Can you tell if a hair fell out or was pulled from the root?

[lilliemer]

As the title says, is there a reliable way to know if a hair has fallen on its own or if it's been pulled too tightly and dragged out of the root before it was ready to shed? I'm not talking about damaged or broken hairs here but actually pulling the hair out by the root. I want to make sure I'm not pulling my cinnabun too tight.

[blondie9912]

Very good question. I don't think there is a way to tell, because in both scenarios they would still have the bulb at the top.

[MeganE]

It's my guess that a pulled out hair has a thicker bulb than a shed hair, but I don't know.

What about gently shaking your head to see if any sheds fall out, and then compare that bulb to the bulb you get from a yanked hair?

[domisimone]

A shed hair has a bulb because the production of pigment stops when the hair enters the resting phase. So theoretically, hairs that are pulled out prematurely look like broken hairs rather than shed hairs.

[piffyanne]

On me, it seems that shed hairs have a SHORTER root than hairs I actively pull out, and the bulbs on pulled hairs seem more narrow. That may be just the way my OWN scalp rolls, though. HTH :flower: