if hair has a terminal length then how.....

[jojo]

if say you are growing it and get bored at say bsl and go and get it cut, will it continue to grow?

Or say you grow your hair to hip and decide its too long to handle but you enjoyed your hair at apl so think im going to cut it back there.

How does your hair know its been cut? like if your terminal length is tailbone and hair only grows for that particular person for 7 years and it took them 6 years to get to hip, then surely you could only grow to bsl the next time because you only would have a years growth cycle left?

Am I making sense?:confused:

[Bene]

i think individual hairs grow at different times. so let's say one hair has reached it's own terminal length, another hair has another year or two to grow. so if they're both a waist, and you cut them back to BSL, then the one that has more time left will continue to grow.


i don't know if i'm making any sense hahahahahahahaha

[jojo]

Yes that makes sense, I suppose each hair must be at a different stage in the cycle. Its confusing isn't it but then again if each hair is at a different stage of the cycle if there is a terminal length they must all catch each other up at some point else they wouldn't stop growing?

[NebraskaChick84]

you get new hairs all the time. old *terminal* hairs fall out and new baby hairs grow in. so it is like a cycle pretty much. hth's :)

[biggeorge]

I understand what you are saying, but it is more involved than that.

If you have 150,000 hairs on your head, and you shed 100 hairs a day, then you have a cycle time of 1500 days or 4.11 years. If you grow 6" per year, then you will have a terminal length of slightly over 24 inches. This is on the low side, but there are those that reach terminal length at this point.

Say you have 200,000 hairs and lose 50 per day. You then have a cycle time of 4000 days or right at 11 years. Your terminal length would then be about 66 inches

Cutting your hair should not have much of an effect on your cycle time. The hair will fall out when it is time whether it is 6" or 60".

This is why taking care of your hair comes in; you want it to reach its terminal length naturally without destroying it in other ways. And by taking steps to reduce the shed rate you will increase the terminal length you can reach.

This is a basic discussion, but I hope it helps.

[Nat242]

Thinking of it as terminal "length" is a bit confusing; it's really terminal "time". Each hair will grow for a certain time before it falls out - taking care of hair means it can reach it's maximum length potential in that time.

[jojo]

thanks guys that makes a lot of sense. I think terminal time is a more approriate title!

[Sissy]

Thinking of it as terminal "length" is a bit confusing; it's really terminal "time". Each hair will grow for a certain time before it falls out - taking care of hair means it can reach it's maximum length potential in that time.

whoa... but a new hair will grow in it's place after it calls out right?? :confused:

[Nat242]

whoa... but a new hair will grow in it's place after it calls out right?? :confused:

Of course - otherwise we'd all be bald early in life. Follicles can stop producing hair (alopecia), but it's rare occurrence in young, healthy women. You might notice that some elderly women have quite thin hair, and obviously men are more likely to go "bald" than women, but chances are that the 50+ hairs you shed today are going to be replaced.

[spidermom]

Some of my hairs have a very short terminal time because I often shed out hairs as short as 2-4 inches. I know they were naturally shed hairs because they have a root bulb on one end and a tapered tip on the other.

Then of course I have hairs that have grown for a long enough time to have reached mid-butt length.

[Sissy]

Of course - otherwise we'd all be bald early in life. Follicles can stop producing hair (alopecia), but it's rare occurrence in young, healthy women. You might notice that some elderly women have quite thin hair, and obviously men are more likely to go "bald" than women, but chances are that the 50+ hairs you shed today are going to be replaced.

Whew... THANK GOD! Otherwise, I was thinking I will go bald soon with all the hairs I've been picking out of the shower drain!

[jojo]

so as one cycle finishes another starts yeah?

[getoffmyskittle]

so as one cycle finishes another starts yeah?

As in all things. 8)

[HairColoredHair]

Certain hairs have shorter terminal times too... like the fuzzy ones about my hairline... they'll always be short.

[Mugili]

So it means, i someone had few hair and huge hairloss, the hair will never get classical?
Very frustrating...i had to do something...:(

[HairColoredHair]

So it means, i someone had few hair and huge hairloss, the hair will never get classical?
Very frustrating...i had to do something...:(

Well... That depends, really.

If you're losing hair for any reason other than genetics, such as a vitamin, protein, hormone, etc deficiency, then no. Once the health issue is fixed - if it can be - the person could grow to classic length.

If, however, a person's hair grows only to a certain length despite it being healthy and the person them self being healthy, then yes, it's probably a lost cause.

Classic is about average, if I remember right. Therefore there must be people on either end of the spectrum.

[rymorg2]

I'm a stylist....

This is the way the cycle of growth works.

There are three phases. Telogen, anagen, and catagen. Anagen is the active phase of growth. Telogen is a resting phase where no growth happens but the hair is still in the live folicle. Catagen is the phase where the hair is shed. But hair doesn't go directly back into telagen right after catagen either. It varies. So you can have some folicles that don't grow a hair again right away. Also, the length of time of each phase for each person and even each HAIR is not the same. The resting phase, antagen, is usually the shortest believe it or not.

HTH!!!!

[HairColoredHair]

Hair is shed in the telogen phase... Catagen in the transition from anagen to telogen.

[auburnlocks]

Unless you’re talking about my husband then it should grow right back again. He-he.

I think it would be hard to determine your true terminal length/time unless you are seriously careful about your hair. My mom and sister seem to think theirs is at about shoulder length . . . But I think that’s because they dry it our so badly. I’ve had mine out to TB. Now what is the chance of theirs terminating at shoulder when mine was TB and still growing? :rolleyes:

[vindo]

if say you are growing it and get bored at say bsl and go and get it cut, will it continue to grow?

Or say you grow your hair to hip and decide its too long to handle but you enjoyed your hair at apl so think im going to cut it back there.

How does your hair know its been cut? like if your terminal length is tailbone and hair only grows for that particular person for 7 years and it took them 6 years to get to hip, then surely you could only grow to bsl the next time because you only would have a years growth cycle left?

Am I making sense?:confused:

Terminal length does not mean that the hair just stops growing and then rests there.
It has to do with shedding, your Anagen phase and natural taper. You will usually notice more and more taper the more your hair grows, if your Anagen phase is not very long your hair may start tapering at a certain point, causing very thin ends if you leave it alone.
This is because of the shedding..some hairs just fall out before they reach a certain length and some might live longer but get less and less until you will not notice growth any more.
Another reason for not noticing growth could be that the ends are breaking off before they reach a certain length.

[Anje]

I've experienced the same thing, auburnlocks -- my mom claims her hair doesn't grow past her shoulders, and mine is at the top of tailbone now.

I also shed lots of short hairs with bulb attached, and I know that some of the hair near my face has a short terminal length -- I have non-split tapered ends near my temples that cause "horns" on windy days. The long hairs don't seem to shed much -- I just found an amazingly long one in the shower the other day, and it surprised me, because the longest hairs don't seem to shed. I hope that's a good sign...

[Mugili]

My coiffeur told me, my was at APL. And I always believe...a half year ago I found the german community and then this one and now I am nearly BSL and it ist still growing.

And I hope it will reach tailbone somehow someday.

[eadwine]

Maybe a simple way of putting it: instead of length, replace the term length with time. Of course this is not NEAR close enough and complete, but easiest to explain :)

Hair grows for an amount of time, then sheds. Say in ten years it grows from scalp to waist and then falls out (making waist the terminal length).

Now, after 5 years you are at APL and you cut it back to a short bob. That hair will not grow back all the way to waist, because it only has 5 years left of growth, so it will shed at just past APL.

As there are no two hairs exactly the same length you will not end up with a bald head or with hair shorter than waist. This also explains why your hair at the tips is thinner in circumference when you are at terminal, less hairs there than right out of your head.


I hope that made sense at all LOL

[Kirin]

One of the best ways to explain this is.....

If you look at your head of hair in a mirror on a sunny day, you will see all of these "whispy" hairs, shorter than the rest sticking out. They are at all different lengths, all over the length of your hair from top to bottom. These are the hairs in different stages of growing.

Say your hair is shoulder length, and you keep it that way, hairs shed out, and start regrowing........ those are those whispy hairs you see. No hair grows at the same rate, that is the reason for the different lengths throughout your hair as a whole.

"Terminal length" refers to the length of hair that will grow, and then get no longer. Meaning, the possible length it can grow, from start to finish in its growing cycle. Once you reach terminal, hairs shed, and start again from the scalp down. Since you do not shed all your hairs at once, your hair will always appear static, but it is indeed still in growing phases.

[Katze]

this cleared things up for me, too, thanks everyone!

Now I am wondering what will happen to my millions of baby hairs over time. Hopefully, if they don't shed out after I have my baby (fingers and toes crossed) then my hair will finally be thicker...but I do notice I shed some baby hairs too...

[jojo]

that makes sense, i like your way of explaining things eadwine cheers.

[eadwine]

You're welcome.

And Katze, don't worry too much, but DO expect a BIG shed, it can only turn out to be not so bad as you expected then when it does happen :)