The Seasons of Hair Growth
Stages of Hair Growth : Image by Freepik
Being in the Hair Loss Industry day in, day out, my focus is on my clients’ hair and getting to grips with their symptoms and potential causes of their hair loss, to assess which specific treatment type will work.
Understanding the natural hair growth cycle can help me solve number of more common hair loss issues and from there I can determine if what I see is short or long term hair loss and what I can potentially do to treat this.
The hair growth cycle can be split into 4 specific stages, almost like seasons for your hair. Each phase has its own timeframe and what you experience during each stage is perfectly normal, all part of the natural hair growth cycle.
Hair Growth Seasons Explained
Anagen
This is known as the hair growth stage and new hair is being formed. Hair can grow by 1.5-2cm per month and each strand will grow for 2 to 8 years (on average 5 years). We are in this phase for 90% of the time.
Catagen
This is a transition stage where the hair strands prepare for shedding and this is the end of active hair growth in the previous stage. Blood flow to the follicle decreases. During this phase up to 5% of hairs are in this state. This is a relatively short phase lasting 2 to 4 weeks.
Telogen
This is the resting stage where your hair is not actively growing. It is estimated up to 15% of your strands are in this state at any one time. This stage can last up to 3 months.
Exogen
(also known as Anagen Restart)
This is final stage known as new hair stage is probably the most noticeable, as your follicles release hair strands and there will be a period of natural hair shedding, which can last up to 6 months. The shedding stage occurs as we are about to enter a new growth cycle, starting again with Anagen phase.
Disrupting the Hair Growth Cycle
Each hair follicle can be at a different phase and part of the hair growth cycle at any given time which is what we want, as if every follicle was in the Exogen phase at one time, we would have no hair!
Disrupting the hair growth cycle can cause hair loss, as the Anagen phase which we are in most of the time, won’t produce to the same extent when interrupted meaning in 3-4 months’ time when the Exogen phase arrives, the hair loss will be much more extreme as new hair wasn’t able to develop earlier on in the growth process.
As we age, the Anagen stage can get less and less, producing less new hairs. The Exogen stage will still hapen on schedule, so we will feel our hair get weaker and finer for this reason as we age. Gender can also be a factor, with women experiencing issues within the hair growth cycle more so than men. Men more commonly experience male pattern baldness related hair loss. Medication, nutrition, stress, medium to long term illnesses, hormones, extreme hair styling etc. can all cause disruption the natural growth cycle and can lead to more pronounced hair loss when the Exogen phase arrives.
If you have any questions or queries on the hair growth cycle or if you feel the Exogen phase has been more severe lately and it is leading to more profound and noticeable hair loss, please feel free to contact us.