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Presto
September 20th, 2008, 05:29 PM
My SIL cuts hair for a living. She doesn't work anywhere fancy and won't work with chemicals, no perms or color I believe.
So she sort of seems to know what she's doing, but not altogether. She insists that the regular distribution of baby hairs throughout my length is actually damage from wet combing. But I know when one breaks, I can hear it, and it rarely happens. They come out at the root more often than they break, and that is just the usual shed.

One other thing she insists is that each side of your head grows at its own rate, sometimes faster or slower than the other side. She even has each family member's "fast" side identified. The ones that she regularly trims anyways.
I've let her trim my hair twice, and she says that neither side of my head grows faster than the other, and that I'm odd for that.
I had never heard of this before. I know each follicle has it's spurts of growth and stalls, and life cycle. But half of your head? A committee of hairs got together and decided to race the other side of the head? And they're winning? Hmmm.

Has anyone else heard of this? Since she's trimmed my hair(it's been most of a year), I now seem to have one side slightly longer
than the other, so I kind of think it is her own hands fault. If she unconsciously leaves one side longer, then it seems longer the next time she gets a hold of that particular person.
I also seem to have a bit of an inverted "U" going on, and I'm not too happy about that, but that's another matter.

Whaddaya think people? I've heard of people with faster growing underlayers or canopy, but different sides of the head?

ClareDee
September 20th, 2008, 05:47 PM
I think it's possible that she's right.

The pic below was taken recently, and no matter how I combed it or how many pictures I took, the right side always seems longer. I had a centre-parting at the time, so the parting isn't the reason. It could simply be the hemline consistently lying flatter (rather than longer) on one side. The reason will probably be more obvious to me when my hair is longer:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v139/frogmella/hairmeasuringSEPTcopy.jpg

mira-chan
September 20th, 2008, 05:51 PM
hair on the head does grow at different rates. If you look at those who have fairytale ends (me included) you'll be able so see which part grows fastest. For me it's the back and the sides grow slowly making my hair naturally grow in a V.

Also the sides of the head may grow at different rates and me of different thickness. This effect comes from what side of the head you sleep on. The side you sleep on will be less thick and grow slower. If you sleep on your back, you can get an inverted V or U formation to the ends.

Elphie
September 20th, 2008, 06:04 PM
This thread makes me feel better! Looking at my avatar, it appears like the left side is shorter than the right. I know the hair is "even" and I figured that maybe it was the braid waves. Perhaps it's not.

MadHatter
September 20th, 2008, 06:13 PM
hair on the head does grow at different rates. If you look at those who have fairytale ends (me included) you'll be able so see which part grows fastest. For me it's the back and the sides grow slowly making my hair naturally grow in a V.

Also the sides of the head may grow at different rates and me of different thickness. This effect comes from what side of the head you sleep on. The side you sleep on will be less thick and grow slower. If you sleep on your back, you can get an inverted V or U formation to the ends.

I don't have any fairtale ends, but it appears that my hair tends to form a U.
And the hair on one side of my head is noticeably thicker than that on the other. I don't remember which side, but I noticed the difference a while back when I was wearing braided pigtails.

RavennaNight
September 20th, 2008, 09:06 PM
This is interesting. I think the underside of my hair (back, mid ear level to neck) grows faster than the top. This is because according to the tapemeasure, I grew 4 inches in 5 months, :confused: but yet my roots on the TOP of my head grew the average 1/2 inch per month (I was measuring this also, since I color my hair drastically). My roots on the underside seem to be longer whenever I color as well. :confused: As far as left and right, I'm not so sure...

Presto
September 20th, 2008, 11:02 PM
Ah, I see. I am a back sleeper, so that explains my inverted U shaped hemline. I go to sleep on my sides, I can't fall asleep on my back, but I always wake up that way.

Nat242
September 20th, 2008, 11:34 PM
My hair seems to grow fairly evenly - I haven't trimmed in 12 months but there is no noticeable difference. I do however have thicker hair on one side of my head. :shrug:

Unnamed
September 21st, 2008, 12:16 AM
On me both sides grow the same, I think. I do have more hair on the left side, though! (ETA: This sometimes makes it look like the left side is longer, but it's not actually longer that I'm aware.)

I do, however, have this...inverted layer thing going on, due to the hair on the top of my head growing faster than the hair on the back of my head. Not sure how much longer, as I haven't checked recently, but probably 3-4" now, as via the dye-line, it seemed to divide out to 1" more growth per year on top (I think I last looked at this a year ago, though).

The sides may also grow faster (in relation to the middle). Not 100% sure on that, though.

camara
September 21st, 2008, 05:23 AM
The hair on the right side of my head is growing noticeably faster. If I´m going too long between trims, this becomes very visible.

Elphie
September 21st, 2008, 07:43 AM
I certainly have thicker hair on the right side of my head. I rarely wear a center part and borrow a bit from that side to balance our the left.

Silver & Gold
September 21st, 2008, 10:24 AM
It is very common. I've cut my own and the hair of my family for years. (My dad was a barber and I learned from him.) I've noticed that people have different growth rates in different areas of the head as well as different thickness. One side of the head has thicker hair than the other - this is also the side that grows faster.

Oskimosa
September 21st, 2008, 10:36 AM
This is interesting. I think the underside of my hair (back, mid ear level to neck) grows faster than the top. This is because according to the tapemeasure, I grew 4 inches in 5 months, :confused: but yet my roots on the TOP of my head grew the average 1/2 inch per month (I was measuring this also, since I color my hair drastically). My roots on the underside seem to be longer whenever I color as well. :confused: As far as left and right, I'm not so sure...

Yes! Yes! I have this issue. SO what I did was measure my roots on the BOTTOM of my hairline and I came up with a much higher growth rate. And yes, the hair on the bottom left of my head is growing faster. I really really know this because I had my hair cut VERY short and would've noticed such a big difference immediately.

But I also have wavy hair, and that makes it look worse. When it's wet, it doesn't look so bad, but there is still a difference.

Rapunzelwannabe
September 21st, 2008, 11:47 AM
I've heard a lot about the side you sleep on being thinner then the other, and I can't really say how true that is for me since my part is on the right side (I sleep on my right) so I can't tell if the extra thickness on my left is because of not sleeping on that side or the fact that there's just more hair on the left.

Solange
September 22nd, 2008, 01:35 PM
I think she's right on one count and wrong on the other. While I don't think all people have one side that grows faster, my left side does end up longer after a few months, even when it was trimmed straight across. I don't think your new growth is a sign of damage. Different hairs start and stop their growth cycle at different times, or we'd be bald every time they're all done their resting phase and fall out.

tillymint
September 22nd, 2008, 02:08 PM
My hair does this! It seems to grow faster in the underneath layers at the bottom right of my head... I'm also right handed, are the two linked? Am I using the right side of my brain more so the hair is growing quicker here hehe?