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View Full Version : Trimming fact or fiction?



amnicare
February 7th, 2010, 03:33 AM
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
February 7th, 2010, 03:36 AM
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
February 7th, 2010, 05:08 AM
I'm sure it's only a myth. Maybe hairdressers tell people this to have their hair cut more often... :confused:

Clarisse
February 7th, 2010, 05:46 AM
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
February 7th, 2010, 06:38 AM
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
February 7th, 2010, 08:54 AM
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 :shrug:

spidermom
February 7th, 2010, 09:03 AM
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
February 7th, 2010, 09:52 AM
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
February 7th, 2010, 09:54 AM
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
February 7th, 2010, 10:38 AM
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.

wookermuffin
February 7th, 2010, 11:13 AM
I would say this is a complete myth.

GoddesJourney
February 7th, 2010, 11:20 AM
Some truth. I don't know if there's some proprioceptor in the hair follicle that can tell how heavy a hair is that could somehow result in a hair growing faster if it suddenly weighs less. However, I do know that trimming can help your hair "get longer" faster if your hair is breaking off and there is damage "traveling" up the hair shaft. The figure of 6 to 8 weeks is just a recommendation, not a universal one size fits all.

Fairlight63
February 7th, 2010, 11:35 AM
Don't know if true or not, never seemed to help me.
But my grand daughters hair just was not growing at all. She is 6 yrs. old & her hair had stalled at shoulder level & wouldn't grow. My daughter said that she trimmed off about 1/2 in. & her hair started to grow. It was if it had went to sleep or something & had to be woke up.

spidermom
February 7th, 2010, 01:11 PM
I just found this information in an on-line article about the hair follicle: "Hair responds to external stimuli and any movement of the fiber is picked up by the follicle to transmit a message to the nervous system. The hair fibers can therefore be said to act like “antennas” to receive sensory signals."

It sounds like the hair follicles would "know" that hair has been cut to me.

jasper
February 7th, 2010, 01:38 PM
I got told this not long ago too, and I thought it was false. I don't have a lot of split ends, but even strands with splits grow. Cutting them doesn't make them longer sooner. The idea that splits are going to break off and cutting them off keeps damage from traveling up doesn't hold water with me either. If hair is going to break off, the split doesn't travel up. :shrug:

wendyg
February 7th, 2010, 01:42 PM
spidermom: It's surprising some of the things hairdressers think. Hair is dead. The follicle can't "know" anything about what's going on at the other end any more than your wrist knows if you cut your fingernails.

wg

spidermom
February 7th, 2010, 01:56 PM
spidermom: It's surprising some of the things hairdressers think. Hair is dead. The follicle can't "know" anything about what's going on at the other end any more than your wrist knows if you cut your fingernails.

wg

I will gracefully accept that as your opinion.

Flaxen
February 7th, 2010, 02:08 PM
I can only speak for myself; there is no truth to the trimming idea. I've been a non-trimmer and a trimmer on the Hair Polls and Projects Board for an extended length of time (more than a year for each), and my hair averages 1/2 inch per month either way. I have spurts and stalls, and there has been no connection to trims, which is what I'm doing now. :smile:

BrightEyes
February 7th, 2010, 02:17 PM
Speaking as a hair dresser, I am going to say it's a myth. Trimming often keeps the overall shape even, and also gets rid of split ends. But I don't believe it actually makes hair grow faster from the follicles. On the other hand, I do believe that regular scalp massages as well as good nutrition can help hair grow at its fullest potential.

Sweetness
February 7th, 2010, 02:17 PM
Some truth. I don't know if there's some proprioceptor in the hair follicle that can tell how heavy a hair is that could somehow result in a hair growing faster if it suddenly weighs less. However, I do know that trimming can help your hair "get longer" faster if your hair is breaking off and there is damage "traveling" up the hair shaft. The figure of 6 to 8 weeks is just a recommendation, not a universal one size fits all.



I agree with this, it does enable hair to grow longer (in general conditions), as it doesn't break off : it stays strong, so it grows. Not faster per se.

In morocco I heard women say that keeping hair in a english braid style makes "hair grow faster". Same thing : it protects the hair, breaks off less, grows more and longer. Not faster per se.


I think it all gets to healthy hair growing longer. And unhealthy will look as if it "doesn't grow at all" as it breaks off at a certain length. I know that's what happened with my hair. I've never cut it so frequently, and it has never "grown so fast" (as in ; "I have never had such long hair so fast before")

Bellona
February 7th, 2010, 04:59 PM
I always wonder about this too. When my hair grew really long, I was damaging it all the time by changing its color, flat ironing, blowdrying, hairspraying, basically everything bad. I only got it trimmed once every 6 months, and yeah, I'd have some splits, but none of them ever noticeably traveled up beyond my ends or broke off.

Has anyone ever had their hair break off from not trimming? The only time my hair broke off was from dying platinum blonde repeatedly in high school, and that's kind of different than just not trimming.

amnicare
February 10th, 2010, 06:54 PM
Thanks for all the comments. I appreciate it. :)