Do you think hair length depends on genes?

[kaaatie]

Hi everyone, this is my first post here!

I've been trying to grow my hair for ages and results are achingly slow - I've been hovering in the shoulder region/just below for over 2 years! This might be because my hair is so damaged (tons of breakage) but...

I read a small article recently that suggested hair growth was linked to genetics and that a person's hair can only grow to a certain length.

Obviously loads of people here have gorgeous, healthy, longer-than-average hair which suggests to me the article is wrong (I hope so) - or you're all just blessed genetically!

What do you think? Do you know any more about this theory, do you think its true?

Thanks everyone!

[Bene]

it's not just guessing and speculation, nor a mere suggestion. genetics plays a very large role in your potential hair growth. sure, maintenance and diet are important, but even the best care ends somewhere. it's hard to figure out where your terminal length is, especially if the people in your family keep their hair short.


but if your problem is breakage, then we're talking about maintenance. there are many articles and threads here that can help with that.


if we're talking about terminal length, that's when the hair sheds when on its own schedule (genetics)



hey, gravity is also a theory :)

[ChloeDharma]

Yup genetics plays an important role, but so doe handling, health, diet etc. If your hair is not growing past shoulderlength then i find it very unlikely your genetic potential is what is stopping growth. You mention it is in bad condition and breaking, you first need to rectify that, stop doing the things that are causing breakage...heat styling, chemical processes, rough handling....too frequent washing perhaps? And wearing it down.....shoulderlength can be quite harsh on the ends as they are constantly rubbing on clothes etc.
Have a look through the threads here and see what deep treatments you like the sound of, maybe try oiling, very gentle washing and keep it up and out the way as much as possible and i'm sure you will see growth....though bear in mind you may need to wait until the damage has grown out before you see your maximum growth.
HTH :)

[Alethia]

I had a friend who hadn't cut her hair for 20 years because it remained at BSL. It was in pretty good condition and she only washed it once a week. I think she was a classic example of someone with a short hair follicle life span.

[Sarahmoon]

It's a combination of genes and hair care. Most people should be able to grow to at least waste length I think (when stretching the hair in case you're very curly).
So don't worry if your parents were never able to grow below shoulder length or something. You might get far beyond that just because of better hair care.

(Just I saw a Greek guy who was raised by a Dutch family on tv once. His younger brothers who were raised in a rather poor Greek family were much smaller than he was. Same parents, but the difference was better food and health care.)

[flapjack]

Most people never know how long their hair can actually grow because 99.9999999999% of the population (maybe an exaggeration in percentages, there, but it's the overwhelming majority, so you can see my point...) cut their hair to keep it within certain limits for a myriad of reasons. Some people always snip it at shoulder, some people always snip it at classic, etc. So most people really just will never find out either way.


But due to history, we have seen that there are people all around the world who have had hair trailing out the door behind them... so the alleles are clearly in the general human population, wandering around, in millions of people who don't know they have that ability.

[Buddaphlyy]

Yep, terminal length/time is a fact, but very few people have shoulder length terminal lengths. Most people who think shoulder length is their terminal length usually have hair that is damaged and breaking off at the length (as yours seems to be). Try some bunning and basic k.i.s.s routines for a while and your hair should greatly improve.

[renarok]

Genetics are definitely a factor in growing long hair.

Those lucky folks who are able to grow their hair to the uber-long lengths that some of us aspire to are just fortunate that their hairs have longer lifespans.

If someone could figure out how to extend the life of each individual hair then we all could have the long locks that we wish for.