Hair growth phase and terminal length question?

[Leslieslsa]

I read somewhere today that hair is only in the "growth" phase for two to seven years.. But that can't be true, can it? I mean I've seen a lot of people on here that must have more than seven years of growth. I am asking because the thought of terminal length scares me a bit, I mean what if you take really good care of your body and hair and it could still stop growing out of nowhere? That would be really disappointing :-/

[neko_kawaii]

IIRC, seven is considered average. Some people have cycles that are longer than average, some shorter.

[lapushka]

Well you can't know what it will be like if you don't let it grow, and that's basically the only thing you can do to find out. :shrug: No one on here can tell you what this will be like for you. You'll just have to experience it for yourself.

[trolleypup]

I'd go with the more common average hair growth time of 6-7 years...very short and very long cycles are rare. 7 years is very definitely not the upper limit!

For reference, my siggie pic is me with about 7.5 years of growth (7.5 years X 0.5 inch/month).

The growth limit is also per hair, as long as your longest sheds are increasing in length, you are good. My LHC measured length is about 14 inches longer than my longest shed length.

[woodswanderer]

I hadn't been aware of this...very interesting. So then world record holders must have an abnormally long long growth phase.

[AmyBeth]

This issue is of intense interest to me. Can any of you with terminal or near-terminal tell me how you know? My hair had been growing at a nice pace for 2- 2/12 years at about 1/2 inch per month, and now it is still growing (can see my non-hendigoed roots), but I have been stalled for almost 6 months. I check my ends and they are very healthy and silky, no splits or white dots, and I have a pretty nice thick hemline. I had grown my hair for 20+ years and never got much longer than it is now, but back then, it was very damaged and tattered because I didn't take very good care of it. I take impeccable care of it now, and am wondering if this is it, terminal length. Is it credible to think that I'm having a 6 month stall and will start to realize some more length soon?

[ErinLeigh]

I too am fascinated by terminal length as I do not understand it properly.
SO hair stop growing after X number of years...then what? Does it shed out and you have the shorter new growth?
How does it maintain the length once terminal is reached?

[EdG]

This issue is of intense interest to me. Can any of you with terminal or near-terminal tell me how you know? My hair had been growing at a nice pace for 2- 2/12 years at about 1/2 inch per month, and now it is still growing (can see my non-hendigoed roots), but I have been stalled for almost 6 months. I check my ends and they are very healthy and silky, no splits or white dots, and I have a pretty nice thick hemline. I had grown my hair for 20+ years and never got much longer than it is now, but back then, it was very damaged and tattered because I didn't take very good care of it. I take impeccable care of it now, and am wondering if this is it, terminal length. Is it credible to think that I'm having a 6 month stall and will start to realize some more length soon?The signs that one has reached terminal length are that the length doesn't change for extended periods of time (maybe a year), and the ends are tapered.


I too am fascinated by terminal length as I do not understand it properly.
SO hair stop growing after X number of years...then what? Does it shed out and you have the shorter new growth?
How does it maintain the length once terminal is reached?At any instant in time, the hair follicles are all at different stages in the growth cycle. Terminal length is an equilibrium between growing and shedding.
Ed

[Madora]

I read somewhere today that hair is only in the "growth" phase for two to seven years.. But that can't be true, can it? I mean I've seen a lot of people on here that must have more than seven years of growth. I am asking because the thought of terminal length scares me a bit, I mean what if you take really good care of your body and hair and it could still stop growing out of nowhere? That would be really disappointing :-/

Your hair genes determine how long it will get. Some folks are extremely fortunate and can grow hair to the floor (and longer!). How well you take care of your hair also plays a major part in achieving long lengths. You should be willing to spend at least 7 or 8 years..maybe longer...depending on how fast/slow your hair grows.

[trolleypup]

I hadn't been aware of this...very interesting. So then world record holders must have an abnormally long long growth phase.
Yup! Decades!

This issue is of intense interest to me. Can any of you with terminal or near-terminal tell me how you know? My hair had been growing at a nice pace for 2- 2/12 years at about 1/2 inch per month, and now it is still growing (can see my non-hendigoed roots), but I have been stalled for almost 6 months. I check my ends and they are very healthy and silky, no splits or white dots, and I have a pretty nice thick hemline. I had grown my hair for 20+ years and never got much longer than it is now, but back then, it was very damaged and tattered because I didn't take very good care of it. I take impeccable care of it now, and am wondering if this is it, terminal length. Is it credible to think that I'm having a 6 month stall and will start to realize some more length soon?
Cautious speaking here, since I had a 3 year long stall. It could be. One way of checking is looking at your sheds...do the longest sheds have a bulb on the scalp end and a smoothly tapered (not cut or broken) tip? If the sheds all all around the same length then that is an indicator of terminal length. You can measure the diameter of your ponytail from close to the scalp to tip...the diameter should decrease smoothly. If you trim, does your hair grow back to the same length/shape with your regular growth rate? If you are terminal at your length, the telltale fairytailing may not be as obvious as on longer lengths. Also, people's terminal length may change over their life, due to age, health, stress, etc.

I too am fascinated by terminal length as I do not understand it properly.
SO hair stop growing after X number of years...then what? Does it shed out and you have the shorter new growth?
How does it maintain the length once terminal is reached?
As Ed notes, terminal length applies to each hair. If you have 100,000 hairs on your head, and all of them have an 8 year growth cycle[1] you will lose about 35 full length hairs each day, after they shed, they start growing again (for the next 8 years). The remaining hairs will grow and age another day, getting longer and closer to shedding out. This is why you can't have a blunt hemline at or near terminal since there is only a tiny percentage of your strands that are that long.

Your length is determined by whatever are the longest/oldest hairs currently on your head...and at terminal, day by day, month by month the individual hairs that reach that length will shed out and be replaced by younger hairs.

[ErinLeigh]

thank you for explaining that! :)

[Snorman]

I'm trying to grow my hair out to waist (currently at slightly beyond BSL), and I'm STILL not sure how to determine if my hair has reached its termial length..
I surely hope not.

I'm scanning through the pages of every thread here on LHC just to find something that might help me grow my hair. haha :P

[woodswanderer]

@Snorman. I think it's unlikely that you have already reached terminal at slightly beyond BSL. It must happen to someone just in terms of imagining a bell curve, but I think you will be able to meet your goal with patience and gentle hair care. How long have you been growing?

[Elizabeth E]

Old thread, but very interesting.
I agree that the average growth phase can be 6-7 years...if that weren't the case, many members here on LHC wouldn't have been able to grow their hair to such lovely lengths :o
I really hope that I can get to knee-length one day, which should take around 4 1/2 - 5 years from my starting point, with an average growth rate (currently getting more than average).
So I'm still in the clear!

[Dark40]

Snorman, I agree with woodswanderer. I thought that BSL or MBL was my terminal length but I have reached WL in my life before but now I've had to trim back. Because, of some dryness and the way my ends were feeling. I'm sure within no time I should reach back to WL again in no time. I know for a fact that I haven't reached my terminal length yet.

[spidermom]

I agree with lapushka - the only way to know what terminal length is for you is to grow your hair until you get there.

It should really be called terminal time rather than terminal length. Every single hair follicle has its own growth potential. One might grow 3/4 inch of hair every month for 5 years, then shed out, while the hair follicle right next to it might grow 1/4 inch per month for 2 years. And so forth. There are a lucky few of us who have the genetic potential to grow fast enough for long enough to achieve lengths beyond about hip to tailbone, especially while maintaining some thickness all the way through the ends. Since I've been here, I've seen people who let hair grow its natural pattern and ended up with only a few longest hairs that kept growing much longer than the rest. It wouldn't be worth it to me to have 20 hairs grow out to knee length while the rest wouldn't grow longer than - say - classic length, but it can happen.

[Glitch]

I agree with lapushka - the only way to know what terminal length is for you is to grow your hair until you get there.

It should really be called terminal time rather than terminal length. Every single hair follicle has its own growth potential. One might grow 3/4 inch of hair every month for 5 years, then shed out, while the hair follicle right next to it might grow 1/4 inch per month for 2 years. And so forth. There are a lucky few of us who have the genetic potential to grow fast enough for long enough to achieve lengths beyond about hip to tailbone, especially while maintaining some thickness all the way through the ends. Since I've been here, I've seen people who let hair grow its natural pattern and ended up with only a few longest hairs that kept growing much longer than the rest. It wouldn't be worth it to me to have 20 hairs grow out to knee length while the rest wouldn't grow longer than - say - classic length, but it can happen.

Yep! And here's an interesting video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G4RyJMKtTc) about terminal length and its related effects that she shared before :)

[daisy rei]

i'm not sure if this has been asked or not, but how do you know when your growth period has started? when do your 5-7 years of growth begin?

[pili]

i'm not sure if this has been asked or not, but how do you know when your growth period has started? when do your 5-7 years of growth begin?
I't not an all or nothing thing. The cycle is different for every hair on your head. That's why you don't suddenly go bald every 5-7 years.