Trimming fact or fiction?

[amnicare]

Is the statement, "Trimming hair every 6-8 weeks makes hair grow faster" true? I think it sounds like a myth that hairdressers use to get women to come to the salon more often.
After all the hair grows from the root, so what should that have to do with the tips. Trimming helps with split ends and keeps the hair healthy of course. I doubt that it has anything to do with growth though.
Love to hear your thoughts

[Isilme]

Myth, definitely myth! It might help if you hair is very damaged and breaks off faster than it grows, but it doesn't make your hair grow faster.

[Loreley]

I'm sure it's only a myth. Maybe hairdressers tell people this to have their hair cut more often...

[Clarisse]

This is a myth. If hair has a healthy, blunt hemline it is

a) easier to see the growth
b) less prone to split ends (= less breakage)

Once hair is out of the follicle and visible, it is dead, and has no nerves - the root has absolutely no idea about what is going on with the dead hair, whether the rest of the hair is ankle-length, pixie-cropped, shaved off, dyed or layered/with bangs.

[Liss]

Myth!!!

I listened to a hairdresser tell me this when I was younger, had the hair trimmed diligently every 2 months, only to watch it get shorter and shorter.

Taking into account that an average hairdresser will chop off about 2" as a "trim", and that hair will only grow on average 0.5" a month... then a trim every 8 weeks will take off double the amount of natural growth - making your hair get shorter.

Trimming will help hair look healthier and it will assist to maintain shorter styles, but it doesn't make hair grow - the scalp health and hair folicles do that.

[Fiferstone]

Complete myth. Your hair grows at its own rate, and the amount of time a follicle is actively producing a hair is different from person to person. There are averages, but trimming does not impact the rate at which your hair grows at all. The perception that it speeds up growth could be due to the fact that, by getting rid of damage on a regular basis, the healthy length increases and that could lead people to believe that the trimming is increasing the growth rate, when instead it's increasing the amount of healthy length, because damage is removed before it can travel up the shaft

[spidermom]

I think it's true. For one thing, if you keep your split ends under control, your hair won't be breaking off on the ends. My hair stylist recently told me that the follicle "knows" everything about that hair growing from it and will actually change the chemistry around the root of a damaged hair, putting less into growth and more into bathing that hair with sebum. And last - I have had some phenomenal growth spurts following significant trims (1 or more inches).

[lapushka]

Every 6 to 8 weeks is required if you want to maintain a style, and I think that's why stylists recommend it. If you want to let your hair grow longer, just don't go that often, really... once or twice a year is enough. They will snip the new growth right off if you don't make it blatantly clear that you don't want to have the style that you have maintained. Some hair salons over here charge 5 euro extra for hair that's below the shoulder, as they consider that "long", so don't count on stylists to think of long hair the way we do. Their vision of long hair is more than a bit off, so chances are that if you say you want to grow it long, that they misinterpret what you mean.

Hair doesn't need to be trimmed often for it to be in good condition. Just let it grow and keep an eye on your ends. They will only really suffer from too much heat, too much color and esp. bleach. Regular wear and tear, they can take (hair is strong), although that doesn't mean that you shouldn't treat it carefully. The finer it is, the more careful you should be.

[Speckla]

I think it's a myth but we'll find out. I just did a 1/4" selftrim last night. Haven't cut the back since May 12, 2009.

[FrannyG]

In many cases, lack of trimming can result in breakage and a false terminal length. I saw it myself with my own daughter, who after a couple of years of not trimming had photos taken a year apart and there was no apparent growth.

Once she had a good trim, her hair grew much longer than her previous length.