The Phases

The hair growth cycle comprises of five stages anagen – growth phase, catagen - transitional phase, telogen – resting phase, exogen – when the hair exits the follicle and kenogen a latent phase. We will focus on the first 4 stages as these are the most common stages for most people.

The growth phase lasts between 4-7 years and at any given time about 85% of your hairs are in this phase. The next phase is the transitional phase when your hair begins to leave the growth phase, this lasts about 10 days. After this there is the resting phase when your hair is ready to be shed, this phase lasts approximately 3 months and about 10-15% of your hair will be in this phase at any given time. After 3 months your hair will exit the follicles and you will shed these hairs.

Hair Shedding

On a day-to-day basis, you shed about 50 – 100 hairs, this is quite normal, and is the reason why you find hairs on your clothes, in your brush, when washing your hair and many other places. You will probably already have a sense of what a normal amount of shedding is normal for you.

When you should be concerned is if you notice that the amount of hair in your hairbrush has increased, there is more hair in the drain when you wash it, or that there is more hair on your clothes. Other things you may notice is your ponytail is less dense or very short hairs throughout your scalp.

Is it Hair Loss?

If you find you are shedding hair excessively, it may be that you are suffering from an underlying hair loss issue, or a condition called telogen effluvium. Telogen effluvium can be caused by several factors like, poor/crash diets, high fever, surgery, general ill health, childbirth, and psychological distress.

What happens after a bout of ill health for example is a greater number of hairs in the growth phase are prematurely shocked into the resting phase and three months all these hairs are shed. As the hair is non-essential tissue and not essential for life the body will prioritise your survival above anything else.

Regulating Your Hair Cycle

Unfortunately, there isn’t a way you can regulate your hair growth cycle, however some ways to ensure that you don’t lose your hair is by looking after yourself. Eating a balanced diet with lots of healthy health fats and protein. Also, an important factor is to not neglect your hair when it is shedding. People will often stop washing their hair, avoid brushing it and will just leave it as they are worried about the hairs they are shedding.