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jackiesjottings
March 3rd, 2011, 07:52 AM
My mum mentioned to her hairdresser yesterday that I have hair right down to the end of my bottom and without ever seeing it the hairdressers reply was "It will grow faster if she cuts it". My reply was "balderdash"or words with that general meaning, "She only says that because hairdressers will want their customers to keep going back for more". (Oh cynical me).

So lets explode a hair myth.. it surely isn't true that cutting your hair makes it grow faster? I don't believe it is. I don't see how what you do to the lower ends of your hair can make it grow faster. I guess you may notice growth more with even ends, but I can't imagine a hair saying "OOh I have been cut a bit, lets grow faster"

(and I am not experimenting by cutting!!!! )

enfys
March 3rd, 2011, 07:56 AM
If you are losing hair at the ends to breakage caused by damage, getting rid of that will possibly make you gain length faster.

Growing faster and gaining length faster are two different things, but they have got tumbled into one with that. That's what I think it came from anyway.

Kherome
March 3rd, 2011, 07:58 AM
It is true, in a way.

Cutting off splits and other damage will prevent it from travelling up the hair shaft and breaking up higher, making the hair look shorter.
But it's not true in sense that you hair knows something happened to the ends and therefore decides to grow to make up for it:D

pinkbunny
March 3rd, 2011, 08:00 AM
I think it's only a partial myth. The idea of trimming to reduce split ends will help hair to grow faster than if it's left damaged is true. A hairdresser whacking off more length than your hair can gain between cuts is NOT going to help. Finding a hairdresser who isn't a slave to pushing trendy styles or lying to keep customers coming back can be difficult, but it's possible. Of course, if you're one of the lucky few who doesn't get split ends then cutting may be counter-productive and no-trimming is the way to go...

KrissyKitty
March 3rd, 2011, 08:08 AM
If that were true my pixie locks would be racing down my back! They got a big cut but are still growing at their same old slow rate.

BabyRay33
March 3rd, 2011, 08:12 AM
Only time makes it grow faster, but without damage it might LOOK longer. But I agree with you on the ahir stylists wanting to cut-because that's what happened to me! "Just a trim, please, I am trying to grow it out" turned into 2.5 inches!!

spidermom
March 3rd, 2011, 08:17 AM
The only thing disturbing to me about this encounter is that the hair stylist apparently assumed that you don't cut it.

I don't think any of us really know what the hair follicle is and isn't aware of. My stylist told me that the hair follicle knows everything about that hair, including whether or not it is damaged. She says it is established fact that if a hair is damaged, the follicle pumps more sebum instead of putting energy into growing.

Anje
March 3rd, 2011, 08:30 AM
I stumbled across a blog the other day that has some really nice descriptions when cutting will and won't make it grow faster. The basic idea is that you want to cut the hairs a bit above where the cuticle has completely worn away, as the exposed cortex will cause splitting farther up into the hair.

Here's a link. (http://thenaturalhaven.blogspot.com/2010/01/trimming-how-much-and-how-often.html)

leslissocool
March 3rd, 2011, 08:31 AM
The only thing disturbing to me about this encounter is that the hair stylist apparently assumed that you don't cut it.

I don't think any of us really know what the hair follicle is and isn't aware of. My stylist told me that the hair follicle knows everything about that hair, including whether or not it is damaged. She says it is established fact that if a hair is damaged, the follicle pumps more sebum instead of putting energy into growing.

I have severely damaged ends, and had a head of horrible badly trashed hair for a long time and now that I have a significant amount of virgin hair (I'd say about 10 inches or a bit less with just dye, about 4 inches or less of bleach damage left) my hair gets WAY oilier naturally with my virgin hair. My virgin hair is really oily and gets dirty really quick, I also have a itchy flaky scalp with my virgin hair, but when I apply any kind of chemical dye for whatever reason, it stops being oily and my scalp problems disappear and reappear only once a month :confused:

My hair grows pretty quickly, and I was able (with a head full of bleach) to grow it all from shoulder length to waist with large trims in between in less than 3 years. So in my particular experience, my hair acts the opposite of what the hairstylist mentioned :shrug:!

selderon
March 3rd, 2011, 08:38 AM
The "cut it so it will grow" myth is well established in salon circles. I have yet to find corroborating evidence.

How the follicle could "know" what's going on with the entire hair shaft is beyond me. The hair shaft is dead. Dead hairs tell no tales, right? :P

mrs_b
March 3rd, 2011, 08:44 AM
But it's not true in sense that you hair knows something happened to the ends and therefore decides to grow to make up for it:D

:hollie:

you made my day!

mrs_b
March 3rd, 2011, 09:36 AM
I stumbled across a blog the other day that has some really nice descriptions when cutting will and won't make it grow faster. The basic idea is that you want to cut the hairs a bit above where the cuticle has completely worn away, as the exposed cortex will cause splitting farther up into the hair.

Here's a link. (http://thenaturalhaven.blogspot.com/2010/01/trimming-how-much-and-how-often.html)

this is fantastic blog! thank you Anje:blossom:

spidermom
March 3rd, 2011, 10:22 AM
I have severely damaged ends, and had a head of horrible badly trashed hair for a long time and now that I have a significant amount of virgin hair (I'd say about 10 inches or a bit less with just dye, about 4 inches or less of bleach damage left) my hair gets WAY oilier naturally with my virgin hair. My virgin hair is really oily and gets dirty really quick, I also have a itchy flaky scalp with my virgin hair, but when I apply any kind of chemical dye for whatever reason, it stops being oily and my scalp problems disappear and reappear only once a month :confused:

My hair grows pretty quickly, and I was able (with a head full of bleach) to grow it all from shoulder length to waist with large trims in between in less than 3 years. So in my particular experience, my hair acts the opposite of what the hairstylist mentioned :shrug:!

It stands to reason that your virgin hair will get oily quicker than the bleached ends because it's closer to the follicles that are pumping out the sebum.

I don't know about the dye thing; maybe it shocks the scalp into relative inactivity?

I don't know about any of it to tell you the truth, except that trimming my ends keeps my hair in much better condition. I've let the ends get so bad in the past that my hair stopped getting longer, but whether that's because it was breaking off or stopped growing I can't say for sure; maybe a combination of both.

teela1978
March 3rd, 2011, 10:27 AM
Just to comment on spidey's and leslie's discussion on damaged hair/natural hair oiliness... My scalp has always been oily, and I have to admit, when I was dying my hair definitely didn't get oily as fast... but I think its more from damage to the cuticle allowing for more absorption of oil by my hairs. My virgin hair theoretically should have a better cuticle, thus being more likely to just get coated by sebum rather than soaking it up. I get a similar response when using ACV or white vinegar rinses on my scalp, my guess is that the tightening of the cuticle keeps sebum out of my hair and on top of it, making my scalp look super oily. That's a large part of why I don't bother with vinegar rinses :)

ooo
March 3rd, 2011, 10:28 AM
My mum mentioned to her hairdresser yesterday that I have hair right down to the end of my bottom and without ever seeing it the hairdressers reply was "It will grow faster if she cuts it". My reply was "balderdash"or words with that general meaning, "She only says that because hairdressers will want their customers to keep going back for more". (Oh cynical me).


Maybe your mum's hairdresser really believes in it :whistle:

nellreno
March 3rd, 2011, 10:41 AM
When I measure the virgin hair on my head it doesn't grow any faster when I trim it vs. when I just let it grow.

sunnyhope
March 3rd, 2011, 12:27 PM
My mum mentioned to her hairdresser yesterday that I have hair right down to the end of my bottom and without ever seeing it the hairdressers reply was "It will grow faster if she cuts it". My reply was "balderdash"or words with that general meaning, "She only says that because hairdressers will want their customers to keep going back for more". (Oh cynical me).

So lets explode a hair myth.. it surely isn't true that cutting your hair makes it grow faster? I don't believe it is. I don't see how what you do to the lower ends of your hair can make it grow faster. I guess you may notice growth more with even ends, but I can't imagine a hair saying "Ooh I have been cut a bit, lets grow faster"

(and I am not experimenting by cutting!!!! )



It certainly wont grow any faster by cutting it.

Amraann
March 3rd, 2011, 12:53 PM
I think it is bad hairdressing practice to comment on hair she has never seen.
It sounds like she was just assuming that your hair is damaged because it is long.

lapushka
March 3rd, 2011, 01:03 PM
Hmm, I don't know. :hmm: Maybe hair stylists are referring to actual styles. When you have a style cut in, the style and shape kind of fades after a while, fast too, after a number of weeks. You definitily notice that kind of growth. When there's no style in it, a blunt cut, then you won't notice that kind of (out)growth... you know, of a style. So maybe that's what they mean? Can't otherwise make sense of the whole thing.

ericthegreat
March 3rd, 2011, 01:23 PM
The "If you cut it, it will grow faster." myth has been around since there were hairstylists. This myth has been kept alive mainly due to financial gain obviously, but since its so well known there are also many hairstylists and clients who actually believe it, even when science has proven it to be completely false.

The only thing that cutting does is make your hair shorter. The rate your hair grows is affected by what happens inside your body, not outside it. Our hair only grows from the follicles which are under our scalps, and the only living parts of our hair are those follicles. All of the hair that we see growing from our scalps is already long dead, so anything that we do to it like cutting it has no effect on our growth rate.

Lucia2
March 3rd, 2011, 01:40 PM
Well I'm a hairdresser and have to agree with above which says that hair will NOT *grow* faster if you cut the ends BUT if you can trim off damage before it becomes too bad the hair won't break off as easily and the damage won't travel up the hair shaft which can then break higher up. So hair may appear to grow faster as it isn't breaking as much. The trick is to trim off enough and at a frequency sufficient enough to prevent the damage but not so much that the growth rate cannot keep up. (So every 6 weeks trimming off 1/4" is not required nor desirable if you are growing the hair!).
:)

SheaLynne
March 3rd, 2011, 09:15 PM
I had a conversation today with a former hairdresser while we were at the park with my kids and her grandson. She asked if I trim my dd's hair (6 yo dd has past tb-length hair). I wasn't sure where she was going, so I vaguely answered that I just do little trims, but she hasn't ever had a real "cut". So she launched into telling me the same thing the OP mentioned, but she explained it a little better.

She said that if you don't trim it and it breaks off, it will seem like it isn't growing, but if you trim it then you won't have the breakage. She said she and her mother were both taught that in beauty school.

And she finished by saying it looked like I had trimmed dd's hair to her. So, I explained that, yes, the past couple of months I had given her tiny trims to clean up the ends.

HTH!

Roseate
March 3rd, 2011, 09:39 PM
Here's a link. (http://thenaturalhaven.blogspot.com/2010/01/trimming-how-much-and-how-often.html)

Thanks so much for that! Very interesting blog; also has some good posts on conditioning and oils.

AnnaJamila
March 3rd, 2011, 09:45 PM
The "cut it so it will grow" myth is well established in salon circles. I have yet to find corroborating evidence.

How the follicle could "know" what's going on with the entire hair shaft is beyond me. The hair shaft is dead. Dead hairs tell no tales, right? :P

That made me laugh soooooooo hard!

jojo
April 13th, 2011, 04:32 PM
I don't think cutting makes hair grow quicker, however it will help retain length so your hair will get longer. It your hair can't break it will get longer.

As for hair is dead and cannot know if its been cut, yes its dead but is genetically programmed, so there has to be some kind of communication else how would it know its reached terminal length?

Also if say you have a 8 year cycle before reaching terminal and get a pixie at year 7, does this mean you will only grow another 6" as you are coming near to the hairs terminal?

AshNight1214
April 13th, 2011, 04:56 PM
It seems to me that it doesn't actually make it grow faster, it just keeps you from loosing length to damage. Hence, S&D for those of us who hate spending the time and money on hairdressers. :)

celebriangel
April 13th, 2011, 05:29 PM
Jojo, from what I've read we don't know why the hair goes in and out of 'growth' cycles; theories relate to the buildup of hormones/chemicals/whatever in the follicle to a certain point which triggers a switch in state.

Not all of your hair will be in the same stage of growth at the same time; if it were then your hair would all fall out every 8-ish years! So if you get a pixie from having very long hair, then yes, some hairs will have reached the end of their growth cycle and will fall out, but there will have been plenty of short and mid-length hairs in the long hair which will be only partway through their growth cycle when you cut, so they will stay and grow longer till they finish their growth cycle.

All of which of course means that the hair doesn't "know" when it's reached terminal length; the follicle just produces more hair for x amount of time until the growth cycle is over, then the hair sheds, nomatter how long or short it is.

Er...as far as I know. Google some biology places if you want more. :)

julliams
April 13th, 2011, 05:54 PM
I had an "ever-so-slight" increase in my hair growth the following month after a trim (like 2/8" more than normal. But that was it. The growth was normal (5/8") after that. So I don't think it is significant enough for me to agree that it actually makes much difference.

vanillabones
April 13th, 2011, 06:01 PM
I think it's clear that myth came from people that regularly abuse/abused their hair. Considering it is true for people like me with significant damage that if you don't cut your big curly right angle splits it will be detrimental to future growth :d ahahahha.. I think this is a result of 'telephone' where that morphed to 'if you trim your hair knows to start growing faster ;)' it's so stupid otherwise though :( wow I couldn't imagine having healthy hair and purposely 'trimming' 1inch + every 6 weeks....... I don't even do that with my damage.

gogirlanime
April 13th, 2011, 07:15 PM
I think this is semi-true like others are saying, if you leave split ends there it can travel up, but the again, cutting is cutting and you are losing length by doing that. One thing is odd though, my bangs always grow really fast I have to trim about 1/4 of an inch every 2 weeks but the rest of my hair doesn't seem to get that much length at the same time. I've always believed that maybe because your hair weighs less, your body knows there is less hair so it signals to grow more maybe? I think my advice is do trims often, at least 1/4 of an inch every 3 months to keep split ends away.

Greenhousegirl
April 13th, 2011, 07:19 PM
ah... yes. trimming often is probably better for shorter hair as it doesn't have much room for error if a split decides to travel. longer hair probably has more leeway (i mean waist length by long).

Slinks
April 13th, 2011, 08:38 PM
I don't think any of us really know what the hair follicle is and isn't aware of. My stylist told me that the hair follicle knows everything about that hair, including whether or not it is damaged. She says it is established fact that if a hair is damaged, the follicle pumps more sebum instead of putting energy into growing.

I agree with this .. it's logical .. if a rose bush is in full bloom and a few roses start to die, you cut these flowers off, so the the roots can send nutrients to the remaining flowers .. likewise with hair .. it makes sense to me

Syaoransbear
April 13th, 2011, 09:01 PM
I agree with this .. it's logical .. if a rose bush is in full bloom and a few roses start to die, you cut these flowers off, so the the roots can send nutrients to the remaining flowers .. likewise with hair .. it makes sense to me

But hair is dead, unlike a flower. Your scalp has no idea if your hair is damaged.

Cutting your hair won't make it grow faster, it'll only help it get longer by stopping splits from traveling. But if you don't have those issues, then all you're doing is shortening your hair.

SpeakingEZ
April 13th, 2011, 10:52 PM
I guess what the saying means is, "you have to keep your ends healthy in order to lengthen your hair at the fastest rate possible."

The myth, "cut your hair to make it grow faster" is confusing in two ways: the word "grow" implies that the hair is going to come out of the scalp faster when in reality, it just means it will lengthen faster. Second, the saying implies that the person's hair is already damaged and does not take into account people who have already healthy ends. Cutting hair is a last resort to making ends healthy. Hair that isn't damaged doesn't split and therefore doesn't need to be trimmed to keep the strand from lengthening as fast as it's coming out of the head.

Mesmerise
April 13th, 2011, 11:45 PM
But hair is dead, unlike a flower. Your scalp has no idea if your hair is damaged.

Cutting your hair won't make it grow faster, it'll only help it get longer by stopping splits from traveling. But if you don't have those issues, then all you're doing is shortening your hair.

Yeah, your follicles aren't psychic ;) Hair is a strand of protein stuff, it's not alive at all! There's no way your follicle can know that at the very end of that long strand of hair there's a little split starting to form!

So yeah, I think the idea is a myth. I do think that if hair's breaking a lot you may not see a lot of actual length growth, and therefore a good trim to get rid of damage may help... but overall, I think it's rubbish to imagine that hair follicles actually "know" what's going on down the hair and will immediately start working harder if a trim has occurred!

Sure it's a lovely thought ;) But in reality... it just doesn't seem at all feasible to me.

However, I am still a fan of semi-regular trims for keeping hair nice and even! This may mean no more than once or twice a year though, depending on the health of your hair ;)

Slinks
April 14th, 2011, 05:01 AM
lol ... k .. guess that makes sense too :-)

lingxi
April 14th, 2011, 06:32 AM
But hair is dead, unlike a flower. Your scalp has no idea if your hair is damaged.

Cutting your hair won't make it grow faster, it'll only help it get longer by stopping splits from traveling. But if you don't have those issues, then all you're doing is shortening your hair.

Agreed :)
I try hard not to sigh every time I tell someone I'm growing my hair and the someone will reply.."You should cut it! It'll grow faster!"...sigh...

GALISH
April 14th, 2011, 09:44 AM
It won't grow faster but it will grow better

ashke50
April 14th, 2011, 10:17 AM
But hair is dead, unlike a flower. Your scalp has no idea if your hair is damaged.

Cutting your hair won't make it grow faster, it'll only help it get longer by stopping splits from traveling. But if you don't have those issues, then all you're doing is shortening your hair.
This!

The number of times people tell me I should cut my hair so it grows faster. How are my hair follicles meant to know I cut the hair?

jojo
April 14th, 2011, 06:20 PM
Jojo, from what I've read we don't know why the hair goes in and out of 'growth' cycles; theories relate to the buildup of hormones/chemicals/whatever in the follicle to a certain point which triggers a switch in state.

Not all of your hair will be in the same stage of growth at the same time; if it were then your hair would all fall out every 8-ish years! So if you get a pixie from having very long hair, then yes, some hairs will have reached the end of their growth cycle and will fall out, but there will have been plenty of short and mid-length hairs in the long hair which will be only partway through their growth cycle when you cut, so they will stay and grow longer till they finish their growth cycle.

All of which of course means that the hair doesn't "know" when it's reached terminal length; the follicle just produces more hair for x amount of time until the growth cycle is over, then the hair sheds, nomatter how long or short it is.

Er...as far as I know. Google some biology places if you want more. :)

thanks for that infomation, makes sense. I get so anal when up late! but thanks hun xx

CaityBear
April 14th, 2011, 06:25 PM
It is only true if your hair is breaking off faster than it is growing.

I know somebody who swears her hair grows faster when she cuts it...I would swear she is imagining things.....unless she has extremely damaged hair all the time which she does not.

I really just shake my head when people say this and then make them a bit smarter by telling them it's not true and explaining why. :D (Or in what cases it could be true)

x0h_bother
April 14th, 2011, 06:29 PM
I firmly disagree with this. Remember that shorter hairs often seem to reach milestones faster for reasons other than speed of growth. And I echo Galish it won't grow faster, but better. :)

Guccigirlxx
April 15th, 2011, 11:23 AM
I doubt that the hair follicle can "tell" anything... It doesn't have a brain let alone being alive! XD

elbow chic
April 15th, 2011, 11:27 AM
Also if say you have a 8 year cycle before reaching terminal and get a pixie at year 7, does this mean you will only grow another 6" as you are coming near to the hairs terminal?

I've heard people say that that is sometimes why people's growth seems to stall at times-- their current longest/oldest hairs had used up their life cycle getting cut. So you're growing along and they reach the end and thus shed out, and the younger hairs just haven't gotten long enough to catch up yet.

Made sense to me?

That idea is helping me get through my current stall, at any rate. ;)

elbow chic
April 15th, 2011, 11:30 AM
Also, sometimes I think people with really damaged or thin ends get a haircut and suddenly their hair actually looks LONGER!

It's like an optical illusion-- it just looks healthier and better, really.

FluffSpider
April 15th, 2011, 11:39 AM
Initiate debunking, I guess:
1) Your hair might SEEM to grow faster if you cut it, the same way as: say you have hip length hair, with short bangs. You will notice a 5 cm growth in your bangs, but in your length, you probably won't notice it. Nonetheless, objectively speaking, it's growing just the same
2) The hair follicle goes through 3 distinct 'stages': C.A.T.-first one is Cataphase, when the new follicle starts growing hair.It grows faster in this first stage. Then you enter Anaphase, which lasts through most of the hair follicle's life, and circa 1 months before the hair falls off you enter Telophase, which also presents a little growth spurt, as far as I can recall.

but PLEASE keep in mind that your hair, as others have said before me, is DEAD. The only alive part is the root, and it doesn't care if your hair just broke one inch from your scalp, or it's hanging around your thighs. You CANNOT prolong the life cycle of a hair, it's something genetically programmed. Cutting your hair won't fool it into prolonging its Anaphase .
P.S. Hair with healthier ends LOOKS longer. For a person with very bad hair, which is breaking off at SL, cutting it into a pixie and getting rid of the damage will make it get past that point, but it has nothing to do with the follicle itself, just with the mechanical resistance of the shaft.

Guccigirlxx
April 15th, 2011, 02:03 PM
The hair isn't connect to the body in the same way that, say, your legs are. Hair has dead cells unlike your legs, so don't send signals up to the brain. That's why we don't get pain signals when hair is cut...If it can't send pain messages it probably can't send a message to produce more hair growth.

jasper
April 15th, 2011, 03:16 PM
I think it is all nonsense. Cutting it doesn't help it grow faster, and cutting off damage doesn't make it longer faster /sooner. It may look healthier, fuller at the hem and more substantial with blunt ends, and those would be good results in my book, but this has nothing to do with the speed of hair growth.

Now, cutting my rose bushes stimulates growth. I think that is the kind of idea that is mixed up in the cut it so it will grow theories.

NotInPortland
April 15th, 2011, 05:38 PM
Definite myth. As everyone else has said it will only help if the ends are damaged and are breaking off faster than your hair is growing. I for one am getting so sick of people telling me this myth swearing its true when I mention I am growing my hair long, and no matter what I say they just won't listen to me!!!

boudica
April 15th, 2011, 07:04 PM
Second that!

Since joining LHC, I've decided never to trim, except to even up a hemline if I don't want fairytale ends. S&D is fine. I don't have nearly as much damage as I thought.

A lot of hairdressers have attributed new growth to damage, and when it's humid, I have a huge halo. (I have a lot of new growth in the last year because of a health recovery.) I had thought that these were damaged ends, because that's what I was told. After taking a good look at them, I noticed that they're not all split ends like I had been told, but new growth.

The cut it to make it grow faster has always been one of the most painful sayings for me to hear, and I get irrationally angry when I hear it. (I don't necessarily display it, but it sure is a conversation stopper. Great way to shut me up and make me glare.)

Tressie
April 15th, 2011, 08:17 PM
I understand trimming off damage, but I still don't see that it makes the hair grown faster. When your cut off length, you cut off length! It will be....um...shorter! (o:

UrbanEast
April 15th, 2011, 08:22 PM
Whenever I hear people say this, I try to dissuade them. The only exception are people with split ends that keep running up the shaft; in that case, trimming will prevent further damage but won't make the hair actually grow faster.

free_hug
April 16th, 2011, 11:25 AM
Mini-rant, here we go... sorry fellow LHC-ers, I rarely say this about anything at all, but I honestly hate this particular hair myth.

A good friend of mine tries to convince me about this at times.
She has neck length hair. Always had. There is no way cutting would make her her not break, hence grow faster, because she virtually has no breakage.

Yet, she believes this.

We have a bunch of friends with actual long hair. Their simple trick is not cutting their hair. Some have prettier, some have splittier (honestly, many of th splitties are very pretty too).
And yet, my otherwise smart and reasonable friend seriously believes this one :P

Rant over. I honestly hope I didn't have anyone's feeings hurt or anything. And again, can't explain, there are not many things in this world that annoy me this much.

racrane
April 16th, 2011, 11:30 AM
I honestly fell for this when I was a young 14 year old trying to grow my hair out. After a while, I figured out for myself it was best if I got it cut once a year - not every other month like my hairdresser told me. (Every person's hair is different though and has specific needs) My hair grew faster and was still very healthy. This myth annoys me too...

Oz
April 16th, 2011, 11:37 AM
people used to tell me to cut my hair to make it grow longer/faster...
I told them i dont WANT it to grow any more.. its bloody long enough. I just dont want to cut it.. so I get 2 birds with one stone this way.

MiamiPineapple
April 16th, 2011, 12:39 PM
I didn't cut my hair for a year and I have never seen better growth!

NotInPortland
April 16th, 2011, 02:03 PM
Mini-rant, here we go... sorry fellow LHC-ers, I rarely say this about anything at all, but I honestly hate this particular hair myth.

A good friend of mine tries to convince me about this at times.
She has neck length hair. Always had. There is no way cutting would make her her not break, hence grow faster, because she virtually has no breakage.

Yet, she believes this.

We have a bunch of friends with actual long hair. Their simple trick is not cutting their hair. Some have prettier, some have splittier (honestly, many of th splitties are very pretty too).
And yet, my otherwise smart and reasonable friend seriously believes this one :P

Rant over. I honestly hope I didn't have anyone's feeings hurt or anything. And again, can't explain, there are not many things in this world that annoy me this much.

Don't feel bad for ranting, the myth drives me absolutely insane too!! And one friend in particular who is extremely intelligent still believes it no matter how many times I explain it's not true, ahhh!!!

Dragon
April 17th, 2011, 02:10 AM
Mini-rant, here we go... sorry fellow LHC-ers, I rarely say this about anything at all, but I honestly hate this particular hair myth.

A good friend of mine tries to convince me about this at times.
She has neck length hair. Always had. There is no way cutting would make her her not break, hence grow faster, because she virtually has no breakage.

Yet, she believes this.

We have a bunch of friends with actual long hair. Their simple trick is not cutting their hair. Some have prettier, some have splittier (honestly, many of th splitties are very pretty too).
And yet, my otherwise smart and reasonable friend seriously believes this one :P

Rant over. I honestly hope I didn't have anyone's feeings hurt or anything. And again, can't explain, there are not many things in this world that annoy me this much.

I also agree to not feel bad about ranting. It surprises me how people actually believe it. I went along time without a trim once, as I couldn’t get one and wasn’t going to waste money on one and it surprised me how much my hair grew. It also annoys me how some hairdressers tells their clients this, it’s nothing worse then hearing someone giving up on growing their hair long because they actually believe it doesn’t grow when all they need to do is stop cutting it.

Marianne
April 17th, 2011, 02:48 AM
Also, sometimes I think people with really damaged or thin ends get a haircut and suddenly their hair actually looks LONGER!

It's like an optical illusion-- it just looks healthier and better, really.

I imagine the blunter ends have that effect. I have noticed that, to me, people on here who have hair the same length as mine but who also have it all the same length (mine is layered to purposely have fairytale ends) always appear to have much longer hair than I do. Though they are just the same.

If your hair has just been cut and is blunter, then the visual effect of all those hairs growing longer together, somewhat uniformly, would probably make it seem as though they are growing faster.

TheBluffs
April 18th, 2011, 08:38 AM
I can't see the logic behind it.. My mum's battle cry was 'The OXOGEN need to get to the ENDS!', but I never cut. If you trim, you trim the growth. And no one wants that. :D

RitaCeleste
April 18th, 2011, 10:05 AM
I think this it single most nasty lie to tell people. Hair will not grow faster because you trim it. It may look nicer, it may thicken up a hemline, but it will NOT grow out of your head faster to make up for lost time! I have yet to see a trim on my hair that reduced breakage to the point where it was net gain rather than a loss. That's just me. I've never been one to shoot for all one length hair. I've had this mass thinned and layered plus I shed and break pieces off. Still, the rule is, if you don't cut it, it gets longer...lol

Amraann
April 18th, 2011, 10:22 AM
This one bothers me as much as the notion that if you cut it all off it will grow back thicker.
I have known people who have hacked their babies hair in the hopes of it growing back thicker.
Forget that both parents have thin hair!

RitaCeleste
April 18th, 2011, 10:28 AM
Well, my mom had a REAL close shave (I think they must have scraped pretty hard) before brain surgery, her hair came back thicker and with some wave to it. But really you have have to damage the hair folical to change the hair's texture.

Toffee20
April 18th, 2011, 02:36 PM
part of me wants to do an experiment cutting one side of my hair and not the other... very very silly!!! But it would be interesting! =)