Bangs/Layers slow down hair growth?

[CaityBear]

So I was randomly searching threads on a different forum I'm part of and a girl posted saying she wanted tips on how to grow her hair out and somebody else with gorgeous long hair posted.

"Having bangs or layers can also slow the hair growth rate down.

I'll see if I can explain this...

Your body is always trying to keep itself in homeostasis- which means "balance". It send vitamins where you are deficient, it sends white blood cells to infection...etc... basically, it's always trying to fix whatever is "unbalanced" in your body to keep things consistent.

So, when you have layers or bangs the hair follicles and scalp sense a varied weight distribution- albeit small- and your body things your hair is growing at an uneven rate. So, your scalp will distribute vitamins and minerals and other nutrients unevenly- it'll give more to the follicles with shorter hair, and less to the follicles with longer hair. In doing so- your scalp/body is trying to give the shorter hairs a chance to "catch up". The result is that your hair grows at a slower rate than if the hair was all one length.

Your body obviously doesn't know you've cut your hair to a certain style- for all your body knows- you're losing hair in certain areas- and it tries to fix it.

World famous hair stylist/biologist George Michael (not the singer ha ha ha) did a ton of studies on this. You could do a google search for more information."

Is that true? :S It seems quite weird...

**Haha, never mind! It's really late and my brain isn't working and I really need to get to bed. I just realized how stupid this sounds...I'm going to sleep. lol Good night.**

[UltraBella]

As a licensed Electrologist, hair growth is my area of expertise, and I have been taught otherwise and experienced otherwise. I know of this theory, but it is completely unproven. First of all, your scalp is NOT distributing nutrients and vitamins. That part actually made me laugh ! It is supplying blood flow to the follicle, which nourishes a hair to grow. Nutrients are absorbed into your blood stream in the small intestine. The nutrient rich blood flows through your entire body, it is not picking this follicle over that follicle. If you take two hairs side by side and cut one, it is impossible for blood flow to be directed at that one follicle and not all the other follicles in the surrounding area. Scalp circulation is not nearly that picky.

From a personal standpoint, I have had every type of bang possible in the last seven years and I have layers and my growth rate is steady at 1 inch per month regardless.

[Avital88]

Well maybe that just explained why my hair grows faster at my bangs:) and also always my layers

[rhosyn_du]

This is one of those weird bits of long hair advice that has always made me go :confused:. None of the explanations I've heard make sense biologically, and I've definitely not noticed it with my hair. Since I color my hair a notably different shade than my natural color, I can see my root growth, and my length grows at exactly the same rate as my fringe.

[Mesmerise]

The other thing to remember, though is if your hair is all the same length, it's actually all different lengths cause the hairs that grow just above the neckline, for example, will be way shorter than the hairs that grow at the top of your head! In fact, if you had long layers at the top, they'd probably be more similar in length to the hair underneath ;)

I always think fringes seem to grow faster because you notice the difference more there than you do at the back where it's long. However, I'm sure the growth is all pretty regular (with differences in individual hairs of course).

[Juneii]

EEEHHH. What if you pull a certain section of hair back often? Like in an updo or something. That means your body is going to think that there is an extreme amount of weight on your head and so your hair will stop growing completely so any short baby hairs will catch up?

I am iffy about that logic, my hair grows at an even rate regardless if I have bangs or not. It's just that my bangs are more noticeable because it's right in front of my eyes.

[Nusia82]

i'm not an expert, but i don't think that's true.
If it's true, since i have many layers, it will means that i'll never have long hair! ...or at least it will take a hole life to grow.... :rolleyes:

[Igor]

We have a lot of threads on his theories already

[Panth]

As a licensed Electrologist, hair growth is my area of expertise, and I have been taught otherwise and experienced otherwise. I know of this theory, but it is completely unproven. First of all, your scalp is NOT distributing nutrients and vitamins. That part actually made me laugh ! It is supplying blood flow to the follicle, which nourishes a hair to grow. Nutrients are absorbed into your blood stream in the small intestine. The nutrient rich blood flows through your entire body, it is not picking this follicle over that follicle. If you take two hairs side by side and cut one, it is impossible for blood flow to be directed at that one follicle and not all the other follicles in the surrounding area. Scalp circulation is not nearly that picky.

This is certainly true for scalp circulation. However, it is possible that there could be differences in nutrients entering the hair follicle as many nutrients are actively transported from blood into tissues and thus this transportation could be controlled.

Having said that, I totally agree with you. I have studied epidermis and hair follicles a little, though not hair growth ... the main fault of this theory is that the only way the follicles could detect cutting of the hair is by detecting a change in weight, as the hair (once it leaves the follicle) is made up of dead cells that cannot communicate back up to the follicle. And there is no evidence that follicles can detect changes in the weight of the hair, never mind communicate this information to other follicles in the scalp, never mind convert this information in those other follicles into alterations in growth speed in those other follicles...

The evidence just isn't there.

I have heard paraphrased in another thread (the one earlier this month about George Michael's philosophy of haircare) that George Michael based this theory on an experiment in ... I think a dog ... where one half was shaved and, apparently, the fur there grew back faster until it was the same length as the fur on the other side, when it reverted to its normal speed of growth.

Now, even if that experiment was done as paraphrased and the results were as paraphrased, I can think of several problems with it. The first one is pretty damned obvious: anagen phase in dogs is not the same as humans; hair length in dogs is not the same as humans....

So... umm. IMO it's bunk. Or, at the very least, it's not supported by any current evidence that I know of and the evidence that I have been provided with is not detailed enough or conclusive. :P
I suspect the theory may have initially come about because many people have variations in hair growth speed throughout their scalp. There are several people on this forum that have to trim their hair because the left side grows faster than the right (or vice versa). I suspect someone just observed a person who happens to have faster hair growth at the front of their head compared to the back ... hence speedy fringe/bangs growth. ^_^

[Sanyia]

Hair has no nerves, like live skin, so how would the scalp know if it's been cut?

[joiekimochi]

If that is the case, why do my longer layers at my nape grow faster than my shorter layers on my canopy? For every 6 inches my lower layers grow, my canopy layers only grow 3.

[pepperminttea]

We have a lot of threads on his theories already

True, but a new thread lets new members comment on it, too, without resurrecting an ancient thread. :) It's not something most people would go digging in the archives for, like style instructions or routine advice.

[jacqueline101]

I agree it sounds far fetched. I have bangs and layers I grow a decent growth rate of hair.

[Ligeia_13]

I don't mean to be rude, jacqueline, but why do you keep resurrecting threads that are two years old? :/

[dulce]

I just cut layers and bangs fairly recently after having one length for quite awhile,NO change in monthly growth rate from before for me.