Every hair found on the body has a cycle, and every day hair is lost and replaced according to each follicle’s individual hair growth cycle.
3 Phases of the Hair Growth Cycle:
- Anagen: the growing phase
- Catagen: the transition phase
- Telogen: the resting phase before shedding
Hair grows about ½ inch per month, which is about 6 inches per year. For the average person, each hair will be about 18 inches if allowed to grow before it falls out. For the average person, the anagen phase in the hair growth cycle is 1,000 days. This is about 3 years of growth before the individual hair will fall out and be replaced by another hair. Individuals who can grow their hair to their waist have a much longer growth cycle.
We invite you to watch this brief video below to learn more.
Transcript
Our hair grows in cycles, and each hair follicle is going to grow between three and ten years. As you can imagine, if your hair is going to grow for ten years, you might be able to grow it down to your waist or further. Whereas, if it is a shorter cycle, you would never be able to grow it that long. But as our hair miniaturizes, not only does it become thinner with less color, but the growth cycle shortens.
Each hair follicle is going to have a certain number of growth cycles in our lifetime. So as the hair cycle shortens, you are going to exhaust the complete number of cycles that your hair would have gone through in your lifetime. That is how you end up with alopecia and areas of no hair growth.
