What is the Hair Growth Cycle?
Hair growth is no longer a mystery. Doctors have determined that hair grows in three phases: anagen – the two to six year growing phase; catagen – the transitional phase which should last only three weeks; telogen – the resting phase. In people with normal hair growth, hair that has entered the telogen phase remains dormant in the scalp for two to four months. This hair is then shed when a new hair growing from the same bulb pushes it out. In men and women who are losing more hair than they are growing, the telogen or resting phase can last several years – or the remainder of your life. Often a hair is growing, but you do not see it easily. These fine, barely pigmented, nearly invisible hairs are called vellus hair. They are found on your face, ears, the tops of your hands and other areas of your body. Before the bulbs on your scalp wither away and are no longer able to produce hair, they replace the thick dark terminal hair that you are used to seeing with skinny, hardly noticeable ve
