Three reasons why your hair might not be growing

You’re trying to grow your hair, but your hair just doesn’t grow past a certain point. There are three possible reasons for this:

1. Breakage
2. Shortened anagen phase
3. Genetics

Let’s get right into it!

Reason 1: You are experiencing breakage

If your hair is damaged for whatever reason, the damage is usually focused on your ends in the form of split ends or breakage. Breakage means that regardless of the hair growth happening at your scalp, your ends are breaking making you lose that growth 

The ends of your hair are the oldest part of your hair. Hair grows at an average pace of 6 inches per year. Let’s put that in perspective, shoulder length hair that is straight is roughly 14 inches, and curly hair at shoulder length is 16-18 inches. So, the ends of shoulder length hair can be between 2 – 3 years old.

Think about what you’ve been doing to your hair for the past 2-3 years, all that has accumulated effects on your ends.

 Here’s what you can do:

• If you have split ends chop them off. The only cure to a split end is a scissor. Nothing else.
• Protect those ends. Apply a light hair oil every time before you sleep, our Nourishing Hair Oil is perfect for this
• If you are heat styling your hair, add a water-based heat protectant to your hair prior to applying heat
• Sleep on a satin pillowcase to protect your hair while you sleep

We also have some great tips to safely heat style your hair which you can find here. And here are some tips for a simple nighttime hair routine.

Reason 2: Your hair might be experiencing a shortened anagen phase

Your scalp holds around 100,000 hair follicles. These follicles hold your hair, and each hair goes through a multi-year hair growth cycle.

 There are three main stages of hair growth. Anagen, Catagen and Telogen. The anagen phase is when your hair is growing, this phase lasts 2-6 years. The catagen phase is when your hair growth rate reduces, this phase lasts 2-3 weeks.  Then the hair stops growing completely and prepares to shed, this phase lasts 2-3 months.

You might notice that your hair is not reaching lengths that it used to, and this might be because your anagen (the growth phase) is reducing and your hair is shedding sooner than before. This can be triggered by many things including high stress levels, a calorie-restricted diet, hormonal imbalances, over-styling, tight hair styles, traumatic events. Etc.

What are the solutions

You must focus on your scalp. Your scalp is where your hair follicles live and its where your hair growth comes from. Here are habits to incorporate:

1. Reduce stress on your hair. This means avoiding tight ponytails, tight braids. If your scalp feels pulled or if your edges hurt, your hairstyle is too tight. Loosen it. In the same realm, switch up your hairstyles every now then to prevent strain on one area of your scalp. 

2. Massage your scalp.Take a few minutes a day and give your scalp a nice massage

3. Cleanse your scalp thoroughly. It’s important to remove dust, buildup and general dirt off of your scalp. Use a gentle shampoo paired with a shampoo brush to help massage your scalp as well as give it a deep clean.

4. Apply a scalp oil at least once a week. Look for a scalp oil that is formulated with anti-inflammatory ingredients such as green tea, sesame oil, castor oil, black seed oil, rosemary essential oil, thyme essential oil etc. These will help ease the stress on the hair follicle allowing it to relax and allow for the hair to thicken again. 

5. Use Silk or Satin. You should be sleeping on silk or satin pillowcases or wear a silk or satin bonnet when you sleep. And whenever possbile, opt for a silk or satin scrunchies (LINK) too. This material is extremely gentle on the hair and non-absorbent, a tiny change that will make a big difference 

6. Evaluate your diet Is it well balanced? Are you drinking enough water? A healthy body, hair, skin, it really does sart from what you are consuming. Nourish your body with the good stuff.

7. Keep active.You must incorporate something that gets your body moving. Whether that’s working out a few times a week, having a steps goal, adopting a sport. Just keep active.

8. Think about your stress factors Stress is a silent killer. Stress is different for everyone, we all have our circumstances and situations, it’s key for us to know how to manage it. 

9. Nothing will be achieved in one day, or one week. You cannot expect to apply a scalp oil one time and have hair sprouting the next day. If it were that easy, everyone would do it. I cannot stress enough that the key is consistency and being mindful of your habits every day.

Reason 3: Genetics

You might have noticed earlier that we said the anagen phase (hair growth phase) lasts anywhere from 2-6 years per hair. That is a huge difference. If your hair grows at an average rate of 6 inches per year it means that some people can achieve a maximum hair growth of 12 inches, whereas others could achieve a length of 36 inches.

There is nothing that can be done to fix this, it’s just purely genetics.

References:

Vera H. Price, Androgenetic Alopecia in Women, Journal of Investigative Dermatology Symposium Proceedings, Volume 8, Issue 1, 2003, Pages 24-27, ISSN 1087-0024, https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1523-1747.2003.12168.x.

Ho CH, Sood T, Zito PM. Androgenetic Alopecia. [Updated 2021 Nov 15]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2022 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK430924/

Hosking AM, Juhasz M, Atanaskova Mesinkovska N. Complementary and Alternative Treatments for Alopecia: A Comprehensive Review. Skin Appendage Disord. 2019;5(2):72-89. doi:10.1159/000492035