.
Such hair is not fixed to one spot on the scalp, but is on various parts of the body.
However the hair on legs, torso, eyebrows, eye lashes etc may last longer in this phase than the hair on our head which might last for about 100 days.