Why hair does not grow more than a certain length and how to accelerate growth

The content of the article

• Brittle hair
• Chemicals and reagents for coloring
• Regular use of hair dryer and ironing
• Permanent styling
• Split ends
• Heredity
• Age
• Malnutrition
• The use of silicone
• Medications
• What determines the speed of hair growth
• Process stages

Girls pay a lot of attention to their hairstyle: they choose means of care, try new salon procedures. Often, all efforts are aimed at increasing the length, but it is not possible to overcome a certain threshold. There are many reasons why hair does not grow. This is influenced by both internal and external factors..

Brittle hair

If the bulb is healthy, the length increases by a couple of centimeters each month. The woman notices obvious changes in her hairstyle once a quarter or half a year, but if the regrown hair breaks, there is a feeling that they are not growing. Rarely, their structure deteriorates due to internal problems:

• hormonal fluctuations;
• disturbances in metabolic processes;
• stress
• power supply.

More often a woman thinks that her hair stopped growing when it breaks off from below or even in the middle due to external factors:

• Staining, discoloration. Household dyes and color removers are especially dangerous: they have a very aggressive composition.
• Hot appliances. A hair dryer, a curling iron or an iron – these are high temperatures that literally burn hair.
• Care. Incorrectly selected shampoos, masks, balms, violations of the recommendations for combing and drying.

Chemicals and reagents for coloring

All dyes work according to the same principle: they lift the cuticles (upper smooth layer) and destroy the hair structure in order to change the pigment. Discoloration is especially dangerous. It provides a high percentage of oxide – a substance that opens the way for color molecules. After the procedures, the cuticles close, but the hair is no longer whole.

Each new stain is another “injury”.

Over time, many unpleasant consequences appear:

• rigidity;
• dryness;
• thinning;
• fragility;
• dropping out;
• end section.

Regular use of hair dryer and ironing

Straightening and creating curls with hot appliances greatly dries even healthy hair, because the temperature of the instruments is set at 180–220 degrees.

Even a short-lived (3-5 seconds) exposure damages the cuticles, brittleness increases, which causes a cross-section of the tips.

It becomes difficult to grow even bangs. Follow these guidelines:

• Dry your hair dryer at minimum power, complete the procedure in cold air mode. Direct the jet from the roots to the tips, try not to bring the nozzle close to the strands.
• Before working with a hairdryer, ironing or curling iron, use thermal protection, moisturizing emulsions, sprays.
• Do not hold a long strand between hot tongs.

Permanent styling

If you regularly braid braids, make tight tails, use hairpins and invisibility, metal hairpins, this injures the structure. Hair does not grow and thin.

Some hairstyles impair blood circulation in the scalp, so bulbs nutrition suffers.

Rules for safe installation:

• Gather the tail with an Invisibobble elastic band: it is not as tight as the rest, it does not break the hairs.
• Choose studs and invisible with machined smooth ends.
• Do not collect tight tails or dissolve them after 2-3 hours. After that, do a light massage of the scalp to restore blood circulation..

Split ends

The ends eventually split into 2 or more parts, and if they are not cut in time, the “split” rises above. The hair breaks off, and although it grows, there is a feeling that the length does not change. Important: there’s no way to make the cut ends healthy again.

Cosmetic companies offer products that glue cleavage, but this is only a visual effect. Damaged tips need to be cut.

How to prevent this problem in the future:

• Review your care plan. Choose more moisturizing indelible products: serums, emulsions, creams.
• Do not comb wet hair: when wet, they are more elastic and easier to tear.
• Minimize the frequency of stains and styling.
• Clean 1-2 cm in length every 10-12 months, even if there is no problem with the tips.

Heredity

Each person has a maximum genetic hair length. Up to this threshold, they grow rapidly, after which the process slows down. The cycle of hair development is always individual in duration. When it completes, the length no longer increases. You can stimulate the hair to grow a little faster, and for the same period of time (for example, 4 years) you will get plus 50 cm, not 45, but this will not greatly affect the result.

Age

One of the reasons why mature women wear short haircuts is that hair renewal on their head occurs more often. The phase of active growth is gradually shortened to 2 years (instead of 6–7). Other factors that are related to age:

• Accumulated thermal or chemical effects. Ironing or blow drying for decades in a row, frequent dyeing.
• Change in metabolic processes. The bulb no longer receives good nutrition; blood flow is deteriorating.
• Dry scalp. Hair becomes weak, thin, easily broken, torn. To prevent this, massage every evening with a wooden comb or fingertips using essential oils.

Malnutrition

Excess fast food, pastries and sweets, frequent hard diets, fasting days – all this creates a deficiency of vitamins and minerals in the body. For women, this immediately affects the appearance: the hair loses its shine, grows worse, breaks, falls out, and the ends split. How to solve the problem:

• Eat fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, oily fish, avocados, eggs more often.
• Take medications with vitamins D, E, B-complex, zinc, iron.
• Drink 1.5–2 liters of water every day.

The use of silicone

Styling foams, indelible emulsions and serums often contain substances that create the illusion of healthy hair. They smooth, give shine, but all this is due to silicones. If they are often used, these substances accumulate in the hair and overload them..

Often silicones get on the skin, clog pores and adversely affect the condition of the bulbs.

To avoid this situation:

• Use a deep shampoo a couple of times a month. After it, be sure to make a nourishing mask.
• Avoid styling products with silicones, especially if you have oily scalp.
• Make sure that indelible products do not fall into the root zone.

Medications

Long-term use of antibiotics, hormones, immunosuppressants disrupts the metabolism and absorption of nutrients. Because of this, the nutrition of the bulbs and blood circulation in small vessels suffer. Hair becomes thinner, dry, may fall out.

To reduce the negative effect of drugs on the body, discuss with your doctor if you can drink vitamin-mineral complexes.

What determines the speed of hair growth

On the question of why hair on the head does not grow, the main determining factor is genetics. It depends on how long and at what speed the hair will grow (on average – 1–1.5 cm per month), how much it can hold on a certain length and when it falls out. The duration of the active phase is embedded in the DNA, but hormones and stresses can change it..

Haircuts can not accelerate growth: it only helps to remove brittle or cut sections.

Process stages

Experts distinguish the following stages of hair growth:

1. Anagen. This is a period of active hair growth from the hair bulb. This is the longest stage, it lasts 2-7 years on average. Very rarely, the period exceeds 10 years. For body hair, it ends in 30–45 days.
2. Catagen. Intermediate stage: the outer portion of the root is separated from the zone of its nutrition. How much hair has grown by this moment, in this state they will remain. The catagen phase lasts up to 3 weeks..
3. Telogen. The bulb goes into a dormant state, the hair becomes dead, so it easily falls out when combing, styling, washing your hair.

More than 85% of the bulbs are in the anagen phase, but under the influence of stress, it ends in some areas ahead of schedule. Due to the rapid transition to the telogen stage, hair begins to fall out. If more than 10-15% of them are lost, then the health of the bulbs and the phase change are impaired.