Did you know that your hair goes through 3 stages of life?

I often think about the things we inherit and the things we pass on to our children. Like so many things, your hair – its color, texture, and how it grows – is a product of your DNA. Of course, there are things you can do and great products you can use to make it the best it can be!

Understanding the basic biology of hair come help. Here’s one interesting fact: your hair goes through a life cycle with three genetically determined phases:

• Anagen phase
This is why we need regular haircuts. The ‘anagen phase’ is the period of active growth when hair grows about 1 centimeter every 28 days. This goes on with each hair growing for 2 to 7 years depending on your individual DNA. About 90% of your hair follicles (the cells that hair grows out of and connects it to your body) are in this stage.

• Catagen phase
Run your fingers through your hair and you’ll feel that a few of them feel a bit loose and ready to come out. Hair specialists call these your “club hairs.”
At the end of the growing cycle (2-7 years), your DNA kicks in and tells the hair follicle to cut off the blood supply and stop producing cells. Over a transition period of 2 to 3 weeks, when the healthy growing hair stops growing and changes into a “club hair.” About 1-2% of hair is normally in this phase of change.

• Telogen phase
How much do you brush your hair? Did your mother ever tell you to give it 100 strokes a night? It’s a good idea to brush, especially if you have long hair, because the brush will help to spread the natural oils down the length of the hair to the tips.
You may notice as many as 100 hairs collect on your brush. That’s because each day, your scalp sheds the hairs which have reached their third and final phase, a resting phase called the ‘telogen.’ Over a period that can be as long as 9 months, the “club hair” cells which have been deprived of blood will form a hard, horny shell around the hair (scientists call these hairs ‘keratinized.’)
So each day, 50 – 100 ‘club hairs’ are shed from the scalp. Meantime, other hairs are passing through the three phases.
About 10 – 14% of your hair is usually ‘resting’ in the third ‘telogen’ phase, waiting to fall out after time or to be pulled, brushed or washed away.

Photo Credit: © Subbotina | Dreamstime.com

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